B+
Genre: Historical: European, Romance
Theme: Enemies to Lovers, Mistaken/False Identity
Archetype: Highlander/Scot, Spy/Assassin
Alas, all good things come to an end. The Ghost by Monica McCarty is the 12th and final book in the Highland Guard series. I loved this series and The Ghost does not disappoint.
A couple of notes: this series does not need to be read in order although characters reappear throughout the series (this book ties in closely with The Viper, Lachlan and Bella’s book). This book also contains an attempted rape scene and mention of a prior rape that some readers may find triggering.
Joan Comyn is a spy for Robert the Bruce and the Highland Guard who goes by the code name The Ghost. When Joan was a girl, her mother, Bella, declared for Bruce and fell in love with The Viper, Lachlan MacRuairi. As punishment Joan’s father locks Bella in a cage on top of a tower and leaves her to freeze to death.
Sack of dicks that he is, Joan’s father also declares her a bastard before he does everyone a huge favor and dies.
Years later, Joan is living in England acting like a maid for her two cousins who were kind enough to take pity on her. In reality she’s been secretly reunited with her mom and is using her position to spy for Bruce. Joan flirts with the king’s men, extracting information. She leads them on, but never actually has sex with them (she usually drugs their wine). Joan really has no interest in sex after being raped at 15.
Enter Alex Seton, a Scottish knight fighting on the English side, aka Sir Galahad. Seton was one of the Highland Guard but switched sides when he got disillusioned with all the border raids and the cost of the war on the common people. Alex shows up at the castle where Joan lives and pants feelings ensue.
Alex is almost overbearingly moral and chivalrous. He doesn’t approve at all of Joan being a “loose woman,” and she tells him to shove his disapproval up his ass. Unfortunately he’s the only dude she’s ever wanted to smex since she was 15, and he can’t stop thinking about her hair, dammit.
Once they do the do, Alex immediately decides they need to be married because he lost control of his manly wang and dishonored her. She’s all like WHUT? And he’s like, “We went to Bonetown, Joan, we have to get married now!” And she’s all, “Um…no.” But then the king really wants a wedding and IDK.
Did I mention that Alex has been tasked with finding The Ghost? Enter conflict.
This book has a lot of action, which I appreciated. I also love me a spy heroine. Alex was initially a little irritating, but then he stopped judging Joan and started loving her and it made me love him. He’s kind of like medieval Captain America–he’s almost too good and pure, but also very muscular and shirtless so it works.
The conflict is also great. Both Alex and Joan are ideologically on the same page: they want peace. Alex is conflicted about his betrayal of Bruce and the other Highland Guard for what he thought were the right reasons. Joan has been lying to everyone about her loyalties for a long time. They love each other but they aren’t talking to each other or being honest. Also despite the kilt on the cover, this book is blessedly free of dinnae and doonae and brogue dialect. Really the hero on the cover should be wearing armor but eh.
Overall this is a great wrap-up to the series: it left me bittersweet that it was all coming to a final happily ever after.
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I just started this book and hadn’t read any of the others in the series so I was surprised to discover the heroine’s mother was Isabelle the Countess of Buchan. I had read Barbara Erskine’s book “Kingdom Of Shadows” years and years ago (it’s not a romance) which is about Isabelle and her modern day descendant. I would never have thought about making Isabelle a romance heroine because I didn’t think she had a happy ending. Now I feel like I want to go back and read that book first. One quibble- It was the King of England (Edward I think) that had her put in the cage not her husband if I recall correctly. Another female relative of Robert The Bruce’s was as well- I think it was his sister. Basically they were outside and exposed to the elements for years before they were sent to a convent. It was incredibly brutal punishment for “gentlewomen” in particular.
This:
He’s kind of like medieval Captain America–he’s almost too good and pure, but also very muscular and shirtless so it works.
might be the greatest description ever.
Another book with a reason for the heroine to be a virgin while getting points for being anti slut-shaming :(((( If women’s sexuality is a-ok, how come our actual heroines are only allowed to be pretend sexual? Please no more secret virgins, universe.
I read the first book in this series last week when you guys announced it was on sale. I loved it and would love to read the rest asap. But it’s $7.99 a book for 12 books! I can give myself permission to spend $100 on ebooks right now. I am excited to eventually make my way to this one!
@Christine: yes, that all sounds right. And TBH, McCarty is accurate on those facts in both The Ghost and The Viper. Her endnotes on The Viper go into detail with the actual known facts versus what she chooses to do with them. Because it’s thought that the Countess of Buchan goes to a convent, it’s at least plausible that she could have escaped and lived out of the public eye from that point on. Plus Lachlan is (if I remember correctly), one of the most fabricated characters, historically-speaking, in the series.
@klee Did you read this book? I didn’t interpret it as anti slut-shaming while only permitting ‘pretend’ sexuality from the heroine, and Elyse’s review is misleading (it certainly lacks context) if that is your impression of the book. I’ve followed the series for years (The Ghost is actually my favorite installment), and I don’t want other readers to be discouraged from giving a book I really loved a chance.
This is not an anti slut-shaming book that only allows ‘pretend’ female sexuality.
I will provide commentary and examples if asked but won’t for now because 1) spoilers and 2) I don’t want to plaster this forum with a wall of text. You make a salient point that so-called anti slut-shaming books should not only ‘talk the talk’ but ‘walk the walk’, but I do not think this book guilty of failing to follow through.
@ Klee. I haven’t read the book, but the review explicitly states that the heroine was “raped at 15” which means she definitely ISN’T a virgin whatever else is going on.
Snork! “Almost like medieval Captain America” — and now I’m imagining Chris Evans in kilt. Which is okay.