ARC REVIEW The Highland Commander by Amy Jarecki

The Highland Commander book two of Amy Jarecki's Lords of the Highlands series. Unfortunately this book just kind of feel flat for me. The beginning started off really well and I liked the characters and I liked the plot but how it played out and the dialogue felt dry. It built up the story then it plateaued and nothing really happened until the end and even the ending was anti-climatic.

Magdalen Keith is the illegitimate daughter of a Scottish earl, she loves her father dearly but his wife wants no reminders of his past indiscretions so Maddie lives off away from her father and his wife, she fills her time working at the hospital tending to the battered women that come in. Her father has a yearly masquerade to celebrate an old pagan holiday this year Maddie dons her mask and is swept away by a charming Scottish naval lieutenant, sharing only their first names Maddie and Aiden and a kiss.

Sometime latter Maddie is visited by her stepmother who pleads with Maddie to go to London and convince the Queen to release her father, her stepmother would go herself but she is very pregnant and can't travel. In London Aiden and Maddie cross paths once again and with her father incarcerated his apartments have been seized by the crown. With nowhere else to go Aiden lets her stay in his family's suite of rooms. With the help of Aiden and another Scottish Lord Maddie is able to convince the Queen of her father's innocence but only if Maddie remains in London and plays the celtic harp for the Queen. Unfortunately Maddie's father tries to turn her into a spy. All the action happens in the last quarter of the book, something happens (I'm not telling) but Aiden saves Maddie and they go on the run and pretty much nothing goes right.

Overall, I really liked how it started and I really liked the characters, even when Aiden was acting like an idiot, but aside from that it just didn't do anything for me.