My Honorable Highlander

Highland Games Through Time

By: Nancy Lee Badger

Narrated by: Tracy Marks

Haven MacKay has no idea that time is fleeting. Dressed in Scottish period costume, she volunteers at a historical village at the present day New England Highland Games. She gets more than she bargains for when her love spell goes awry. After searching for true love, someone honest and open, she meets a mysterious, sword-wielding warrior who fades into the mist. Not a woman destined to give up easily, she tries her spell again and is accidently cast back in time. Unaware of her new surroundings, Haven stumbles into her mystery man - kilt and all - when he nearly fells her with an arrow. Despite Laird Kirkwall Gunn's apparent dismay at finding a lost woman in the wilds, he cannot hide his interest. Haven falls for Kirk, scarred face and all, not knowing his secret... he has pledged to marry a woman from an enemy clan in order to end a century-old feud. Her heart, sanity, and life are in danger from all sides when she realizes she has traveled to 16th century Scotland. Passion simmers, but when Kirk's mortal enemy kidnaps Haven and she learns of Kirk's betrothal, her heart is broken. Even the most honorable succumb when spells, battles, death, and treachery collide. Kirk's duty and Haven's awakening desire lead them on a merry chase toward an unplanned destiny.

This is Book #1 in the Highland Games Through Time 3 book series.

©2012 Nancy Lee Badger (P)2015 Nancy Lee Badger

I loved the story HATED the narrator

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No, however once I start one I have to finish it.

What was one of the most memorable moments of My Honorable Highlander?

Not sure I can find a memorable moment.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

listening to her is like listening to Ben Stein, barely tolerable.

Do you think My Honorable Highlander needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Only if we can have a different narrator.

Any additional comments?

I guess I have gotten so used to good narration that I cannot tolerate narration that is poor.

READ this one, listening is painful.

There are bad narrators, mouthy sounding, bad accents, etc.... then there is this atrocity! It sounds as if it were written in three and five word statements rather than actual sentences. The delivery is so stilted and choppy it hurts to listen. And yet it feels rhythmic in its oddly clipped and flat monotone.

I think the story was pretty good.... the idea was! But I found myself listening for punctuation to verify it wasn’t written in short statements rather than sentences.

READ this one, listening promises no enjoyment.

Present-day herine time travel to Highlands

Any additional comments?

My Thoughts: Haven Mackay is NOT your ordinary heroine. She’s a bit quirky and more often than not she trips and falls. Aye, she’s a bit clumsy and she’d be the first to tell you. And she pretty much says what she thinks and she doesn’t appear to think much before she speaks. Some readers would like to see their heroine strong, intelligent, brave, etc. On the upside, she’s compassionate to all injured or ill, extremely forgiving and quite the fighter. But I didn’t tell you this. She’s one lovable heroine. Perhaps this fair lass, with her multiple failings and her zest for life, relates more to us in the peanut gallery. You go get ‘em girl!

The cute voice narrator Tracy Marks uses for Haven (so youthful and clean), makes her more appealing and very much in need of protection. She appears pathetically obtuse, particularly when she was thrust into the past. It took her AGES to figure out what even happened. She kept on saying, this isn’t right. As a listener of the story, I wanted to shake her! Don’t you know where you are woman? Can’t you see you’re in Scotland? Well, anyway, to get back to the character. She knew plenty about healing with herbs, dabbled in ‘spells’, knew she’d had enough of men like her last guy. She was hoping to conjure up her one true love by using what spells she had learned from a book that had past from generation to generation in her family.

On her third try, with the help of a catalyst of lightening, she finds herself in Scotland, 1598. She believes she was thrown a bit away from the Highland Games in New Hampshire, unable to wrap her mind around the possibility of time travel. She was in for a rude awaking when men chased her, a lone woman. But Kirk, clan chief kept coming to her rescue. This little firecracker, apparently a bit of a knucklehead has more to her than it is readily apparent.
The author tickles us with her sense of humor when she has Haven spewing some rather showy slang. I was rolling my eyes and laughing at the same time. The narrator’s adeptness moving from Scottish ancient speech back to Haven’s turn of phrase in her contemporary slang provided additional amusement, making silly remarks only funnier.

Kirkwell was a man of duty-- a clan chief who wanted to keep peace among the clans. He had committed to marry lady Fida just months before seeing Haven in a vision. As an honorable man, he tried to keep his distance from Haven, but didn’t do a very good job of it, sharing quite a few hot passionate scenes with her. (Kirk learns a few 21st century tricks of pleasure from Haven.) Again the narrator shows her skill showing us how frustrated he is. His heart and body are pulling him one way and his duty is pulling him another.

A certain old, frail woman, Dorcas Swann, known as a witch, moved from past to present-day New Hampshire often. She attended the New England Highland Games, had a small tent of herbs and potions she sold to participants of the festivities. She was a Seer of sorts and with her wish of the happy ever after she would ‘arrange’ to make events easier for those looking for love. She appears to know much about the happenings of present and past. Quite a mystery woman!

Lady Fida has ideas of her own on getting what she wants. Cameron, cousin of Kirkwell has eyes for the lovely Haven. Complicated? You bet! But so appealing and such a compelling listen, full of humorous moments. It seems everyone wasn’t happy with their plight, many sub-plots adding interest and depth to the story.

The author captures the antithesis of ancient Scotland and present-day life, providing a thoughtful and humorous comparison. In the end, people are all the same—past, present and future. We are all looking for our own true love and happiness.

Loved it

I like the characters and cared what happened to them. Anyone who likes romance novels.

My Honorable Highlander

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Nancy Lee Badger has done it again with My Honorable Highlander. “Haven MacKay, gets more than she bargains for when her love spell goes awry, is cast back in time, and meets her true love -- Laird Kirkwall Gunn”. The book was hard for me to put down all Haven wants is her true love, someone who will love her for who she is. But I did not see why the she did not realize she was in a different time until half way of the way through the book, but that is for the book to tell us her background story. Haven can get herself into some predicaments and you wonder what is going to happen next. She comes across as a strong women. Kirk the Chief of his Clan takes Haven under his protection after he finds her. Kirk knows he needs to keep some distance from her; he’s a man of duty and he has already committed to marry someone else before he saw Haven in a vision. As they travel to Kirks castle Haven helps as a healer for some of his fallen men and their injuries and she slowly gets to know Kirk. As their relationship takes form she learns to trust him and give him her loyalty; but Kirk has secrets of his own. The characters were well-formed and the banter was amazing funny with intriguing storyline.

A lot of action and some time travel in between

Where does My Honorable Highlander rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This book ranks as the 3rd best book among the ones i've listened to so far and definitely a book that i'll keep reading in on after i write this review

What did you like best about this story?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book because of its intriguing storyline and how the book is told through Nancy Lee Badger's point of view kept me in the loop the whole time while reading. An Unique experience overall with love and how the book changed direction throughout and not keeping it one dimensional.

Which scene was your favorite?

Well the scenes which involved Haven because she was always the person that even though could find herself in the wrong end at times could get herself out of it and is also a very great helper at that of others.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I didn't necessarily get an extreme reaction to the book. I was very hooked from the start and reading throughout it brought me close to main characters story and help me understood them a lot as i got deeper into each chapter. It did go back and forth every now and then and threw me off a bit but i'm glad it did because it kept it from being a narrow type of book

Any additional comments?

A great book overall

Back, and forth 😵😵😵😵😵😵

Loved the accents, and LOVED LOVED LOVED THE NARRATOR, but didn't like the back, and forth of the heroines time traveling from her time to his time. It took too long for them to get together in his time for me. This isn't my first rodeo with time traveling highlander romance books, but this one had too to many now she's here, than she's not here for me. I just didn't have the patience for it. I like books that gets straight to the point, and fast.

Horrid

What would have made My Honorable Highlander better?

Being better written would be about the only thing that would have saved this book. The plot was interesting but the events seem disconnected and ridiculous. I couldn't finish it.

the reading was bad

The story was good, but the person reading the book was awful. Too fast and jerky.

Annoying Characters

The narration was good. That was it for me. The characters were so annoying. Especially Haven. Its not until the story's almost over that she understands that she's in a different time and place. The whole time she keeps witnessing things that she thinks are unusual and don't make sense, but she just ignores it all. Kirkwall annoyed me just as much. He doesn't seem to care who she is or where she came from. He has enemies that want to kill him yet he's not suspicious enough of a stranger to ask a few questions before taking her in? When she told him she dresses up and pretends to be a noble lady he's furious for a few seconds, then he forgets all about it. Its like it never happened. The story just made no sense to me. The characters behaved in such a way that I couldn't get into it. Their reactions were so unbelievable that I just didn't care what happened. I can read or listen to a book with a story that isn't great and still appreciate something if I like the characters. This book was just disappointing to me. Maybe others would like it but I really didn't.