Highland Soldiers 1

By: J.L. Jarvis

Narrated by: Jeff Leslie

Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

Highland soldier Callum MacDonell battled lowland Covenanters at the service of the king. Now charged with hunting an assassin, his journey would lead not to justice but to a murderer's passionate Covenanter sister, Mari McEwan.

Betrayed and abandoned by the man she loved, Mari faced judgment by a tribunal of her people, demanding she name the father of her unborn child or be exiled from everything she knows.

Only an enemy soldier could save her life - and her heart.

©2012 J.L. Jarvis (P)2015 J.L. Jarvis

A very entertaining read over all.

I liked this book. It takes you for a good ride. The Author intertwined the fictional storyline with Nonfictional historical facts. Nice job.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Nice

Enjoyed the book nice narration. The story was good. I listened at night before going to sleep.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

just awful.

I pity the narrator having to recite this drivel. It took 3 attempts to get over half way through. By the time they married and had wonderful sex, less than a week after her miscarriage, I'd had enough.
The miscarriage was the result of being held down by the baby's father and forced to drink a potion to miscarry her baby... None of the characters have been developed. Why did Thomas think and act like he did? Who knows?
This book is all over the place. One of the most historic battles Scotland ever had was glossed over in 10 minutes.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Catches your interest at the very start!

Where does The Enemy rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I am new at audiobooks and recieved this book in exchange for an honest review. i would give this book 5 stars because it really holds your interest throughout the story. I could picture the events taking place and was caught up in the events that they had to go through. Very good story!

Who was your favorite character and why?

I really enjoyed all of the charactors. They were truly a family.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Wonderfully written story!

I truly loved the story of Callum and Mari. The character development was very well done. I read the kindle version along with listening to the exceptional narrative.
I was given a free copy of the Audio book by the author in exchange for an honest review..

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Not my cup of tea

** spoiler alert ** 6hrs into the book with 5hrs40mins to go and I'm BEGGING for something to happen.I'm BORED SILLY and I have no clue what could happen to spice this up but dammit i hope it happens soon.

back to the book.....

*********WARNING THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. I SIMPLY DON"T CARE ENOUGH TO HIDE THEM BUT HERE"S YOUR WARNING***********



Usually I sit on a review for a day or two to wrap my mind around what I read.This story is the exception. This story had me annoyed from the first few chapters and it just got worse from there. A friend told me to just DNF the book but since I've only DNF 9 books since I got back into reading in 2006 I don't DNF lightly. SO I soldiered on and finished this book.

Where should I begin? Oh I know how about the book starting at chapter 11 then pulling a Tarantino and going back to the beginning and catching us up only to give us chapter 11 the cliffs notes version (because we already know what happens then). Seriously?

This book was just full of so much damn randomness my head spun. One moment Mari is chastising her brother (who is a total douche bag but I'll get to that later) and Ellen to her giving up her cookies to Thomas back to Thomas and Ellen's murder then to her cookies be so full of magic pussy dust that Thomas begs her to be his whore while he marries respectably. To Mari getting knocked up (don't gasp i told you this shit would be full of spoilers) to her trying to jump off a fucking cliff to love at first sight (such a fickle chick huh) to being forced to .....well this part made me very angry because after THIS action took place I mentally threw my hands in the air in surrender to all the fuckery that was to come. I'll not spoil this bullshit but you get the drift. The fact that mari was back on her feet and taking a new lover only a few days after this event happened SHOCKED ME TO NO END. I'm sure I wasn't the only listener asking WHAT THE HELL LADY!?!?

Mari's life was a series of unfortunate events and the fact that SHE was the cause of all but one made me wanna throat punch her. Along the line Thomas shows his face again and here is where his true colors show. Thomas is the reason she is separated from her husband for so long, and when he shows up at her house KNOWING he is the reason she helps him and shows him in feeds him and never once considers telling the others to avenge her husband's honor. She had the nerve to beg for his life even after he a) fucked over her husband, b) disregards her feelings, c) basically calls her a whore, d) stabs and kills a likable character (who's death was totally useless and gratuitous). If that were my brother? fucker you brought that shit on your self....Not my circus; Not my monkeys.

On to the NEXT issue. Duncan are you serious? Was there really a need for this poor excuse of a love triangle when poor Mari has been put through the ringer? Well I guess it can't be a love triangle when neither Callum or Mari knew about it. WHY EVEN PUT THIS IN? Chapter upon chapter of Duncan pining over Mari was totally unnecessary. I can understand the author wanting to set up a book 2 but really Boo you don't have to try so hard. Duncan, Alex, and Charlie were likeable enough that I wanted them (despite the all the fuckalicious plotlines you butchered) to find their loves and a happily ever after.

The Chief... THis section of the book was ridiculous and i'm still confused about some things. I remember Callum telling Mari about his brother and how they were born on the "wrong side of the blanket" so imagine my shock when Callum took Mari home and it was mentioned that he was a bastard and she got upset because she didn't know. Um...weren't you there a chapter or so ago when he told you how his brother died? Being that i have an audiobook it's hard to go back and see if something has quotations around it or if it was suppose to be inner dialogue. If it was internal dialogue that was a huge fail because it came across the audiobook as him telling her the tea about him and his brother. also if it was internal dialogue it was a fail on the author's part for TELLING us the story multiple times instead of letting the shit play out so we find out when the character does. I'm not a writer but I totally get the show not tell concept. this book was FULL of tell. Why even introduce Lady MacDonald if she was just gonna be offed in the next chapter? I understand the need to use her pain to shape Callums station and upbringing but c'mon son!!

The marriage...... I saw this shit coming from chapters away. The moment the Glenn Gary started poo pooing Mari's attempts to learn how to run a house I knew. It was confirmed shortly after. Now Callum spent an afternoon with these people and not once did he say "My wife Mari". FO"REALZ!! YOu gonna play that game? And his utter cluelessness in the chapters that follow were totally out of character and frustrating. The beginning of the book had Callum portrayed as a strong leader, a man of intelligence and wit. Now he was being portrayed as a naive lad who didn't know what to do or how to behave. As if the man he was was no gone.

I've wasted more than enough time reading this book and even more time writing this longer than usual review. and I vow not to spend anymore of my time on this book or this series. I would like to say that this author has potential to be a good historical romance author but she's not there yet. I may keep an eye on her and see if future books (not in this series) get better but for now I'll put her on my not for me shelf. The sex in the books was glossed over as if she were uncomfortable writing about it. It would go from Callum thrusting up in to Mari to "moments later" or "Some time later". Honey if you can't write a sex scene to go with your book then just don't put them in. or at least put this book is PG-13 on the cover blurb or something to warn us. Ultimately the editor of this book did the author a disservice. I think a better editor could have helped the author to stay focused on the main story and led the author to the story this book could have been.

Story 1
Narrator 3

Best part of the story was a good narrator. I really think he was the only reason I stuck with this book until the end. THat and I really do hate not finishing a book.

10 of 19 people found this review helpful

disappointed.

the lead female is weak, cries consistently, too many different scenes, history was good, but I couldn't wait for this book to end. almost jumped to the end several times just to get it over with.

Great historical novel!

My Musings

4.25 Stars

I truly fell in love with Callum and Mari. They are both endearing characters. The plot is good, but there were a few times where the pacing slowed down, but then it would pick back up.

This book has a beautiful love story, and I really wanted all their troubles to work out. Mari and Callum love each other fairly early on in the story, but circumstances keep interfering, keeping them from finding their happy ending. That created a good bit of angst, but not enough to annoy me.

I listened to the narrative by Jeff Leslie and he does a very good job, giving all the many characters a distinct voice. I would definitely listen to other books performed by him.

While I can't give this book 5 stars, it's a very good book and parts of it are fantastic and deeply moving. I'm glad I read/listened to it and will continue on with the series. Happy reading!