After being kidnapped as a youth, Aidan was now back with his family in Scotland. They were happy with having him back, yet Aidan had trouble settling down into life with Clan MacAlpin. It still seemed so foreign and unreal to him after being in the Caribbean for so long. The only thing that seemed real to him was his desire for revenge - to kill the pirate with the black pearl earring who had so horribly changed the course of his young life.

When his sister noticed that he had trouble reading and realized that Aidan had missed out on his education while captured as a slave, she arranged for her good friend, the shy spinster Elspeth Farquharson, to tutor him. Elspeth was a romantic lass, eloquent and flowing out to the winds in her mind with whispers of love, but farouche in front of others, especially with Aidan. What a fool she felt herself to be to think that he could ever be interested in her!

But as she taught him to read in the flickering candlelight, their heads as well as their hearts grew closer together. But, could this love be more than a dream? Aidan was still driven by his need for revenge and others had their own desires to keep Elspeth away from him. Would they be driven apart by the danger lurking in the deep shadows?

While this wonderful suspenseful romance, set in the 17th century, can easily be read as a stand alone book, it is a smashing sequel to Veronica Wolff's Devil's Own, which focused on the tale of Marjorie and Cormac, his twin brother. While nicely developing the storyline, the author has made a very well balanced set with Aidan's personality being a combination of lost boy sadness at finding his parents dead and his family changed coupled with his stubborn cynicism and steel edged manner that kept him alive. He is counterbalanced by Elspeth's caring and courageous nature, as she seeks to help those she loves and is steadfast in her determination to help. I had hoped to hear more about what happens with Angus and Aidan's sister, so I hope another sequel is in the future! A bonny read not to be missed!

Book Summary

Thirteen years after he was kidnapped and sold into slavery, Aidan returns to Scotland to find the home he knew long gone. His mother, a proper education, a chance at love - gone. All he has now are dreams of vengeance...

Only one woman can restore his tormented heart.

Aidan MacAlpin appreciates the hospitality of his brothers and sisters, but after surviving hell on earth, he feels they are more like strangers than kin. They could never understand his one ambition: to exact bloody revenge on the bastard who sold him into slavery all those years ago...

Elspeth Farquharson has already resigned herself to the life of a spinster when she's hired to tutor dark, brooding Aidan - a real-life hero more enticing than any from her adventure books. If only she can convince this tragic rogue that she's not the nervous, stuttering bookworm she appears to be. But when Aidan shows her a clue to his tortured past, she'll be thrust into a dangerous game of passion and deceptino that will awaken the sexy heroine within - if it doesn't kill her first...

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