I’ve been waiting for Aulay’s story since Book 2 where we were first introduced to the Buchanan brothers and their sister Saidh.
I can’t decide if my favourite this far is Book 1, Ross & Anabelle’s story, or this one with Aulay and Jetta.
While Jetta doesn’t have much of a personality and is a somewhat tepid MFC, Aulay is the one that carries this story with his nobel chivalry and heartwarming care of a woman he fished from the sea on the anniversary of his father and twin brother’s deaths in the battle that left him disfigured and scarred.
The woman doesn’t have any memory of who she is or where she is from. Aulay names her Jetta for her long, black hair. Jetta mistakenly believes Aulay is her husband which causes some rather fun interactions as Aulay tries to prevent any marital relationship and wishes for her to know the truth so he can ask her to marry him even as he doesn’t know who she really is.
There is plenty of intrigue as someone is attempting to kill Jetta. No one knows who or why and solving the riddle is made more difficult because she has no memory of how she came to be tied to a ship’s mast and floating in the ocean.
Saidh’s loaf & carrot pre-wedding night instruction to Murine makes a reprise and is, if anything, funnier than the original as Murine is doing the telling of it.
We learn that Saidh & Greer (she was fit to burst in Niels & Edith’s story) did, indeed, have triplets….girls!
If there is one word to describe the characters in this book it would be any and every iteration of the word ‘grimace’ as this seems to be the author’s favourite description of their facial expressions. The word is used too much. There are OTHER words that would convey the same facial expression. It truly became an irritant as I listened to the audiobook especially.
The audiobook was passably well with only a few annoying detractors. In addition to the overuse of the word ‘grimace’ and its many iterations, the narrator’s voicing the word ‘What?’ when spoken by Aulay makes him sound like he’s one of those guys who’s all brawn and no brain.
The author also continues to use modern terminology and colloquialisms throughout her writing which simply don’t apply to the time period in which the stories take place.