Review: Flames of Winter

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England 1804: SARAH MORTENSEN, daughter to BARON HARTMORE, is desperate…desperate to escape yet another horrible match her parents arranged for her. Once, she saw it as her duty to save her family from ruin, to sacrifice herself in order to repay her father’s gambling debts. But enough is enough. Determined to escape her latest fiancé, Sarah places her trust in the Dowager Countess of Whickerton, known far and wide as Grandma Edie. After all, no one is as shrewd as the dowager countess…or as daring. Her plan is outrageous. Her intentions, however, are pure. And so, Sarah agrees…to a feigned kidnapping…hoping to win her freedom. 

 KEIR MACKINNEAR, second son to the chief of CLAN MACKINNEAR in the Scottish Highlands, questions his own sanity when he finds himself kidnapping a shy, wide-eyed English lass from her London home in the middle of the night. He ought never have gone along with the Dowager Countess of Whickerton’s ludicrous plan! Yet here they are, hiding out in a cabin in the woods in the middle of winter! Only the two of them! Not counting two horses, an old goat, a handful of chickens and a haughty feline by the name of Loki. What could go wrong? After all, the dowager countess is not known to be wrong. Ever. Yet what slips Keir’s mind is that Grandma Edie loves nothing more than to play matchmaker. And while she is certainly determined to save Sarah from her vile fiancé, she might just have an ulterior motive. Why not hit two birds with one stone?

Genre: historical romance

Publication date: January 2023

Mature content: no

Review: I really wanted to like this book. The general plot idea seemed interesting when I read the synopsis, but right from the first pages I had issues - especially with Sarah's character. For the first one third of the book, she comes across as a complete idiot - unfortunately there's no other word for it. She almost doesn't speak, she has no idea of what she wants, she's frightened by her supposed abductor, even when she knows that (1) the whole abduction thing was a set up, organized by someone who would not put her in danger willingly and (2) she ends up depending on him for every need, doesn't try to stand up for herself in any way - sometimes literally, since Keir has to physically carry her part of the way. And the list goes on. I have no idea what Keir could ever see in her - other that the fact that she's apparently a "bonny lass". 

Added to this, the plot moves so slowly I ended up skimming a few paragraphs here and there to see if I could get to a more interesting point in the story.

 

So, while Flames of Winter could have some potential, I can't bring myself to recommend it. 

 

Happy readings otherwise,

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