The Laird’s Forbidden Lover by Amelia C. Gormley
Historical M/M
May 6, 2013
Riptide
Reviewed by Mandi
I enjoyed Amelia Gormley’s self published m/m trilogy so when I heard she was writing a m/m scottish historical for Riptide I got excited. She writes a passionate novella (coming in at 78 pages) but I had some problems with it too.
This is the story of farm lad Iain Munro and a future laird, Tavish MacIntyre. Their families know of one another, which is how they meet as boys. As they spend time together growing up, they realize they have secret, forbidden feelings for each other. The book starts when I believe Tavish is 22 and Iain is 19, or somewhere around there. We quickly learn that about four years ago, these two had been experimenting and falling in love, but something goes wrong with them at a festival, and feelings get hurt. Now they are reunited, both more mature, and both ready to re-explore their feelings.
Right as they reunite and we get to naughty things in the woods, we abruptly switch to a flashback from four years earlier. And it’s quite a long flashback. Then we are put back in present day, then back in the past, over and over. For such a short book, I felt like this really hindered the emotional development of Tavish and Iain in cementing their happy ever after. We get thrust back to them when they first start fooling around which eventually leads us to the festival that brings in conflict, but I really didn’t need this information. I was fine in the present day knowing they had had some kind of argument in the past but now are ready to work past it. Maybe had this book been longer, the past could have been explained more but it felt redundant to have sex scenes in the past and the present.
There is another conflict in the present towards the end which works out how they are able to have their happy ever after. Lots of sex,,..hot sex, but I feel like we miss out on the romance. We get more of an intense physical attraction, and the emotions get left behind a bit. I was left wanting a lot more.
Rating: C
Recent Reviews:
Joyfully Jay – 4.75/5
Goodreads
Oh man, I love a good M/M. I haven’t read historical M/M before, and since i have a thing for Highlanders, this caught my eye. I dislike long flashbacks, though, and I dislike stories in which the author keeps dragging me back to the past when what I’m really interested in is the development of the characters in the “present”. This happened with CRASH INTO YOU by Roni Loren. i loved both stories, the one presented in the present and the one given in many lengthy flashbacks to the past. But I HATED that feeling of being yanked back and forth. I would have preferred to read 2 novellas or just to read the present day story and have it developed into something a little longer.
Enjoyed the review. I still might check this one out, just to get a taste of forbidden historical M/M love.
I LOVE the idea of a highlander m/m..wish it would have worked better for me. Need to keep looking! LOL
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