Among the Heather (The Highlands Series #2)

Samantha Young — 2023

He's a disgraced actor. She's the daughter of Hollywood royalty. Both are hiding in the Scottish Highlands, but despite their antagonistic attraction, they can't seem to hide from each other... North Hunter has worked hard to step out of the shadows of his orphaned upbringing into the limelight of Hollywood. He never imagined a dark moment from his childhood returning to destroy everything he'd built. Devastated, he finds comfort in the isolation of an exclusive members-only club in the Scottish Highlands, even if the club comes with a prickly estate manager who sets his blood on fire. As the eldest daughter of a Hollywood legend, Aria Howard has learned the hard way that people will use her to get to her father. When her last relationship ended badly, Aria fled to Scotland. Running Ardnoch Estate provides distance from a life that has never fit comfortably. But when defamed Scottish actor North Hunter disrupts her sanctuary, Aria is on the defense. The cocky actor is the last thing she needs, and despite their searing attraction, Aria is determined to dislike him. But one night of drunken forced proximity with North leads Aria to share insecurities seeded by her horrible ex. When North offers to prove her ex wrong by taking Aria to his bed for a no-strings distraction, they begin an affair neither expected. However, their fiery liaison leads to a deep emotional connection that unsettles them both, and North will have to break down more than Aria's trust issues if they're ever to have a future together. He'll need to protect her from a past that just doesn't want to stay buried... or lose something far more essential to his existence than his career.

Reviews

Lover of Romance @addictedtoromance

Dec 11, 2023

DNF Review

I really hate doing this so close to release date but I think its important to really be honest about this book. I am a bit baffled over all the five starred reviews for this one because I could barely get through the first half. I absolutely adored the hero, he is not the problem in this book. The issue in this book is the heroine. I can't believe that I am doing this to a Samantha Young book but the heroine was horrid in this book. She was petty and abusive. You will never get me to enjoy a heroine like this. One of my hard no's in a romance is when the heroine is either physically or emotionally or both to the hero. And the reasons on why she treats him so horribly, well she is attracted to him and doesn't trust her heart because of a bad experience so of course it makes it justified in what she does to him. The hero does NOT deserve what she does to him. He is just honest with her and she doesn't like that honesty and literally hurts him in a way that unless he is raping you, should never be done. This is the type of toxic romance I do not care to read and I cannot condone when its this type of story. This is just a regular contemporary/romantic suspense. I haven't ever seen this author write a heroine like this and I had such high hopes for this and all I wanted to do was push the heroine over a cliff and into the freezing cold water to shake some common sense of human decency into her.

If you need a solid heroine who is a woman of integrity and non abusive, I would not recommend this book to you. You will need plenty of patience to push through it. Its a toxic AF romance that I can't condone in any way and want to honestly convey to future readers what to expect on this one. It will not be an easy read, it's a rough road of reading.

Nicola Sarah Brooks@nikkisbooknook

Dec 3, 2023

Aria is used to being wanted for all the wrong reasons. Her dad is a famous director and her mum was a supermodel. She may have been raised in the lap of luxury but she still experienced the worst that life can throw at you - including betrayal. But she found happiness and solace at Ardnoch. Then North had to turn up.

North is the next big thing on the action movie scene. But he has some big secrets that he'd like to keep hidden. The media have a field day when the secrets leak and he skulks off to Ardnoch to hide out and lick his wounds.

Aria and North both have emotional baggage to deal with. Aria has a thing against arrogant playboy actors and North doesn't do well with emotions but after one extraordinary night all those preconceived assumptions may be blown out of the water.

These two have chemistry of the incendiary variety. Once they get past all their own hurts and walls to keep pain out, they may just have a love that people would kill for.

Aria has many insecurities that plague her and North is pretty good at shepherding her through them. He most definitely fell first and very, very hard.

It was nice to get to see Walker & Sloane and the Adair clan again too!