The Scottish Boy

Alex de Campi — 2020

1333. Edward III is at war with Scotland. Nineteen-year-old Sir Harry de Lyon yearns to prove himself, and jumps at the chance when a powerful English baron, William Montagu, invites him on a secret mission with a dozen elite knights. They ride north, to a crumbling Scottish keep, capturing the feral, half-starved boy within and putting the other inhabitants to the sword. But nobody knows why the flower of English knighthood snuck over the border to capture a savage, dirty teenage boy. Montagu gives the boy to Harry as his squire, with only two rules: don't let him escape, and convert him to the English cause. At first, it's hopeless. The Scottish boy is surly and violent, and eats anything that isn't nailed down. Then Harry begins to notice things: that, as well as Gaelic, the boy speaks flawless French, with an accent much different from Harry's Norman one. That he can read Latin too. And when Harry finally convinces the boy – Iain mac Maíl Coluim – to cut his filthy curtain of hair, the face revealed is the most beautiful thing Harry has ever seen. With Iain as his squire, Harry wins tournament after tournament and becomes a favourite of the King. But underneath the pageantry smoulder twin secrets: Harry and Iain's growing passion for each other, and Iain's mysterious heritage. As England hurtles towards war once again, these secrets will destroy everything Harry holds dear.

Reviews

Cici Pearson@cocoisabird

Aug 7, 2024

hoooooooo my god

Floofyflower@jusalilfloof

Jun 13, 2024

An entire lifetime is in the pages of this book. So much happens, it’s literally like being swept up in a whirlwind that you don’t want to leave.

I’ll be thinking about this book for a long, long time.

My biggest issues: 1) the chapters are so. Long. 2) There were some decisions that the characters made that seemed quickly brushed over or even completely forgotten about 3) there were moments that should have been shown, not told and 4) the epilogue seemed rushed, it would have been nice to see how the MCs have grown as a family a few years later after the events of the story.

Lila Roberts@lilaroberts

Apr 3, 2024

oh my god 😭😭😭😭😭

Aishling@nilghias

Jan 28, 2023

4.5/5 stars I could’ve happily read another 100 pages, I did not want it to end. This was a whirlwind of emotions, and kept surprising me at every turn. Its an enemies to friends to lovers but only one of them ever hates the other and they can’t help but fall in love with each other against their own wishes. Even though it’s a historical book, they speak in a modern way which I always prefer. There’s a fair bit of political talk which I might’ve skipped a few lines of at times but it was easy to understand and didn’t actually require any knowledge of England, Scotland or France back in the 1300’s. The romance was honestly so beautiful and don’t let that cover fool you like it did to me, this book has a lot of explicit scenes which I honestly was not expecting but am definitely not complaining about 😂 but they were so filled with emotion that I teared up a lot of them. Even if you’re not usually a fan of historical like I am, I think this is so worth the read. The lack of “ye olden days” language really made it so much easier to read, and even thought at times it seems like everything is going to shit, I promise there is a HEA.