Captured by the Highlander (The Highlander Series, 1) Mass Market Paperback – March 1, 2011

MacLean leaves you breathless with "Captured by the Highlander." Duncan MacLean has a ruthless reputation as the "Butcher of the Highlands," but when he kidnaps Lady Amelia Templeton, she tests him on so many levels and dares to ruin the Butcher's reputation.Set in Scotland in 1716, the story opens with Duncan's suspenseful kidnap of Amelia. He's looking for her betrothed, Colonial Richard Bennett, who is known for his brutality towards the Scots. Initially, Duncan, as the Butcher, just wants revenge, but he can't deny he's attracted to Amelia. She's headstrong, believes in her convictions, and dares to defy him.Amelia breaks away from Duncan and seeks refuge from a squad of English soldiers. Unfortunately, they're drunk and act poorly. Duncan saves Amelia, and the incident challenges her to understand his motivations.Duncan takes Amelia to Montcriffe where she discovers his true identity. Dare she give in to the passion Duncan evokes knowing the danger he faces if his secret is revealed?MacLean's writing is easy to read and plunges the reader in a suspense filled opening. The action is perfectly paced, allowing the reader to catch their breath before racing forward again.MacLean paints wonderful pictures with words allowing the reader to vividly see Duncan and Amelia's word in their mind.The most rewarding part is the characterization. Despite Duncan's ruthless reputation, his motivations are clear to the reader. As a reader, I easily lost my heart to him. Amelia is feisty, challenging, and when evidence presents itself, willing to give Duncan a chance.The story is sophisticated for romance readers with love scenes that capture the passion and sensually of the couple. MacLean will leave you breathless, wanting more tales of the Scottish highlands. "Captured by the Highlander" is a wonderful romantic escape on a rainy Saturday afternoon. I highly recommend this book.

I bought this because its was highly rated,and 99% of the time I can trust my romance loving, Amazon.com reviewing girls. I LOVE you guys ! But I literally was 60% through this story and loving it ! Duncan is super funny,sexy,rugged and I loved how suggestive he was(The kind of things he would say,I wanted to rip him right out of the page !! and dangerous too !!). Amelia is a high born delicate lady with a spitfire attitude! It all fits provocatively perfect,then it gets screwed up by rushing their feelings and emotions Then even I started to wonder " Does she have Stockholm Syndrome" it was too rushed and too forced!! What is sexy about making a principled and honorable man like Duncan cow at the misguided judgement of a doe eyed little girl ???!! WTF I was so turned off by ONE WEEK going by and Duncan was ready to give all he HAS and everything he IS for a chance in the sack with Little Miss Prude! She knows nothing of who he is or what he has been through in his life, he is a freakin rebel fighting to preserve his and his ancestors way of life against the English! If those aren't principles to live by then I don't know what is! I really lost interest in reading any more of this book,Even though the characters had yet to "seal the deal", but I hung in a few more pages hoping maybe I would change how I felt about them, and sadly even their "love scene" left much to be desire in my eyes. After the build up of Duncan's character I just expected more passion these two people would share. I gave it a 3 star rating for the 2/3 of the book that I really liked, but since the latter part left me irritated and ready to go to sleep I couldn't rate any higher. I might read more of Julianne's books but I will be hesitant and read ALL the reviews before purchasing.

During the period of time in which this story takes place my great, great, great great grandfather was living in Moy, Inverness, Scotland. He was Dougal MacQueen. He was married to Laird McDonald's daughter. Subsequently he fought in the 1715 Uprising and was captured and sentenced to death. However he was transported to Baltimore and sold as an indentured servant. At the end of his servitude he bought a farm called Cranberry Fields. He and his second wife had five or six children. He lived a long and fruitful life. His decendants fought in the French & Indian War, the Revolutionary War, The Texas Revolution, The Civil War, and both World Wars. My grandmother grew up on land in Orange, Texas that was gifted to her grandfather for fighting for Texas Independence. In less than a generation Scotland would fight their last war for Independence at Culoden. It would end the way of life for Scottish Clans.

I have read a lot of Maclean's book in the past and have been happy, but I have read a lot of "highlander" books and been sorely disappointed, so I went into this novel with few expectations. I was happily surprised by this book. The hero, Duncan, was fully fleshed out and definitely likable. While Amelia was more than a little naive for the daughter of a key negotiator/soldier, I found the novel on a whole very satisfying. Duncan was amazing, and the secondary characters very well set up for the following novels. While I would have liked Amelia to be a little more understanding of the Scottish plight given her background, it seemed a small bone to pick in what was a well written and well established first chapter of the series. There isn't that much sizzles between Amelia and Duncan which was sad, their emotions seemed true enough by the end, but the connection between the two seemed a little forced. The twist is fabulous, definitely didn't see it coming and it definitely added to the story and character development. Overall, a very good book!

A HUGE disappointment!I have previously read The Colour of Heaven series from Julianne MacLean and absolute loved it and 'swallowed' the whole 13 books in mere 2 weeks! Yes, it was that good.However, this book left much to be desired. The language is often very modern and hence screaming at you as inappropriate for the period (i.e. vehicles instead of conveyances/wagons/coaches, etc. - just weird!). Dialogues and scenes are awkward and disjointed sometimes, characters' line of thinking is sometimes soo illogical and difficult to follow and 'oh, really? Where did that thought come from???' There isn't very much depth to the main characters, they actually seem very shallow and their decisions are sometimes not explained. I felt like the writer just wanted to get the story over with - done and dusted.However, it wasn't all too bad. It is an ok story. I probably just had very high expectations after the contemporary series from the author. Bring on the book 2 - hopefully it's better.

Lady Amelia Templeton, an Englishwoman, is asleep in bed, when someone breaks into her bedroom, swinging an axe in his hands. The stranger is Duncan MacLean, aka The Butcher, who's reputation lives up to his name. He's there to kill Richard Bennett, an English officer, having his own personal reasons for doing so. When she tells him she's Richard's fiance, he kidnaps her, and they go on a journey together through the Highlands. Amelia tries to find out why he wants to kill Richard, and when he finally tells her, she doesn't believe him. On the journey, the Butcher is aided by his ally, Angus Macdonald aka The Lion, who isn't happy his friend is keeping this Englishwoman alive. She later escapes Duncan and tries to get help, but her fellow Englishmen are drunk, and only interested in one thing. Duncan saves her and it's then she realises perhaps she was wrong. But just as they find themselves opening up to one another, she escapes again and Amelia is hurt when she finds out another secret about Duncan, who she's fallen for. But then Amelia must decide where her true allegiances lie when her fiance shows up.Overall, the book was fantastic. I absolutely loved it. The Butcher looks scary and has no mercy for his victims, but deep down inside, he proves what a gentle man he really can be.5/5

The beginning was very promising but towards the end of the book **spoiler** the strong male lead kinda turned into a bit of a wuss, There was very little on the antagonist character, only a couple of paragraphs gave him attention. There was no real substance to him. His bride to be instantly goes from thinking he is a honorable man then they words of her captor seems to instantly change her mind from a so called "note". So she in herself seem a bit dim in certain things.As for romance novels goes. I have felt there was no real passion between the two. Yes there was sex but it seemed a instant thing. There was no intense build up or earth shattering experience that so many "maids" experience in these types of tales. The girl seemed she couldn't make, one moment you read her as a high spirited woman, the next, a shy maid, and then instantly she is a experienced love maker to her partner. So it could have flowed better and more depth to certain chars. so all in all it was a okay read for a free book.

I really thought I would enjoy this book, especially with all the 5 stars and because I love Highlander books, but I'm not sure what I think... There were definitely snippets of a good story, and at times, even some chemistry between the Butcher and Amelia, but as soon as he turns into 'Duncan' (complete with his wigs and flouncy clothes) it all changed for me. I felt the slight chemistry became clumsy - there was no build up, it was straight to the sex and his sweet talk was non-existent ('Now take off your shirt, lass. I am lustin' for you.') There was quite a lot of repetition and some 'strange' sayings used - 'Her knees dissolved into clotted cream.' and 'He had no answer. His head was full of thistles.' - to name but two. So, I'm not sure how I feel, but I am willing to read other books from this author.

Well, normally overly tall and muscled men with blood all over are not my usual type, but mixed in with (a must for a romantic novel) male vulnerability and, aye, you have a male dreams are made off!Loved it, a little predictable as all such novels are but this is why I probably like them. I do not wish to give too much away, therefore I only say that there was one twist I did not see coming. I was so worried about the outcome that for several hours I did not want to continue reading as I was so worried that the outcome would be tragic.Well it wasn't and thank god it was not. Super book, well written, historically interesting. I am off now to find myself my own highlander (without the blood!).