Review: The Ending Made Me Smile
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 25, 2014
*What Meghna Thought*“The Reiver” is a historical romance novella set in the borderlands of Scotland, starring the handsome Duncan Maxwell and Jamie Johnston who belong to long-feuding rival clans. Duncan, a Scottish overlord, confronts a thieving child and surprisingly discovers that his “gaunt-faced, dirty-cheeked prisoner was no lad, but a lady”. He decides to keep her as a prisoner (supervised guest) until she reveals her name and her family’s whereabouts.Jamie belongs to a family who has brought her up in hatred of the Maxwells. And yet, even when she finds herself a captive of the handsome Duncan Maxwell, she is unable to deny that all she knew about him was wrong. He is a good lord to his people and as a man, he is kind and generous. Reva, as he calls her, slowly realizes that she has fallen for her rugged captor. When Duncan realizes he is in danger of losing his heart to his mysterious Reva, he promises to marry her without punishing her family. But he is unable to let go of his hatred towards the Johnstons for the murder of his father and as Reva realizes this, she escapes and later comes back to return his prized horse.This story was way too short for my liking. It starts off well, then there is a breakfast scene with heavy sexual innuendo, which was really not necessary, especially since the rest of the story is quite tame. I liked the scene where they race on horses, but that could be only because I love horses, and any story with horses makes me happy. The cover art is also not how I would imagine Duncan to be. I would have preferred a brooding, large man on a horse, silhouetted against the setting/rising sun in a rocky landscape.I wavered between giving this novella 2 or 3 stars and then decided to go with 3, simply because the ending made me smile. The hero knew all along that the lady who stole his heart, will come to return it.