Lady Linet is betrayed by her brother who promised her in marriage to a violent man known to have murdered his first wife. Linet, out of a desire to revenge herself against her brother, frees his most prized prisoner, a Scottish rebel named Seathan - Lord Grey, who is scheduled for execution the next morning. They escape and make their way on a twisted journey through Scotland as they fall in love.
I liked this author's ability to describe the passion between this couple. I felt the physical and mental chemistry developing between them. Unfortunately, it takes more than that to write a good romance novel.
I saw this book on the list of free offerings for kindle, and upon reading the rave 5 star reviews, I downloaded it. I am grateful I didn't spend money on it as there are more plot holes in 'His Conquest' than a piece of swiss cheese. The behavior of the characters is so illogical, I kept shaking my head in disbelief. Why would a man, rescued by a woman who never once requested information about rebel activities or asked to be taken anywhere near a rebel hiding place, consider her a spy? Why would a woman we are supposed to like and cheer for resort to theft? Why would Seathan consider Linet more dangerous if she is his enemy's sister than if she was his enemy's lover? Why would Seathan even suspect that a nobleman would risk his sister's very valuable virtue by having her release and run off with a prisoner for the purpose of spying on him? And what was the deal with the 'magic stones'? They were never explained and they had no impact on the plot whatsoever. Even when Linet stole one, no one really seemed to care.
Add to it the use of phrases not used by 13th Century Scots ('making love' was not a term meaning sex in the 13th century) and the absence of any mention of plaid or kilts (one of which is so predominately displayed on the cover - the best part of the entire book,) and I found myself puzzling time and again at this authors lack of integrating the uniqueness of the period into her story. William Wallace killed someone and it was going to make things more difficult for the Scots -- but it never did for the hero or heroine, and even if it had, the significance of the killing was never explained.
Finally, the author spends so much time explaining why Seathan could not trust Linet - and vice versa - in such great detail, again and again and again and again and again - I found myself skipping over huge chunks of the story and not missing a thing. I was bored!
I hope in the future this author takes into account that her readers are intelligent enough to remember key plot points without the constant and unnecessarily detailed reminders. I also hope she does a little more research into the language and customs of the period in which her story is set and not simply throw historical facts in, but integrate them into the plot. Finally, I hope she keeps in mind in what way it is logical for her characters to behave. However, these are errors that should have been caught by a decent editor. Perhaps Ms. Cosby should obtain a more discerning editor for her next published work.
