Gwen’s review of Master of the Highlands by Veronica Wolff
Timetravel romance released by Berkley Sensation 5 Feb 08

I like a good historical.  I like a good paranormal.  Mix them together and I’m a pretty happy little camper.  Timetravels generally give me the best of both worlds.  When timetravel is done well (such as K.M.Moning’s Beyond the Highland Mist, still my fave), it’s pure escapist entertainment that a reader can lose themselves in.  When it’s done poorly, it’s painful to read and stretches suspension of disbelief – a critical element with timetravels – beyond its tensile strength.  This book falls somewhere between the two extremes.

[Side note:  The author’s site is very pretty – takes a bit to load and uses Flash, but very pretty pictures.  Warning – the site plays music, but at least you can toggle it off.]

I’m not saying this book was bad.  Technically, the writing is among some of the best I’ve read.  The story arcs are complete, setting details appropriately handled (you never wonder where a hand is, or if a candle is lit, etc.), and grammar, syntax, etc., are all beautifully done.  The colloquial Scottish speech is well handled and period details aren’t overdone.  In fact, the author bases several elements on real-life, with appropriate creative license, of course.  I like this adherence to history sometimes because it appeals to my inner-geek to look things up and learn more. If I had to grade this book simply on the technical merits, it gets an A. 

Where I have a problem with MotH is wholly on style elements – a terribly subjective thing, so keep that in mind as you read this review.  You may like the things that turned me off. Plus, since this is her first, MotH may simply be the victim of “new author yips.”

To begin with, I felt the author spends too much time in the heroine’s head instead of using action and dialog to move the plot along.  Lots of space is spent on how the heroine felt, what she thought about life in general, what she thought about every little thing in fact.  So much time, that it seemed to bog the story down in several places. 

In addition, I did not like how much of the book the hero and heroine were separated from each other, or at least appeared to be separated from each other.  You’d read the beginning of a chapter and see that suddenly two months had gone by – no clue what happened, if they saw each other, nothing.  I read a romance to read about the relationship, about two people overcoming obstacles to make a life together.  I want to read the conversations, interactions, the sensuality.  I want to know how a couple manage to make things click in spite of it all.  I didn’t get that with this book except in miserly amounts.  This couple spent weeks in the same house, presumably not speaking to each other (at least we’re not told about it).  Weeks that are completely unaddressed except to mention that they had gone by.  Not what I read a romance for.

Because of these things, I never developed a relationship of my own with Wolff’s world – equally as important as a reader developing a relationship with the characters.  I didn’t give a rat’s patooty that an important character dies by the time it happens.  By the end of the book, I didn’t care a jot that the H/H had their HEA.

I can’t recommend this book unless you’re a dyed-in-the-wool timetravel fan.  I really hope her next book, Sword of the Highlands (Berkley, 27 May 08), is more to my taste.

Grade: C- (would be a Grade D if not for the technical proficiency)

From the back cover: