The Stolen Mackenzie Bride

Jennifer Ashley

Sep 2015 · Mackenzies Series Book 8 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

The New York Times bestselling author of Rules for a Proper Governess returns with an engrossing tale that promises to delight lovers of Outlander.

1745, Scotland: The youngest son of the scandalous Mackenzie family, Malcolm is considered too wild to tame…until he meets a woman who is too unattainable to resist.

Lady Mary Lennox is English, her father highly loyal to the king, and promised to another Englishman. But despite it being forbidden to speak to Malcolm, Lady Mary is fascinated by the Scotsman, and stolen moments together lead to a passion greater than she’d ever dreamed of finding.

When fighting breaks out between the Highlanders and the King's army, their plans to elope are thwarted, and it will take all of Malcolm’s daring as a Scottish warrior to survive the battle and steal a wife out from under the noses of the English.

Ratings and reviews

The Stolen Mackenzie Bride is book eight in the Mackenzies Series by Jennifer Ashley. This is my first time to read Ms. Ashley’s work and I probably should have started with the first book in the series. Overall the story was alright. It started off strong and intriguing. Malcolm Mackenzie is the youngest son of the Duke of Kilmorgan. He is a dashing Highlander who only has loyalties to his clan. When he sees Lady Mary Lennox at a gathering in Edinburgh, he is instantly smitten. Mary is betrothed to Lord Halsey but it is only a political and business arrangement. When Mary meets Malcolm her world is turned upside down. “A tall man stepped out of the shadows and into her path. Moonlight fell on a light-colored frock coat that topped a kilt of blue plaid. He was one of the Highlanders from below, the younger one, who’d caught and held her with the heat in his eyes.” When war comes to Edinburgh and the Jacobite rebellion explodes into their lives, Malcolm and Mary are forever changed. Mary’s loyalty is challenged. Which side will she choose? Somewhere in the middle, it felt like the author was just narrating events. Battle after battle was mentioned. I thought unnecessarily. Then towards the end, the characters came back to life and it became a story again. “In spite of their bluster, the ear-splitting loudness of their voices, they were vulnerable. Broken if struck the wrong way. They needed someone to love them, to care for them, to keep them whole”. The addition of Mary into the Mackenzie clan changes even their family dynamics. Overall, I enjoyed the book. There are a number of sex scenes in the story. If that bothers you, I recommend just reading the dialogue at those parts. I will probably go back and begin at the beginning of this series.

Oh my heart, this book, it just tugged at all my feels! From the very beginning, the pull between Mal and Mary, to the very end, the connection between Mal and Mary, their love story, epic, sweeping, history making and historically tragic. Then there are the MacKenzie brothers, the Duke, Mary's sister, father, aunt. The things that happen around, to, and for them had me enthralled, intrigued, and breathless. The roots of the MacKenzie's we read about now are well rooted in these characters, and the pain that underlies and sweeps over them, is also present here. A love story, absolutely, an amazing story of love and commitment, but also, the history and the lives lived by those who endured to have that love.

I have truly enjoyed reading this whole series waiting on the next book to be available, I can not imagine how the Scots got through life after Culloden it fills me with such sadness.

About the author

Jennifer Ashley, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author and winner of a Romance Writers of America RITA Award, writes as Allyson James and Jennifer Ashley. She's penned more than eighty novels and novellas in historical romance, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy, including Wild Wolf and Rules for a Proper Governess. She now lives in the Southwest with her husband and cats, spends most of her time in the wonderful world of her stories, and also enjoys hiking, music, and building dollhouses and dollhouse miniatures.