Gather the Stars by Kimberly Cates
Gather the Stars (Culloden’s Fire Book 1) by Kimberly Cates
If you love Outlander, this is the book to read. Set in Scotland 1746, Cates takes two polar[image error] opposites and throws them together in a battle against each other and then throws in a desperate plot to save their love and lives.
Rachel is Lord General Marcus de Lacey’s daughter and the darling of all the British soldiers wooing for her hand. She has agreed to marry Sir Dunstan Well, the brave hero of Culloden Moor. Her friend, Nathaniel Rowland, warns her against marrying him and applauds the Scottish hero Glen Lyon who has become a legend rescuing women and children from the British brutality.
Minutes after Nathaniel leaves her in the garden, she is kidnapped by Glen Lyon’s half-brother, Adam, and taken to his hideout in a cave. The children call her Sassenach and she plans her escape by loading a pistol and waiting for Glen Lyon to return. Glen is Gavin Carstares, the Earl of Glenlyon.
Gavin meets with Dunstan and tells him to leave a harbor free and he will return Rachel unharmed. When Gavin returns to the cave, Rachel greets him with a gun. He tries to take it and is shot. Rachel has to take care of him. Gavin’s father loved Adam’s mother who was his mistress and raised five children with her. He wanted to be a soldier and Gavin went off to war to please him. He said he was a coward at Prestonpans and has nightmares about it. He tells her Dunstan was brutal and slew Willie, a unarmed boy during the battle.
Adam is an alpha hero, big and strong, while Gavin is a bookworm and wears glasses. He’s sworn to protect the innocent from the savagery of war and in two years has saved countless lives. His daring and honor define him as the hero and the reader is won over even as Rachel discovers the real man.
Rachel escapes but witnesses British soldiers forcing women and children into a hut and setting it on fire. She still thinks Dunstan is honorable and has no part in it, but the reader knows better. Gavin rushes forward and rips off a shutter to free them and goes inside to rescue a baby from the fire. Gavin and Rachel spend the night in a cottage and make love. They declare their love but Gavin also tells her about his nightmares and says he is a coward. In the morning Gavin tells her they have no future. She calls him a coward for not believing they can have a future together.
They return to the cave and find out Adam is arrested and claims to be Glen Lyon to protect Gavin. He is sentenced to hang in two days. Gavin locks Rachel in the cave, takes her betrothal ring and heads to Furley House to barter for Adam’s life with his own.
Cates plays the main characters off each other to perfection, a duel of strong convictions and tender feelings. When they realize their true feelings, their reaction is explosive, but then daylight dashes all hope they can remain together. Cates increases the tension by putting our hero and heroine in the villain’s clutches and making us turn every page to find out how they escape.
