Mesmerized by a dirt covered drawing she discovers while researching an historical weapon at the Fogg, graduate student Haley Fritzpatrick reaches to touch the bloodlike marking on the woman's neck in the sketch that looks remarkably like her own scar. Suddenly, there is nothing but blackness. Coming to, Haley is stunned to find herself insulted by a well-muscled man dressed in a torn and dirty plaid intent on rescuing some woman. Was this someone's idea of a creepy joke?

For his part, Alasdair MacColla was badly outnumbered as he raided the Campbell stronghold to rescue his sister, Jean. Hoping stealth and surprise would help him on his mission, he is shocked to find a Campbell woman dressed in strange garb in the dank cell with his sister. Sensing she was a prize worth taking or a spy he can't afford to leave behind less she betray him, he grabs Haley and attempts an escape.

While initially thinking this was a role playing game gone a little too extreme, it slowly dawns on Haley that she is no longer in Boston, but somehow had arrived not only in the misty land of the Scots but in the middle of the bloody feuds she had spend so much time studying. Despite being stunned and disoriented, Haley soon decides who is the lesser of the two evils and manages to show her feisty spirit and self-defense training as rough and crude Campbell men attempt to have their way with her.

While MacColla was not the focus of Haley's research on historical arms and battles, she had read enough to know that he was a cruel and bloodthirsty warrior and is leery of him. As time passes and she gets to know him and his strong willed family, so different, yet close like her own much loved parents and her pack of five football mad brothers, her feelings for him soon deepen. Knowing what will happen when she hears where he wants to travel, can she really stand to let this man, so loving and protective of his clan, go to meet his deadly fate?

Inspired by the story of the real "MacColla", Veronica Wolff has spun her incredible writing magic to wisk readers from the happy sounds of Paddy's Pub and pigskin TV in present day Boston to the bloody and brutal period of the British Civil Wars during the reign of Charles I in the 1640s. Her work is solidly researched and she realistically portrays the tensions and concerns during this unsettled time with its shifting allegiances and stolen lands.

Haley and Alasdair are quite an intriguing and well-matched pair as they strive to understand each other. Wolff has done an outstanding job in developing their relationship in a believable and suspenseful storyline while keeping their characters true to who they are. MacColla's bravery deserves the fame history remembers and he is totally smitten by this bold woman with her funny Gaelic, strange interest in Scottish history and who knows how to fire "modern" weapons. Be warned! You'll want to stay up all night reading this book! It's a keeper, so enjoy! Thank goodness there will be a sequel coming!