Best-selling Brenda Joyce has written a very impressive and captivating novel that is sure to please historical romance fans. With her strong character development and historical accuracy and sense of the time, you are instantly pulled in the unnatural quiet of the Scottish forest in the Highlands. Why have the animals and birds fled? Then, with pounding heart, you instantly identify with the lovely Lady Margaret Comyn as she approaches her home of Castle Fyne. Will she be able to make it to the castle walls on time?

Lady Margaret is only seventeen in 1306, but has already experienced much loss in the ongoing wars between England and Scotland. Her parents, William Comyn and Mary MacDougall and three of her four brothers had already been killed. As she approaches her mother's beloved castle and now her only dowry with her brother William and a small group of protectors, her heart fills with emotion and fear. The castle had held off invaders for centuries but will that hold true now? Castle Fyne is a strategic location and Margaret's powerful uncle had pledged her in marriage to an English Lord, Sir Guy de Valence. Her clan has traditionally hated their enemy, the Clan Donald, and especially now its leader Alexander MacDonald, the Wolf of Lochaber. As the Comyns are the most powerful family in the north of Scotland, Margaret is counting on them to come to their aid if they get attacked. Surely they would come. Or is she a throw away in a larger game?

I have to admit that right from the first page, the powerful story in A ROSE IN THE STORM captivated my attention and so I am thrilled to find out that it is the first book in a new Highland Series by best-selling author Brenda Joyce. With her strong research skills and dramatic plot development, her existing and new historical romance fans are sure to love this latest offering from such a master storyteller. Set against the epic and overarching backdrop of a real war between two Kings for the crown of Scotland, Joyce carefully intertwines a romance between two enemies who need to see if they can find a path that gives them their true heart's desire. As the war forces movement between a wide varieties of Scottish locations, it is almost difficult to differentiate between fact and fiction. Then again, as the story is so compelling, why would you want to?

Joyce's characters are also very well depicted and come across as being very realistic in their motivations and instincts, even if their decisions, actions and reactions were not always the purest or for the best. The early 14th century was a turbulent time in Scottish history and Joyce fully captures and embodies in Margaret and others how people of that time would feel about the fast shifting changes in their stalwart loyalties when the time comes for a real choice between an English King (Edward) and foreign Lords and Robert Bruce for the throne, a true Scot, even if he has a bit of scandal in his court.

On a personal note, I fully appreciate Margaret's growing feelings towards Alexander MacDonald, especially as once she get to knows him as I also found the Wolf to be a very appealing and quintessential hero. He is physically strong and powerful, is fully loyal to his role as a warrior to his King and his responsibilities to his Clan; yet, he has depths of kindness and consideration to others. He makes thoughtful and tough decisions for what he levies will be the best for his love for Margaret, his clan and his people.

A ROSE IN THE STORM is an epic tale that fully deserves to be made into a movie as it is so powerfully and vividly told! So, pull up to the hearth with a vessel of wine and slip back in time. You will be glad you did! Enjoy!