A Review of Defiant, by Pamela Clare

Defiant is the heart-pounding, keep-you-up-reading-all-night conclusion to Pamela Clare’s brilliant MacKinnon’s Rangers trilogy. They can each be read as standalone books, so you can dive on in!

Setting

The frontier of New York Colony, 1760.

Main Characters

Connor MacKinnon is the youngest of three Scottish brothers who were forced into service to the crown by the detested General, Lord William Wentworth. He falsely accused them of murder, threatening to hang them if any one of them refused to fight. Connor vowed he would one day kill Wentworth, even though he was the King’s grandson.

Lady Sarah Woodville is Wentworth’s niece, exiled from London for a scandal she didn’t create and doesn’t understand, and she is desperate to visit her uncle–the only family member who actually cares for her. But when her ship up the Hudson runs aground, she is captured by the Shawnee, allies to the French.

Romance

Wentworth sends Connor and Joseph, Connor’s Mahican brother and fellow ranger, to rescue Sarah. But she has been taken by a man whose wife was brutally killed by the British. He intends to marry Sarah both to seek revenge and to gain a mother for his children. The only way to stop it is for Connor to challenge him for Sarah’s hand. That means a fight to the death.

Connor wins her, and after maiming her captor, he allows him to live, so his children will still have a father. Sarah is terrified, but trusts Connor and Joseph as they flee the village and make their escape toward Fort Edward.

But she is the King’s great-granddaughter and a lady, and Connor is a Scot, exiled to North America after Culloden, and held under charges of murder. No matter how much they have grown to care for each other, Lord Wentworth would see Connor hang before allowing him to sully his beloved niece.

Plot

Connor is now the leader of MacKinnon’s Rangers and must fight or risk the lives of his brothers. Wentworth will listen to no pleading from Sarah, and takes his wrath out on Connor. But when the campaign moves north, they may all be killed by French allies bent on revenge.

Historical Worldbuilding

As always, Pamela Clare builds a world that immerses you. The wilderness becomes another character, you can hear Connor’s claymore slashing through the air, and you can feel the soft fur lining of the moccasins Connor gives Sarah to protect her raw feet. Much of the history is real, but not a word of it feels like a history lesson. And Clare captures the tensions and searing realities of frontier life in 1760 and drops you right into it. This book will transport you.

British Regulars marching out the main gate at Fort Ticonderoga.

Tropes

This story is very much focused on the protector trope, and somehow, Clare in her artistry manages to pull off forced marriage, fake marriage, and hidden marriage all in one relationship. It is so juicy!

Secondary Characters

Joseph, the MacKinnon’s Mahican brother, plays a much larger role in this story than in the earlier books, and I really hope that Clare picks this series up again with a book for him. He has earned it! Wentworth and Lieutenant Cooke are again stalwarts and intricately drawn. Even some of the rangers have carried through the series and feel like old friends.

Point of View

This is written in third person, and alternates between Connor’s and Sarah’s points of view, with a few scenes in Wentworth’s point of view.

In Summary

• This is a pulse-pounding, steamy historical romance, with life-and-death stakes in the middle of the French and Indian War/Seven Years War.
• It is set in colonial New York, in and around Fort Edward, in 1760.
• Connor and Sarah are from two different worlds, but are clearly made for each other. They will need to risk everything to get their happily ever after!
• Pamela Clare drops you right into the historical moment, and you find yourself racing through the wilderness with the characters, and dodging bullets and axes as you go.
• The tropes are protector and forced/fake/hidden marriage all in one!
• The heat level is a solid 3 out of 5, maybe 3.5. There is explicit sex on the page.
• This takes place in the middle of a frontier war, where lives are constantly on the line, so there is violence and there are threats of sexual violence.

Keep them Coming!

I’ve been pacing myself on this trilogy because I wanted to make it last as long as possible. But this is book three of three, so I am now looking for more reading suggestions. Please email me or post in the comments below with suggestions for other titles to check out!

Love historical romance? My latest novel, Passion’s Duty, is also set during the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War (also known as the French & Indian War). That is the war that laid the foundation for the American Revolution. We are embarking on the 250th anniversary of the Revolution, so this is the perfect time to read it. Be sure to check it out!

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Photo credit: Lizzie Jenks

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