The story puts a Celtic twist on the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.  I gave the story’s heroine, Cara MacKinnon, seven benevolent human ‘Giants’, the MacKinven brothers, to serve as friends and clansmen — and occasional comic relief. A tragic reversal of fortune compels Cara, our first HIGHLAND HEIRESS and one mere woman, to take up the role of would-be laird for her father’s seaside Highland estate. Who better than a bunch of brawn men in kilts to stand as allies at her back?

But make no mistake; even in Regency-era Scotland, Cara counts herself any man’s equal. She means to prove it, but must draw on every bit of wit and will to hold the remnants of her clan together through difficult times. The legend of a true Scottish giant, Benandonner, sets the back-drop for a deadly mystery and, too, reveals a surprising clue to a threat that’s slowly entangling up Dunamor Castle, her family’s ancestral home.

In the end, it’s not just myths or monsters that Cara must contend with. The devil comes to Dunamor in the guise of one stunning, arrogant English lord. The sea spills Lord Nicholas Weston onto Cara’s shore and into her life, and leads her to a place as frightening yet compelling as any quest into a giant’s uncharted lands.

But then, when it comes to any journey of the heart, the warning here be giants or monsters … or devils is nothing to dissuade the truest soul.

In the most civilized of times, the Scottish Highlands can guard dark secrets. The remnants of an ancient clan feud has left the Gregor laird dead at the hands of his MacLaren rival. Cailan Gregor, brother of the late laird, is called on to avenge his family’s honor – by duel or by the more heathenish methods of older days. But Cailan knows a dangerous truth: the MacLaren earl might not be the Gregor’ real enemy. Betrayal may have sprung up from within. The impoverished MacLaren earl keeps a secret that could shatter two families…if left in the hands of a less principled man. And Cailan knows that Iona, MacLaren’s spirited sister, may be the one woman he could crave in his life and in his bed, if the hatred of two clans did not stand between them — and if Cailan’s future did not deny this secret heiress the truth of her own legacy.

In a test of lust and honor, allegiance and ancient bonds, Cailan find it’s the heart that may be asked to give the greatest sacrifice — and star-crossed passion that can lead the strongest man to his downfall.

Read about Book One, HEIRESS OF SCANDAL, or Book Two, HEIRESS OF SEDUCTION.

Kendrick MacLaren, the new Earl of Calechcraig, returns from a civilized life in London to a Highland threat: An ancient feud with the neighboring Gregor clan has brewed to a boiling point. Kendrick is no stranger to the conflict. Five years before, the Gregor laird stole Kendrick’s lover, his future and nearly his life. Kendrick is haunted by memories of a dead woman and her unborn babe. Now fate lands an unexpected boon on Kendrick’s doorstep in the form of Christiane MacKinnon, Gregor’s intended bride. In a rash act of vengeance as barbarous as any his forbearers hatched, Kendrick abducts the woman and holds her at Calechcraig Castle, intent on seducing her affections and denying his rival everything the man most craves.

But Kendrick didn’t expect Gregor’s betrothed to be a rare, strong-willed beauty. He never imagined the woman might seduce away his heart. And he did not prepare himself, that his reckless scheme would unlock old and deadly secrets, of the true hazard to any woman destined to be a Gregor bride.

Read about Book One, HEIRESS OF SCANDAL, or Book Three, HEIRESS OF DESIRE.

2009 Golden Heart Finalist (formerly titled Highland Honor)

Scotland 1818.   Cara MacKinnon, a lass with the heart of a laird, intends to restore her family’s past glory to overcome a haunting guilt. She’s certain her clan’s fall from fortune is her fault. One devil of an Englishman, Lord Nicholas Weston, claims the means to aid her, yet he guards a dark secret: the true cause of the MacKinnons’ downfall did not start at Cara’s hands, but his.

When one scandalous act forces a wedding between them and passions ignite, Cara learns she must fear for more than the MacKinnons’ salvation. She’ll have to guard against the ruin of her traitorous heart.

Read about Book Two, HEIRESS OF SEDUCTION, or Book Three, HEIRESS OF DESIRE.

Is the woman in the painting admiring her face in the mirror? Or have we caught her in a moment of deeper soul searching?

What do you see?

Book Two, HEIRESS OF SEDUCTION, is a Beauty and the Beast tale of love and retribution in the Regency-era Highlands. Christiane MacKinnon, our heroine and the second of the HIGHLAND HEIRESSES, is considered an incomparable beauty, but she’s never put much store in such things. She’s no woman to sit around looking in a mirror. Suitor after suitor has pursued her, never peering deeper than her face and rumored wealth. She’s damn well grown tired of the attention. For all that, Regency-era conventions reach even to the Highlands when you’re the daughter of a laird. Christiane sees little recourse but to marry. She has no illusions she’ll find a love match.

Enter Kendrick MacLaren, the earl of Calechcraig, a man like no other she’s met. He has a way of looking at her as if to pierce beneath her skin. Christiane begins to unlock the truths of his guarded past. She finds wounds she hadn’t imagined — physical wounds and scars deeper still — and a sensuous spiral of passion that he initiates, then seems hell-bent to end as soon as desire becomes a two way seduction. In such a moment, any woman might seek out a mirror to show her what’s locked in her heart. . . as surely as she could hope it might reveal what’s locked in his.

~ Jenna