Review: Upon A Winter's Night by Pamela Clare

Upon A Winter's Night by Pamela Clare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



To sum it up: The war between Britain and the French is finally at an end, and the MacKinnons are looking forward to celebrating their first peacetime Christmas in five long years. While Iain and Annie have discovered that the pleasures of marriage grow deeper with time, Morgan and Amalie find themselves at bitter odds. Meanwhile, Connor and Sarah have a newborn son to cherish.

The family's preparations for the holidays are interrupted when Iain learns that Britain has not paid the Rangers for the summer's victorious campaigns. Unwilling to let men who fought under the MacKinnon name suffer deprivation at Christmastime, Iain, Morgan, and Connor leave the warmth of their frontier home for Albany. There, they find their happy Christmas, and even their freedom, at risk at the hands of a ruthless British officer who holds a grudge against them.

With the men gone, Annie, Amalie, and Sarah do their best to prepare for the festivities despite differing traditions, a raging bull- And the gnawing fear that their husbands won't make it home in time for Yule...

Where do I even begin? It was so wonderful to hear about the progression of each of these amazing characters lives... It's been too long! The MacKinnon's Rangers series is a favorite of mine, and this little holiday novella was no exception. Kudos to the author Pamela Clare for packing so much story-line into so few pages!

It's near Christmas and the MacKinnon Brothers learn that an injustice has been done to the men who served with them so they embark on a journey to make things right, before making their way back home to spend it with their loved ones on Christmas. ...In doing so they must track down Lord Wentworth to help along the way. I may be the only one with love for Lord Wentworth, but his character has truly grown on me throughout each novel in this series- I've just always shown sympathy for the fairly villainous man. I could actually see Pamela Clare making him become the hero in his own book if she felt the desire... And I really hope she does, because I would love to see what more she could do with his character. I was so happy to read the little bit we could of him in this novella, and I must admit that I only want more now.

I refuse to give anything else away-- You'll just have to read the rest for yourself! All-in-all though, this was definitely a heart-felt and touching tale that was perfect for the holidays. In truth, it felt more like an extended epilogue in my opinion and one I just couldn't get enough of. It picked up right where Defiant left off and some questions are at least semi-answered for the most part, which left me feeling satisfied enough. There aren't too many authors out there who can succeed at writing a compelling yet complete novella, but Pamela Clare definitely did it. ...I will say that I'm literally dying for the next MacKinnon book. ...Will it be revolved around Wentworth or will it be Joseph? Personally, I don't care which, I just want it!

★ PS: I wouldn't recommend reading this short novella if you've yet to read the other three books in this trilogy- It probably wouldn't make much sense to you and it also contains spoilers. Here's a list of the trilogy in order, just in case you feel the need to jump on the MacKinnon's Rangers bandwagon:

-Surrender
-Untamed
-Defiant


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