The Blood and the Barley (The Strathavon Saga Book 2)

Description

A Scottish Historical Saga. A Tale of kinship and Love, Loyalty and Betrayal.

A Discovered Diamond and winner of Book of the Year 2018 at Discovering Diamonds (independent reviews of the best in historical fiction).
Winner of a Chill With A Book Reader’s Award.
A B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree (Book Readers Appreciation Group).

The North-Eastern Highlands, 1780. The disaster of the last Jacobite Rising has forced momentous changes on the Highlands and its people. Torn from an ancient clan way of life into a harsh world of taxes, rent rises, land reforms, and evictions, the proud folk of Strathavon struggle to survive. Still rooted in their Highland traditions and superstitions, whisky smuggling is their only hope.

Morven MacRae treads a perilous path—smuggler and healer, apprentice to a suspected witch. Her friend and guide Rowena is singled out for special attention by the authorities, particularly the local exciseman, who wants her for his wife. When Rowena’s kinsman Jamie Innes returns to the glen of his birth, Morven prays he’ll protect her friend.

Only Jamie’s path is riskier still. Torn between honor and love, he chooses a dangerous course, driven by loyalty to his kin and by a desire to belong—potent qualities. Morven is soon drawn to him. But when it becomes apparent there’s a traitor in their midst, his true motives are less clear. Can she trust him? This is a mystical land of lore and superstition. Here loyalties are tested, and secrets kept close . . .

A fascinating tale of a lost way of life and a poignant love story.

“This novel is beautifully written and thoroughly researched.” —Historical Novel Society.

“. . . written through and through only as a Scot can do.” —Amazon Reviewer.

“The author’s description of the Highlands is so evocative one can almost feel the texture of the heather. MacRae conjures a mystical land of crags and burns, where belief in the old ways still hold and are made plausible by its isolation from what Wordsworth described as the ‘getting and spending’ of everyday life. This is a well-told tale, and I’d love it to become a saga along Poldark line.” —J.G. Harlond, historical fiction, award-winning author.