3.5 stars 
 While slow to finish I enjoyed this book. Wasn't a fav but great story. But there were things that kept standing out for me. Glaringly. 
 It's safe to say that there is a repetitive pattern that McCarty likes to use throughout most of her books. I generally don't like books that are clone copy of each other in plot and action and dialogue only difference being the characters (with seemingly similar characteristics). I've noticed this after reading a few of her books and have given her a pass but now while reading this series it's really starting to wear thin and just become plain predictable and stale. Unless something changes through this series it will lose steam fast. I usually fall for the love story or heroes she writes cause they are melt-worthy but in this I had to fight to stay interested. 
 The repetitive dialogue is what stands out the most and makes me wish she would do something different. While I adore her attention to detail and historical facts and descriptions there's only so much of that that can interest me. The maidenly gasps and 'g-d how she wants him!' and the constant back and forth torture wheel of 'does he or doesn't he? How could she have thought differently?!' repetitive inner dialogues just started to grate my nerves. I've seen it every one of her books but in this it made me cringe and I found it annoying rather then interesting. I don't know maybe it was the wrong time to read it but I did go into this in the mood for some highlander love and adventure and no one does it better then MM in my opinion. She gives you the whole package and then some. It's one of the reasons why I've glossed over and given her a free pass for the predictable sometimes cheesey dialogue because her characters have so much heart and are real and the story and time settings are wonderful. But here I just didn't feel much for the pairing. Lauchlan interested me from the beginning with his cold disposition and Viper nick name. Bella was a rootable heroine, I liked her enough but the plot in this and overall story was just boring and didn't grab me. Which really says something considering the major trials the pair goes through throughout this book, Bella in particular. I kept trying to get into the story and the pairing and their angst but I just got....nothing from it, which sucks. :( 
 If I had a penny for everytime I read this line: 'She thought what they had was special' in this story I would be rich. Enough! Quite with the unnecessary repetitive dialogue. The thing that seriously drove me nuts and this is a major habit McCarty, is the heroine's penchant for contradictory somewhat wishy washy thought process in regards to the hero. He's a brigade one minute, thoughtless and cold hearted who she wants to be rid of, but wait no, he cares for her ...praises! On second thought, she's better off without him. She's just a obligation to him, he doesn't care for her at all. Hopes and dreams crushed. This continuous back and forth endless inner dialogue with the constant yes! NO! can get really tiring and damn annoying. It just drags the story out. It kept going on and on and on. It's like pulling teeth and I know why McCarty does it, it's for dramatic angst and tension but really once it goes on for pages the same thing over and over again to the point where you aren't SURE how the heroine really feels about the hero cause she sounds so damn confused and contradicts herself every other minute with all the back and forth then it just takes away from actually enjoying the story. It just gets really boring and really predictable real fast. I've had this issue before with running into the same argument or dialogue where the h/hr get into it about their feelings or not trusting the other, they kiss or make up everything is settled then a few chapters later are confronted again with SAME questions acting oblivious like they have no clue how the other feels or this conversation was never brought up before. Huh? It's not only repetitive but confusing. It's a total deja vu 'didn't we just go through this 10 pages back?' moment for me. And it happened more than once in here. 
 I think I get the picture McCarty. Please for the love of g-d move on. Spare your readers and your characters the continuous torture. 
 If it wasn't for the surprisingly sweet and charming epilogue at the end I would have given up all together. I really wanted to enjoy this as much as I did some of her other work but it just wasn't grabbing me. And I'm really hoping that teaser at the end was more of a hint and not my wishful thinking to a possible future pairing?? I really hope so. The first encounter or I should say 'meeting' of this character with a certain guard was really telling and stood out to me. I hope McCarty takes it somewhere. *fingers crossed*