My Review of Highland Sanctuary by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

Highland Sanctuary is my first book to read by Jennifer Taylor, although she has authored other books. For some reason, it felt like the story was a little hard for me to get interested in until about 1/4 of the way through and it seemed to pick up. Also, I realize that the author was writing the dialogue as the characters would have spoken, however, for me personally, I felt that I had to read slower to make sure I was getting the meaning of what they were saying. For example, the characters would say, "ye" instead of "you", or "mither" instead of "mother." I felt that this was somewhat distracting for me, but I think it is more of a personal preference and I appreciate that the author took the time to write the words as they would have been spoken.
Highland Sanctuary is a historical romance set in Scotland. Serena Boyd and her mother, Evelina, live in the Village of Outcasts. Serena suffers from the "falling disease" and her mother seeks to protect her because many people with the falling disease are thought to be witches or demon possessed, which often leads to the fate of being burned at the stake. Therefore, they seek to keep Serena's seizures a secret and live a fairly secluded life.
Gavin MacKenzie comes to restore the Castle of Braigh, where Serena works and is instantly captivated by her. He does not understand why she hesitates in trusting him. She is aware of Gavin's feelings for her, but feels that if he were to know the truth about her seizures that he would think she was evil and would not love her. So she would rather guard her heart and keep him at a distance, even though she loves him as well.
The Village of Outcasts is being attacked by some unknown person. The Village of Outcasts is a group of people who are different from the rest of society, but they love each other and are good people, so they don't know why someone is choosing to harm the people of the village. Gavin MacKenzie and his men are doing their best to find out who is behind the attacks. As the story unfolds, we discover that the Village of Outcasts share a secret as well.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. Despite the slow start and "ye's" that distracted me, I was interested in the story and it had several twists that I did not expect. I would be excited to read more books by Jennifer Hudson Taylor and would definitely suggest this one to the lovers of historical romance and fiction.
I was provided with a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for my review, but was not compensated or obligated to provide a positive review.