If you like your history light, your characters amusing, and a nice story to just put a smile on your face, then you’ll enjoy the latest offering by Kinley MacGregor.

Tired of watching their husbands, sons, and brothers die in a feud between their clans, the women of the MacAllisters and the MacDouglases have revolted. They are refusing to cook, clean, or warm their husbands’ beds until the lairds make peace. Easier said than done. Robby MacDouglas wants Ewan MacAllister’s head on a platter for running off with his betrothed years earlier. The MacAllister laird, Lochlan, refuses to hand over his brother. So both clans are in a state of misery without their women.

This is the state of affairs Braden and (his half-brother) Sin MacAllister find when they return home from England. Braden, with a reputation for charming the ladies, has a plan: he’ll seduce the ringleader, Maggie ingen Blar, into submission and get the women home. But when he arrives where the women are staying, Maggie knows what he’s up to from the get-go. She won’t have any of it, no matter how nice he is, or charming, or gorgeous. Then one of the men tries to forcibly take his wife back. Braden intervenes and wedges himself into the women’s good graces by agreeing to stay and act as their protector. The situation is complicated when Lochlan realizes what his baby brother is up to and tells Braden he has two days to bring the women around or he’ll let the men drag their women home by force.

Unfortunately this stalemate goes from bad to worse. The rest of the clan, knowing Braden’s reputation, fear he’ll bed their wives. They take Lochlan captive and tell Braden he has four days to bring the women around or they’ll kill his brother and appoint a new laird. Braden tries to talk Maggie out of her quest – yes peace is a good idea, but it’s not going to happen until the MacDouglas changes his mind. So Maggie decides to go and speak with MacDouglas’s wife to see if she has any sway with her husband. Since it isn’t safe, Braden and Sin agree to escort Maggie and hope that MacDouglas can be convinced to end the feud. If not, Braden and Sin plan to take matters into their own hands.

We are told that Braden has never met a woman he didn’t like, but a more accurate description would be that he has never met a woman who didn’t like him. Braden doesn’t think it unusual that women pursue him or mob him – it’s always been that way. He’s adorably clueless as to the reason – he thinks it’s because of his looks, when really it’s his natural charm and flirting. He makes every woman around him feel special. You might think he’d let this go to his head and be a total rake, and that’s pretty much true, but he isn’t inconsiderate. He’s watched his brothers’ lives ruined by women, yet that doesn’t lead him to think all women are evil. He treats them with kindness, even when they’re not kind to him.

Maggie has been in love with Braden since she was seven years old, but unlike other women doesn’t throw herself at him. She was a bit rough on him growing up, setting his bed on fire and kneeing him the groin, but for the most part she gave him his space. Now that he’s turned his charm on her full force she finds him hard to resist. During their travels she’s the one who makes the observation that it’s not Braden who paws women, but the other way around. She is embarrassed to find herself practically doing it, too. Maggie’s one flaw is she doesn’t see her own beauty. So it takes her bit to realize Braden could like her for herself.

The cast is rounded out by the clan members and Braden’s three brothers, especially his older brother Sin (who fortunately is going to get a book of his own next year). MacGregor has created a group of people, who while not perfect, care deeply for one another. Even when they bicker the love they have for one another shows through. Overall I just felt a sense of warmth and caring amongst the characters that really helped me enjoy this book.

In Claiming the Highlander, MacGregor has created a romantic historical about two people who have known one another their whole lives, falling in love as adults. It’s charming and funny, and if you don’t require a heavy historical backdrop you should like it as much as I did.