What Happens in the Highlands bounces a healer off of a marquess and sees what sticks. The adventure is entertaining, the Georgian take on herbal healing fun, but a cliffhanger ending leaves the reader yearning for more.

Smugglers are trying to make use of the isolated island home of Freya, Catriona “Cat” and Sorcha MacLeod. The contrabandist believe that the sister’s notorious smuggler father, Rory, has secreted ill-gotten treasures within the walls of the family keep, specifically a fortune in Louis d’Or coins. But the girls don’t believe it exists and are in fact running out of money fast. They repel each attack using a variety of skills, which begins to lead to rumors in town that the girls practice witchcraft. The rumors are not helped by Cat, the family medicine woman, who locks herself up and away in a lab making maidenhair syrup and other healing concoctions to keep them financially afloat. Cat continues to sell syrup in town in spite of the unfriendly way they’re treated due to the witchcraft rumors. They mainly stick to Castle Cairncross, their home keep, and try to stay quiet while contemplating abandoning the keep for their own safety.

Lord Hamish Muir, the Marquess of Ballantyne, has been looking for the sisters for some time. His father, Archie, was Rory’s business partner, and Rory promised him his share of the treasure from his last trip abroad. Because he’s the hero of this book, Hamish’s reason for wanting his da’s part of the treasure aren’t selfish – he wants to give his tithe to the Scottish cause, which was his own father’s last wish. His cousins had been previously defeated by Cat and her sisters, but he won’t be similarly dissuaded. Hamish follows Cat home from her syrup delivery and manages to accidentally poison himself with monkshood. Cat takes him back to Castle Cairncross, where she nurses him back to health.

Cat continues to insist the treasure doesn’t exist, and Hamish refuses to believe her. They strike up a deal; she’ll try to translate the mysterious code left behind by Rory which might lead them to the treasure while he gives the sisters protection from other privateers and allows Cat to participate in the investigation. Naturally, romance ensues. But will the treasure be theirs?

What Happens in the Highlands is a fine historical romance. It has plenty of rivals-to-lovers energy and the mystery is pretty well absorbing. Hamish is one of those heroes who starts out as an arrogant ahole who gets humbled, while Cat is shaken free from her duty-bound ways to have an adventure of her own. The romance has heat, and it’s all entertaining enough to make a passable afternoon’s entertainment. But everything the book does has been done before by authors who gave the material a more creative twist. It’s a comforting if routine book – the hate will turn to love, Cat will find her worth, Hamish will find his honor.

What also drags the grade down is that the book ends on a big cliffhanger:

As if you couldn’t tell from the three sisters + three friends conceit, the main plot probably won’t be solved for two more books, so those who don’t like waiting for things to be properly solved probably won’t want to read this book and then wait for book #2 in the series. For those who don’t mind jumping in early – and don’t mind a bit of the same-old-same-old – then there are worse ways to spend your time than with What Happens in the Highlands.