New York Times bestselling author Julia London breathes passion back into the life of Scottish highlander Rabbie Mackenzie in the nick of time. When the reader first sees Rabbie, he is forlorn at the loss of his lover, forced into an arranged engagement to an English woman to save his clan and contemplating suicide at the edge of a cliff.

"HARD-HEARTED HIGHLANDER weaves a romance that becomes as precious to Rabbie as the plaid Scottish kilt he proudly wears."

What he doesn’t expect is the sudden appearance in his life of his fiancé, Avaline’s English-born governess Bernadette Holly. Contrary to the naïve wallflower he is expected to marry, Bernadette challenges his sour mood with Avaline and begs him to treat her with the respect an intended bride deserves.

The reader is drawn into the realities of arranged marriages at a time when creating alliances between families was more important than love between the match. Illicit affairs were rampant and mistresses were the norm. Even worse, if a young woman fell in love with someone other than the person her family arranged her to marry, she was ruined. Thus we learn of Bernadette’s ill-fated elopement that cost her reputation and thrust her into the role of governess and barren widow.

HARD-HEARTED HIGHLANDER weaves a romance that becomes as precious to Rabbie as the plaid Scottish kilt he proudly wears. When a “fire-breathing dragon Scot” and a spirited but grieving woman spar again and again, Rabbie realizes that Bernadette has brought him back to life and she finds herself falling in love with the wrong man again. The twists and turns of how to cry off the arranged marriage, preserve the future of his family lands, and build a new life that includes his passion for Bernadette are what make London’s historical romance a great escape.