Rating: 3/5

What It’s About:

Isla Findlay belongs nowhere. The daughter of a disgraced woman and the Highlander who abandoned them both, she tries to be a dutiful niece to the uncle who has taken her in, blending into the village as best she can. But when a young Highlander’s arrival in the area coincides with an outbreak of dreaded smallpox, it stirs up questions about Isla’s past and forces a confrontation between the beliefs she holds and the community she wants to belong to. 

Dr. Graeme MacNeill killed the only patient he ever had: his own father. The only way he can think to atone is to cut all ties from the Lowland world his father hated—including his education as a physician—and embrace the Highland heritage he used to be ashamed of. He travels to Craigmuir to sell the unwanted estate he has inherited from an uncle and return home, but fate—and the red-headed young woman he encounters in the village—have no intention of letting him leave things so easily behind.

Goodreads

The Review

Of Lands High and Low was a nice respite from the past couple of books I’ve read. The story was engaging but easy on the mind. It reminded me alot of the same kind of feels when I used to watch When Calls the Heart tv series. With the setting in 1794 Scotland, I was introduced to many new things about Scottish culture, politics and religion. I liked that this book also included history of medicine aspect to it as well, which I always love. The small pox outbreak, variolation, and treatments of the time was intriguing.

There was a good amount of drama with the characters in the story. Graeme and Isla’s Highland heritage and belief systems created alot of tension and conflicts with the people in the village. The romance in the story was well developed and sweet. The scenes are all clean but still swoon worthy. The book also has quite a bit of discussion about God, religion, and medical treatments. I really enjoyed seeing the clash between the two sides that were for or against variolation.

The only negative for me was that the angst and inner battles each of the two main characters was repetitive. It frustrated me a bit that the author kept bringing them up time after time, but I was able to get through it by skimming.

Final Thoughts

This book was a breath of fresh air and I read through it quickly. There was a pleasing mix of drama, romance, and conflict. The characters were well developed and their (good and bad) interactions with each other was entertaining. Readers who enjoy light/clean romance or historical romance would most likely have a good time reading this book. I had such a nice experience reading Of Lands High and Low that I bought another one of the authors books, The Widow and the Highlander, to read in the future.

Have you read this book? I’d love to hear what you thought.