1 star - Forbidden Highlander by Donna Grant (Dark World #2)

CW: explicit rape, ableism, sexism, gaslighting, abuse, exaggerated nationalism.

Remember how I seemed to recall the second Dark World novel being better than the first? Yeah, I was very mistaken on that part. I cannot explain how Forbidden Highlander is simultaneously worse and better than Dangerous Highlander, but I swear that’s the truth.

Where to begin? This book has a strange structure: all the excitement is packed in the front of the story with sexual tension getting resolved almost immediately, then the middle drags on for an eternity. I found myself skimming at multiple points, because the two main characters have the emotional maturity of prepubescent teens. The conflict wasn’t as much a conflict as it was two people being dumb and not properly communicating. The fact that most internal monologues are excuses for elaborate exposition dumps didn’t help. Add on to that the repetitive humorous beats (Galen’s appetite’s) and the repeated use of ‘bitch’ to describe the flat-as-hell villain, and you have a recipe for lazy writing. These are just the hallmarks of an unexperienced writer though, as I recognize many of these techniques and tropes from weaker fanfiction authors.

From 2021 perspective, there were some elements that I cannot be so forgiving towards. First up is the rape scene between Deirdre and Quinn, which happens while the latter is unconscious. The entire scene is handled as any other sex scene, something to get excited about and enjoy, but it genuinely made me feel sick. I cannot even give it credit that it depicts a man in the less conventional role of victim, it’s simply handled with nothing of the gravitas it deserves. Equating rape to female empowerment is also really iffy and does nothing to deepen Deirdre’s characterisation.

Next up is the blatant ableism displayed by the characters towards physical disabilities and mental disorders. I think the author tried to capture some of the historical attitude in her depiction, but she wraps it in such tacky highland nationalism that it registers as extremely unsympathetic.

Last complaint is about a secondary couple (Anice and Broc) in which the latter one admits to basically gaslighting the former because he has the hots for her sister. Not to mention that our main couple also flirts with themes of possessiveness, abuse and sexism. Hardly any encounter felt sexy to me.

Finally, it wouldn’t be a Dark World book without me having some editing nitpicks. Some words were squished together without proper spacing, names were being misspelled (pretty sure Naill is supposed to be Niall), and there were no proper scene breaks in the POV switches. The switches in itself were enough to give a reader whiplash and gave the entire story a very disorganized appearance.

There it is. I’m done complaining. I need a few months to get over this one before I tackle the next one.

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