"A Powerful Scottish Historical Romance"

Set in England during the reign of King Henry II (father of Richard the Lionheart) BORN IN SIN continues Kinley MacGregor's saga of the MacAllister brothers.

Sin MacAllister, bastard son of the Laird, has been spurned and rejected his entire life. His mother hated him from the moment of his birth, and his Scottish father and stepmother completely rejected him. He was fostered to an abusive knight who sold him into slavery to the Saracens. His Moslem masters beat and starved him, and turned him into an assassin. Little more than a child, he was sent to murder King Henry when the King was in the Holy Land. But Sin decided to petition Henry for his freedom, and Henry brought the young man back to England with him. Sin owes King Henry his loyalty, allegiance and honor.

For twelve years Sin has served only King Henry. He is feared and hated by Henry's court, because he will do whatever Henry needs done. But when Henry wants him to marry Caledonia MacNeely, a hostage from a troublesome Highland clan, he balks. Henry wants him to take Callie back to her clan and discover the identity of an unknown raider attacking the English.

Callie doesn't intend to marry the man she thinks is an Englishman. She wants to escape and return home. But somehow all of her carefully planned attempts have been thwarted by the forbidding, dispassionate knight. When Sin protects her young brother Jamie from some of Henry's knights, she begins to see beneath Sin's fierce, hard exterior to the damaged, hurting soul underneath.

BORN IN SIN has a fast-paced plot that is character driven. Sin is a hero to die for. His blend of strength and vulnerability can't help but appeal. Callie is a strong, smart and sensitive heroine who is totally believable. The historical setting is rich, and the secondary characters well-drawn and strong. But it is Sin himself who is the draw in this story. I couldn't put BORN IN SIN down once I had started reading.

Reviewed by Cynthia Meidinger
Posted November 22, 2002