Title: The Highlander’s Holiday Wife (Clan Kendrick #5)

Author: Vanessa Kelly

Publisher: Zebra 2022

Genre: Romance

Pages: 426

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

It’s Christmastime in Edinburgh, but Lady Samantha Penwith’s secret mission takes no holiday: the Highlands-born lass vows to find the assailants who murdered her beloved husband, founder of a charitable school for orphaned boys. On her latest undercover excursion, she closes in on a pair of armed attackers and interrupts another assault, then disappears into the darkness, leaving the lone victim mystified—and lucky to be alive . . .

Braden Kendrick may be the sensible brother, yet the dedicated doctor routinely ignores the dangers of his late-night calls to the city’s slums. But when a fleet-footed rescuer saves his life, he’s determined to uncover the stranger’s identity. And once he does, he’ll find himself facing his own past loss for the first time—and more than willing to risk his heart again, just in time to make the Clan Kendrick’s Christmas celebrations more festive than ever . . .

Not super focused on Christmas, but a very enjoyable historical romance. We finally get to see more of Braden Kendrick after being teased for four books. I had been hoping that he wouldn’t just be the quiet doctor. Thankfully, we get much more from him and from Samantha. I loved the big mystery and action sequences within this story. It helped to fill in the gaps and give the book much more. I loved piecing together the mystery along with Braden and Samantha. My biggest complaint is that this volume is very light on the steamy scenes. In fact, they were practically nonexistent. Much more of a closed door romance in this one. Still it was a good light book to end my year with.

Clan Kendrick

Next up on the TBR pile: