In the end, my Christmas Reading Vacation (henceforth CRV), boiled down to one book – the first volume of D.K. Broster‘s Jacobite Trilogy.

My choice fell on The Flight of the Heron because a stirring adventure in the Highlands seemed like fitting material for Christmas time, and I wasn’t disappointed.

To begin with, The Flight of the Heron is a colourful tale of derring-do, with two very different heroes. In spite of being orphaned at a young age, young laird Ewen Cameron has everything: a loving substitute family, an adoring clan, a lovely and plucky fiancée, an exquisite sense of honour – and he is even uncommonly handsome. He’d be at the risk of being insufferably perfect, if a sense of humour and a boyish touchiness weren’t there to redeem him. Continue reading →