Review: Among the Heather by Samantha Young

Among the Heather by Samantha Young
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided both an audio and print ARC of this book via the author, all opinions are my own. The narrators were fantastic! You can't go wrong with either either format. I find Samantha's books hard to put down no matter what form they come in and this book was no different.

This is book 2 in the The Highlands series, a spinoff of The Adair Family series. It does however read as a standalone. If you have read the previous book in this series, you will have met our main characters North and Aria and you will know that there is something between them. What you don't know is why they rub each other the wrong way. If you haven't met them yet, don't worry, each book in the series is a complete standalone and works as a companion to the other novels with the familiar setting of the Ardnoch Estate and the Scottish Highlands as a background and familiar characters that we've met in other novels that have their own novels and some characters that may be main characters in the future.

Aria Howard runs Ardnoch Estate, an exclusive members only club for celebrities to escape when they need a break from the public eye. She is daughter of a supermodel and Hollywood director, so she is well aware of the lifestyle patrons of the estate live and want to escape for a time. After several bad relationships with actors, she has vowed to never date another actor again. Enter North Hunter, a successful Scottish actor who has recently gotten some bad press for something that happened when he was a teenager. Hollywood and the media immediately judge him guilty without all of the facts, so he hides out in Ardnoch until he is ready to make a statement and deal with the fallout. Aria is immediately attracted to him, which makes her blood boil, so she is uncharacteristically judgmental and mean to him at every turn. This is more about her insecurities than North himself, so when her little sister intervenes and forces them to talk to one another, Aria finally lets her guard down a little and gets to know him a bit. Turns out he isn't like the other men she's dated in the past and might just be worth breaking down the walls she's constructed. North is patient, kind, and willing to go at her pace to make things work but at every turn external forces are determined to undermine what they are building.

This like the other books was great! It had a ton of emotion between the two main characters and great character development. This also has a good level of spice when the time comes, so if you are reading out and about or listening to the audiobook beware it is NSFW at times. Aria has alot of trauma to work through with past relationships and insecurity about her body. With North's help she slowly regains confidence in her appearance, trust in her relationship with him and her family, and confidence in herself. Like the other books this has a bit of a suspense subplot for each of our characters.

Overall, I really enjoyed North and Aria and cannot wait for Theo and Sarah's book out in February.

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