This book is basically a hug in audiobook form, and I am not ashamed to say I needed it.
I started Devil of Dunakin Castle during one of Sophie's rare two-hour naps — the kind where you tiptoe away from the crib like you're defusing a bomb — and finished it three days later sitting in my car in the garage with the seat reclined and a lukewarm coffee I'd reheated twice. Peak mom luxury.
A Grumpy Highlander and a Woman Who Won't Stay Rescued
So here's the setup: Grace Ellington, an Englishwoman living in Scotland, is basically running away from everyone trying to marry her off (relatable energy, honestly — just swap "marry" for "sign up for the PTA fundraiser committee"). She volunteers to travel north to help a friend give birth, gets caught in a Highland blizzard, and ends up saving the life of Keir MacKinnon — a man who's been raised to be his clan's executioner. Literal job title: terrifying people.
But Grace doesn't stay the damsel. That's what kept me coming back between toddler interruptions. She goes from scared and freezing in a snowstorm to standing up to an entire castle full of warriors, and there's this moment where she's healing Keir's sick nephew Lachlan that genuinely got me. She's using every bit of her knowledge, Keir is watching her with this mix of hope and terror, and I just — yeah. I was sitting at school pickup with my sunglasses on for reasons.
Made me cry at school pickup. Worth it though.
Keir himself is a great slow-burn hero. He's all intimidation and brooding silence, but McCollum keeps dropping these small cracks — the way he handles his nephew, the moments where Grace catches him being gentle when he thinks no one's watching. It's not groundbreaking, but sometimes you don't need groundbreaking. Sometimes you need a giant Scottish man with a tortured soul learning to be soft. That slow unraveling of a hard man is exactly what made me fall so hard for Outlander too — that particular flavor of brooding Highlander with feelings he absolutely did not ask for.
Tim Campbell Earned That Scottish Accent
Okay, let's talk about Tim Campbell, because this man is doing WORK. His voice for Keir is this deep, rumbling Scottish thing that honestly made me forget I was parked in a Honda Odyssey surrounded by goldfish cracker crumbs. The accent is consistent and convincing, and here's what impressed me most — his female voice for Grace doesn't make me cringe. Male narrators doing women's voices is usually my biggest pet peeve (it often sounds like someone's aunt doing a bit at Thanksgiving), but Campbell pulls off something passable and actually distinct. Grace sounds lighter, determined, a little wry. Keir sounds like a mountain that learned to talk.
The emotional transitions are where he really earns it. There's a scene where Keir goes from threatening mode to this quiet vulnerability after the blizzard rescue, and Campbell shifts without it feeling forced. Single narrator, no sound effects, no music — just the voice doing everything. Clean production, nothing distracting.
The Stuff That Made Me Side-Eye a Little
Look, I have to be honest. There are moments where the dialogue feels weirdly modern for a Highland historical. Grace will say something that sounds more like me arguing with the cable company than a 17th-century woman, and it pulled me out a couple of times. Not a dealbreaker, but noticeable.
Also — and this is a content thing, not a narration thing — the bedroom scenes are long. Like, longer than they need to be. I'm not anti-spice, but when you're listening at 1.25x in a school parking lot and another mom knocks on your window to ask about the bake sale, the timing gets... awkward. Just a heads up.
Pacing drags slightly in the middle section. There's a stretch where the castle politics and setup slow things down before the story picks back up. Survived 47 pauses and still made sense, but I did lose the thread once during that middle bit and had to rewind.
This is book 4 in the Highland Isles series, but I jumped in cold and followed everything fine. No character wiki required.
Who Gets the Car Time
If you love Highland romance with a grumpy-hero-meets-stubborn-heroine dynamic, this is your book. If forced proximity is your trope (he literally takes her to his castle against her will, so... yeah), you'll eat this up. At under 7 hours, it's a week-or-less listen for those of us stealing time in 25-minute chunks.
Skip if: modern dialogue in historicals drives you crazy, or if you want something with less explicit content. The spice is definitely there.
Stashing This One in My Comfort Pile
Satisfying ending — exactly what I needed. Not every book has to change my life. Some just have to get me through the week with a little warmth and a Scottish accent rumbling in my earbuds while I fold tiny socks. This one did that beautifully. My book club will love this (if I ever have time for book club again).
