*`Release Blitz: The Wounded Healer by Kelly Ann Scott`*

Title: The Wounded Healer

Series: The Gifted Highlanders, Book 2

Author: Kelly Ann Scott

Genre: Historical Romance

Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Opposites Attract, Fated Love

Release Date: October 6, 2023

War Vs. Peace

The last thing warrior Robert Mackenzie wants is to be known for his gifs as a healer. Determined to escape his past, he joins the rebellion against King James III intent to cause injuries, not cure them. But, instead of fighting, he’s asked to heal wounded men. Worse, he must spy on a suspicious band of travellers—a group that includes a far-too-alluring, peace-loving woman.

Spy Vs. Spy

Heather Gordon is tired of roaming the world with travellers, even if it has kept her safe from an unspeakable threat. She dreams to settle in a land at peace, so when a relative suggests she take a serving wench job to spy on rebels and help avert war, she readily agrees. But she’s unaware of the temptation she’ll face upon meeting a handsome Highlander whom she shouldn’t trust, even if he makes her long for what she’s never had.

Mind Vs. Heart

The more time Robert and Heather spend together, the more their animosity turns to curiosity, then to passion. But ghosts from the past linger, threatening to ruin a fragile connection before love can flourish. Can two wary souls learn to trust and unite against heartless enemies before it’s too late?

Scottish Highlands, 6.5 miles west of Inverness, 11 April 1488

"Deliver me from those who love me," Robert Mackenzie muttered to himself.

He discarded the prayer-like request a moment later because there was no one to address it. God would not understand such a wish. Worse, Satan might misunderstand it.

With a final, needlessly vigorous knot, he secured his belongings to his horse's saddle. Satisfied by the strap's solidity—a must for the long riding days awaiting them—he made one last mental stock of his bundle's content. Clothes? Good. Cotun padded armour and shield? Check. Freshly baked bannocks, cheese, and ale? Aye. And, of most import, his weapons? All there.

What else did a man need to join a rebellion?

His best friend and foster brother, Thomas Macrae, stood by his own mount with arms folded over his chest. "You cannot ignore them much longer, Robbie."

Vexed by the failure of his I'm-too-busy-to-look pretence, he grunted. "I know."

"They have been waiting there for awhile," his dark-haired companion added.

Without glancing, he knew to whom Thomas referred. Mist combined with dawn's pale light to shroud the keep's entrance and distort those standing there to wraiths.

Still, even in the darkest of nights, Robert would have identified those two men.

"God's bones," he mumbled, discarding the vague sense of being caught avoiding a conflict. "Why can't we just head to war in peace? After last evening's feast for our departure, I assumed we could leave quietly this morn."

Thomas shook his head. "They just want to bid you one last farewell. You are lucky to have kith and kin who love you enough to do so."

Comfort warmed Robert's soul. Out of habit, he did not allow it to transform into a smile. "I'm aware of it. But let it never be known."

Kelly Ann’s passport is Canadian, yet her spiritual home is in Scotland. That’s where her soul was born. And that’s only one of the many dualities that makes her a walking contradiction.

She was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces for thirteen years, but she’s a peaceful person who loves nothing more than a romance novel. Couldn’t love be the answer to wars?

Her Maternal language is French, but as she reads mostly in English, she writes in that language. Moreover, it allows her to help other authors if they need snippets from la langue de l’amour.

She teaches pre-hospital care to adults and take the endeavour seriously, but she can be a clown when relaxing—or when teaching; her andragogy style requires some acting skills!

She dislikes the sight of blood and the concept of suffering, but she’s faced with it often since she’s a medical responder for her municipality’s fire department. She also doesn’t mind putting her characters straight into epic physical battles.

There are many other contradictions about her but to know them all, you would need to ask her wonderful husband, William. Hem…. On second thought, do NOT ask him; she’s afraid of what he might tell you!

Joining two specifics, different parts of her character led her to her writing career:

The warrior side of her saw Bosnia Herzegovina’s civil war, fights MS every day, trains hard to stay fit and defies conventions by working in predominantly male environments, either in the fire department where she responds to emergency calls of in the Maritime fields where she teaches.

The poet facet of her dreams of glens and lochs, imagines falcons hunting on desolate moors, devises settings where sea breeze flows and mist lingers, ponders on a time when loyalty was inbred in you, and revels in childhood memories of a beloved father who adored history, Scotland and Ireland. Merci papa, for transmitting that love to me.

Historical romance is her favourite genre so she joined RWA (Romance Writers of America) in 2014 and HHRW (Hearts Through History Romance Writers) shortly after. Her first book, The Blind Seer, finaled in two contests; HHRW’s Romance Through The Ages, and Indiana Romance Writers’ Indiana Golden Opportunity.

Her stories and characters spring from the British Isles in the Medieval era, she loves to ask herself: “What if that historical event happened due to ________?” She then fills in the blank!

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