The Scottish Boy

By: Alex de Campi

Narrated by: Richard Pearce

Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

1333. Edward III is at war with Scotland. Nineteen-year-old Sir Harry de Lyon yearns to prove himself and jumps at the chance when a powerful English baron, William Montagu, invites him on a secret mission with a dozen elite knights.

They ride north, to a crumbling Scottish keep, capturing a feral, half-starved boy within and putting the other inhabitants to the sword.

But nobody knows why the flower of English knighthood snuck over the border to capture a savage, dirty teenage boy. Montagu gives the boy to Harry as his squire, with only two rules: don't let him escape, and convert him to the English cause.

At first, it's hopeless. The Scottish boy is surly and violent and eats anything that isn't nailed down. Then Harry begins to notice things: that, as well as Gaelic, the boy speaks flawless French, with an accent much different from Harry's Norman one. That he can read Latin too. And when Harry finally convinces the boy – Iain mac Maíl Coluim – to cut his filthy curtain of hair, the face revealed is the most beautiful thing Harry has ever seen.

With Iain as his squire, Harry wins tournament after tournament and becomes a favourite of the King. But underneath the pageantry smoulder twin secrets: Harry and Iain's growing passion for each other, and Iain's mysterious heritage. As England hurtles towards war once again, these secrets will destroy everything Harry holds dear.

A sexy, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers historical romance, Alex De Campi delivers a steamy but tender love story. "Brokeback Mountain" meets "50 Shades of Grey" set again the vivid backdrop of Medieval Britain. Perfect for fans of Madeline Miller's Song of Achilles, the novels of C. S. Pacat, and K.J. Charles.

This novel contains explicit sexual content and adult themes.

Alex de Campi is a thriller writer with an extensive backlist of critically-acclaimed prose and graphic novels including Eisner-nominated heist noir Bad Girls (Simon & Schuster). Her most recent books were pulp horror graphic novel Dracula, Motherf**ker (Image Comics), sci-fi thriller Madi: Once Upon A Time in the Future co-written with Duncan Jones (Z2 Comics), and True War Stories, an anthology of soldiers’ deployment tales. She is on most social media as @alexdecampi.

©2022 SAGA Egmont (P)2022 SAGA Egmont

Worth a dozen credits!

I listen to a LOT of audiobooks and rarely write a review. This is one of those books that stand out among the thousands I've listened to. It was so good I never wanted it to end! Use your credit now!!!

gay historic fiction

This book is every spicy and gay. this book has a enemy to lover arc.

Beautiful Heartfelt Writing

Great characters, well written, suspenseful, couldn’t set the book down, Harry’s descriptions, I could see in my mind what he was seeing in telling his story.

The spice is hot and the plot is juicy!

A lot of romance is just p0rn with a vague plot wrapped around it, but not this story! If you took out every s3x scene it would still be a fantastic book. The characters are fun and relatable, the plot is incredibly interesting and immersing, and the spice is perfect 👌🏼

The spicy scenes are all very fluid and believable. Nothing feels forced or like it’s there just to be there like some romances have. I completely and thoroughly enjoyed everything about this title.

The performance loses a star for me because the narrator has a bunch of weird pauses and talks a little slow. I bumped it up to 1.3 speed and it fixed that though lol. Other than that he did an excellent job bringing the characters to life!

Unexpectedly wonderful

I have over 1000 titles in my library. Mostly MM romance. I’ve “read” all varieties in this genre and it’s really getting hard to find ones that really stick with me. This was one that I will remember and come back to for future listens. I personally prefer a sci-fi/paranormal story but I fell in love with both MC’s. The author did such a good job (imo) taking you through their struggles and building their relationship. It’s not a thrill ride or anything, but it’s beautiful and so satisfyingly steamy. Took a few chapters for me to settle in, but it was worth it.

Guilty pleasure

The book is not without its moments of heartbreak, but they only serve to make the tender moments even more profound. Both the Knight and the Scottish boy are shaped by their trials, which makes their relationship, however fraught with difficulty, all the more rewarding to witness.

Very well done

I'm a car listener. I listened to this everywhere. The story is interesting and the narrator's reading added to the experience rather than distracting as some do.

Absolutely astounding!

I’ve got over 60 audiobooks under my belt in this app and I’ve left reviews for only a few. What an a absolute pleasant surprise. On the surface one might call this your “typical” MM romance (with the abundant and very descriptive sex scenes), however it was so much more. The story is phenomenal, steeped in history, the main characters very much well developed, and the pacing riveting. Now, I did notice some similarities to certain famous movies/tv shows that take place during the same time period, but it was mostly just amusing to listen to and fun to recall where I’ve heard certain things before. But as a whole, this is an absolutely refreshing and unique tale that quite honestly had me on the edge of my seat most nights. There were times when I thought certain scenes might veer towards cliche moments, only to leave me breathless when it went in a completely different direction!
The narration was excellent! Richard Pearce contorting his voice for all those characters made the immersion all the more complete. Bravo! 10/10 would recommend. Let’s get this story more reviews and downloads so we can get more like it!

So entertaining I didn’t want it to end!!

The narrator is absolutely brilliant!! The story captured my heart. It’s a fresh, engrossing, powerful romance beset among historical adventure and high political intrigue. Ticked all my boxes, and others I didn’t know I had! I certainly intend to follow both the author and the narrator, especially in the hope that they pair up again.

Glad this is finally an audiobook

I found the story many years ago in a completely different format, when the book was published I bought it as quickly as possible and hard back, and now that I’m finding an audiobook it’s really interesting to feel it coming full circle

The story itself is almost difficult to emotionally Bob and weave through but it’s all worth it in the end, because the adventure is pretty stellar