Review on Mine is the Night by Liz Curtis Higgs

Mine Is the Night: A Novel by Liz Curtis Higgs

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Warning : this book will prove to be hazardous to your laundry pile- as in- “not gonna do it until I finish this book”.



Mine Is the Night: A Novel is a lovely historical fiction romance that takes place in 1746 in Selkirk, Scotland. This book alone can boost the travel industry to Scotland with Higgs beautiful description of the countryside. Mine is the Night is a retelling of the biblical story of Ruth and Naomi set in Scotland in the 18th century. Sounds unique- yes it is- but oh so good!

The Kerr women Elisabeth, and mother-in-law Marjery are two women who are truly at the end of their rope. Both are widows and trying to start over and escape their reputation as being Jacobite rebels. Marjery’s sons, one of them Elisabeth’s husband, both died in a battle at Falkirk, against King George( and for Prince Charlie) making them enemies of the king. Because of this, Elisabeth and Marjery are left in the world with no money, their former titles stripped and with their only hope being a distant cousin Anne to give them a roof over their heads. Unfortunately, Anne is barely scraping by for her own existence, how was she possibly able to take them in? But take them in she does, and Elisabeth, never being afraid of hard work, seeks to make her way and help provide for them by picking up her needle and becoming a seamstress.

Enter our hero and Kinsman redeemer Lord Buchanan who is new to the city of Selkirk and he fortunately is in need of a seamstress to help clothe all the new help in his employ. Elisabeth is just the one he needs, in more ways than one. He is an Admiral for the kings Navy, so when he discovers Elisabeth’s former affiliation with the Jacobites, it paves the way for a few road blocks as his interest in Elisabeth grows. As the story unwinds every character shows much growth, grace and faith to bring the story to it’s lovely and very romantic conclusion.

I will admit that I am a new reader to Liz Curtis Higgs, and having not read Here Burns my Candle, I was still able to follow this book just fine. The storyline just drew me in from page one and the characters were truly wonderfully written and you were rooting for each one as they all had their different challenges that they were facing. The author’s extensive research on both Scotland, as well as the story of Ruth from the Bible truly showed in her writing and the Scottish words thrown in for good measure made the read just that much more authentic and delightful for me. I am more than eager to go back and read the first book in this series as well as her other books set in Scotland. I highly recommend this book!



I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group as part of their BloggingForBooks program. I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions I have expressed are my own.

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