Beyond the Thistles

Beyond the Thistles The Highlands Series Book One Samantha Young Beyond the Thistles A Highlands Series Novel By Samantha Young Copyright © 2023 Samantha Young Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior written permission of the above author of this book. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. This work is registered with and protected by Copyright House. Cover Design By Hang Le Couple Photography by Regina Wamba Edited by Jennifer Sommersby Young Proofread by Julie Deaton Contents Also by Samantha Young About the Author Acknowledgments Content Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Epilogue Stay in Touch Also by Samantha Young Other Adult Contemporary Novels by Samantha Young Play On As Dust Dances Black Tangled Heart Hold On: A Play On Novella Into the Deep Out of the Shallows Hero Villain: A Hero Novella One Day: A Valentine Novella Fight or Flight Much Ado About You A Cosmic Kind of love On Dublin Street Down London Road Before Jamaica Lane Fall From India Place Echoes of Scotland Street Moonlight on Nightingale Way Until Fountain Bridge (a novella) Castle Hill (a novella) Valentine (a novella) One King’s Way (a novella) On Hart’s Boardwalk (a novella) The One Real Thing Every Little Thing Things We Never Said The Truest Thing The Adair Family Series: Here With Me There With You Always You Be With Me Only You Young Adult contemporary titles by Samantha Young The Impossible Vastness of Us The Fragile Ordinary Titles Co-written with Kristen Callihan Outmatched Titles Written Under S. Young Fear of Fire and Shadow Hunted Destined Ascended Seven Kings of Jinn Of Wish and Fury Queen of Shadow and Ash The Law of Stars and Sultans War of Hearts Kiss of Vengeance Kiss of Eternity: A True Immortality Short Story Bound by Forever About the Author Samantha Young is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author from Stirlingshire, Scotland. She's been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Author and Best Romance for her international bestseller On Dublin Street. On Dublin Street is Samantha's first adult contemporary romance series and has sold in 31 countries. Acknowledgments For the most part, writing is a solitary endeavor, but publishing most certainly is not. I have to thank my amazing editor Jennifer Sommersby Young for always, always being there to help make me a better writer and storyteller. Thank you for working with me to make sure Walker and Sloane’s story fell as authentic and true as possible. You’re my Rockstar! Thank you to Julie Deaton for proofreading Beyond the Thistles and catching all the things. You have an amazing eye for detail and I’m always reassured my stories are going out into the world in the best possible shape. And thank you to my Beyond the Thistles contains a content warning. If you’d like to know more, click the link below to be taken to my website. Content Warning For my beloved Scotland. “Wherever I wander, wherever I rove, The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.” —Robert Burns, My Heart’s in The Highlands Prologue SLOANE Fourteen months ago If I told anyone I was sick of palm trees and sunshine, they’d think I wasn’t in my right mind, especially since I was someone people described as having a sunny personality. However, I’d been sick of the monotony of endless summer since I was fourteen. My dad afforded me the