regshoe

Thank you—glad you enjoyed it :D

it's an outside voice which progresses along with the characters

Yes, exactly! And the progression from 'detached' to 'intense' is great, and a mirror for Keith's character development and the development of both characters' feelings for each other.

Keith as a character seems to feel less comfortable in his own skin as opposed to Ewen.

Yeah—he's much more alone than Ewen, and for all that he's chosen that for himself believing it to be the right thing it's very obvious that he's not really comfortable with it. And the way the language of the book shows how he becomes more comfortable around Ewen as his feelings for him grow is very lovely indeed, and heartbreaking.

Also, I think Ewen has more different names, because he has two languages to choose from? ;) The other Highland characters sometimes refer to him in Gaelic, so he gets stuff like "Eoghain" and "Mac 'ic Ailein"

Oh, I forgot to count 'Eoghain'! There are 6 of them throughout the book. Yeah, that and his position within his clan gives him more names—the name of his estate as well as his surname, whereas Keith doesn't own land, and the title 'Mac 'ic Ailein' ('son of Alan', right? presumably Ailein being some important Cameron ancestor). I don't know that there are any French names ('Hector' is spelled the same way in English and French, so it'd be difficult to tell—although he does also get 'Eachainn').

Broster really was a master of characterisation

Agreed :D