Internet publishing has led to a flood of material across the Internet, everything from fan fiction to blogs. The freedom for anyone to get published has, in many cases, demonstrated to the world what travesties can be wrought upon literature. And in some cases, e-publishing only contributes to the lack of standards. But just as the bestseller classics are the exception to the world of publishing, there are writers like Katherine Hunter that show there are exceptions in e-publishing.

The Pledge follows the stories of Calum, the Laird MacKenna, and Gillian Winston, daughter of an English baron with a reputation for war and cruelty. He is also an enemy of the laird. When Scottish reivers defeat the baron, the laird, a reiver known as The Wolfe, heads to the Winston Holdings to find more information about the battle.

Gillian also heads to the estate, only to find it in ruins. She feels obligated to protect the surviving serfs and lead the effort to rebuild. It’s here that the lives of Gillian and the laird intersect. The laird needs an heir, and he’s the only hope Gillian has of protecting the last of her world. She agrees to marry him, knowing that without the queen’s approval, the move may cost them both their lives.

Hunter’s research and efforts not to allow plot demands to trump historical accuracy demonstrates her maturity in the genre, which lesser authors often lack. Her characters are realistic, actions are believable, and values proper to sixteenth-century England and Scotland. Hunter is an example of how e-publishing is not opening the doors to lower standards, but finding true talent that otherwise may have never been discovered.