Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Karen Marie Moning - Spell of the Highlander

It's taken him eleven centuries to find the right woman.
He's not about to lose her now.
Jessi St. James has got to get a life. Too many hours studying ancient artifacts has given the archaeology student a bad case of sex on the brain. So she figures she must be dreaming when she spies a gorgeous half-naked man staring out at her from inside the glass of an ancient mirror. But when a split-second decision saves her from a terrifying attempt on her life, Jessi suddenly finds herself confronting six and a half feet of smoldering, insatiable alpha male.
Heir to the arcane magic of his Druid ancestors, Cian MacKeltar was trapped inside the Dark Glass eleven centuries ago. And when the Dark Glass is stolen, an ancient enemy will stop at nothing to reclaim it. For Jessi, the sex god in the mirror is not only tantalizingly real, he's offering his protection--from exactly what, Jessi doesn't know. And all he wants in exchange is the exquisite pleasure of sharing her bed....



Comment: This is the last book in the highlander series by this author. At the end of the book she left a note saying there would be more stories to be told, but I guess the fever series took hold and she won't return to straight romance.
This is Cian MacKeltar's story. He is trapped in a mirror since the 9th century and only now he is close to be set free. To help him there's Jessi St James, an acheologist without any free time and..loooking to get rid of her virginity. Seriously?? All the heroines ending up with a MacKelter are virgins at first, but that's not the problem, the thing is, they all must stop being virgins soon! Please, this really ruined things a bit for me, it's repetitive and stupid.
While looking for a way to help solving Cian's problem, the couple is fighting the attraction (yeah, right) between them and also running from Lucas, the bad guy who trapped Cian in the mirror. He is a dark wizard and wants more power.
I think, apart from the virginity issue, this was a balanced story. We have romance and action and also we see other characters from previous books. The author shows she did her research and inserts several points on traditions and legends.
In this book there aren't many references to the fae, or at least not in a clear way. In the end the queen shows up and I assume by the way it was, that more stories would come and that would be important to them. As it is, without more books about the highlanders, we are left with a curious feeling on what would mean her presence there. Of course we could speculate because of what happens in the fever series, but someone who doesn't read those books, perhaps it's a bit of a disappointment.
All in all, I enjoyed the books, I liked most things and the connection it has to the fever series, it's done very lightly, in order not to be noted in case someone doesn't read the other series but like I said, it can leave an empty feeling for some readers. It was good to read, yes, but in my opinion, her attempt in urban fantasy worked better. Nevertheless, I finish this series with a happy feeling
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2 comments:

  1. Agreed on the virgin heroines, S.!!! They abounded in this series and it got old. The heroine in this book is one of my "least" favorite ones too!

    However, I loved it as a whole and I like KMMs romance writing much more than her attempt at UF writing. Mostly because in my opinion that series was very repetitive and some of the books, if edited, could have been much shorter. I wasn't really taken with her writing or her characterization in that series -- nor the final result. Her romance writing is straight forward and honest, her UF writing didn't feel that way to me. But, there are other books in that UF series... so maybe that will change? Who knows. You'll let me know? You'll be reading it, right?

    This romance series is the set up for the Fever series. There are tons of details, that if taken, are quite relevant. I think it's the reason so many were disappointed when she switched and didn't quite finish it in this format and left unanswered questions that she said would be addressed in the Fever series.

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  2. Hi!
    Yes, I'll be reading the next books she releases in her UF world.
    I think the main point for me to like more her fever series (in a global way) is the sexual tension in the books. In the romances it's all so...obvious, it has to be, it's a romance after all, but in the fever series it's not the main focus, so it's sweeter to wait for it, to hope for that step in their rlationship because we know it just has to happen, so when it does it also has more trueness, I'm not sure you see my idea lol
    In the romances we expect it to hapen, and we can know how it eill be not because it's a romance formula, but because all the characters are the same, their situations are all the same! Thus the virginity thing if one of them didn't want to loose hers or at least didn't think about it as something VITAL to her life (lol) then it would be a change.
    I think this is why I liked the Touch of the Highland best. The heroine is different, she has a lot of features I like in a heroine.
    I guess you can say I see the difference and why you prefer the romances, and if this would be one romance book vs one fever book, then I might have a different opinion, but comparing the two series as a whole...you see my point?
    I hope I didn't make a mess of my idea lol

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