This novel is one of THE best books I´ve ever read. By the author as well as in the paranormal fantasy genre. And I guess it is no understatement when I say that this book is one of the best of the author´s Highlander series. So, yes, highly recommended.
Kiss Of The Highlander
by Karen Marie MoningHighlander Series #4
Publisher Dell on September 4, 2001
Genre Paranormal-Fantasy
Pages 432
Format Paperback
Source Purchased
Goodreads
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A laird trapped between centuries...Enchanted by a powerful spell, Highland laird Drustan MacKeltar slumbered for nearly five centuries hidden deep in a cave, until an unlikely savior awakened him. The enticing lass who dressed and spoke like no woman he’d ever known was from his distant future, where crumbled ruins were all that remained of his vanished world. Drustan knew he had to return to his own century if he was to save his people from a terrible fate. And he needed the bewitching woman by his side...A woman changed forever in his arms...Gwen Cassidy had come to Scotland to shake up her humdrum life and, just maybe, meet a man. How could she have known that a tumble down a Highland ravine would send her plunging into an underground cavern - to land atop the most devastatingly seductive man she’d ever seen? Or that once he’d kissed her, he wouldn’t let her go? Bound to Drustan by a passion stronger than time, Gwen is swept back to sixteenth-century Scotland, where a treacherous enemy plots against them ... and where a warrior with the power to change history will defy time itself for the woman he loves...
Story
While vacationing in Scotland, Gwen falls into a cave and finds herself in more than a precarious position. In disbelief, she must realize that she has landed on a forbidden good-looking, and incredibly tall man, who is lying dead under her. Even as she tries to find a way out of this embarrassing situation, an amazing transformation takes place in the human body beneath her. The giant comes to life. Little by little, Gwen learns to trust the attractive stranger and decides to follow him, even if she doesn't know exactly where she is following him. All she knows is that his mysterious remarks sound so unbelievable that the scientist in her is awakened and wants to get to the bottom of the Drustan phenomenon. An undertaking that proves not to be easy as Gwen suddenly finds herself face to face with a different Drustan and realizes she is in a very different time.
Style
Karen Marie Moning wrote this novel in a hilarious, varied, and full of magic way. Heated battles of words, quick-witted dialogues, colorful scenes, and landscapes make this volume a fantastic experience for the reader. The author sends her characters spinning through time, mixing magic with scenically rugged landscapes and ancient superstitions, and fusing the modern spirit of the present with the millennia-old art of the druids. Karen Marie Moning describes the arguments and fights very vividly and excitingly. Fists and artfully forged swords whiz through the air, the peaceful silence of lonely clearings is broken by the battle roar of two opponents, and mysterious rites and incantatory words of the gypsies permeate man and nature. The reader has no choice but to turn the pages eagerly after what happens next.
Characters
In this novel, characters with very different personalities meet. Gwen, a young woman who wants to have been a virgin for the longest time and chooses a senior tour group in Scotland to do so. Drustan wakes up again in the present after a centuries-long magical sleep and is confronted with a reality that shocks him, there is a clever housekeeper who has worshiped the master of the house for years, and the grizzled master of the house himself.
Drustan and Dagaeus' father is endowed with an incredible charm and even more fascinating knowledge and intelligence that particularly appealed to me. In this volume, the author offers a highly interesting range of very different but always convincing characters that are realistic and lively and make every page a pure pleasure to read.
Conclusion
What a novel! Captivating, full of love and passion, and, by the way, incredibly exciting. Highly recommended!
Happy reading
Karen Marie Moning
Karen Marie Moning is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fever series, featuring MacKayla Lane, and the award-winning Highlander series. She has a bachelor´s degree in society and law from Purdue University.
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