Spell of the Highlander

I really liked this book but Cians' whole me Tarzan, you Jane attitude got on my nerves. I mean one minute he's being wonderfully sweet then the next he's treating Jessie like she can't think for herself. All the men in the other books where tough too, but they treated the women with more respect than this guy who, if he had listened to his mother in the first place, wouldn't have been cursed. Then when he met his decendents he acted like they were beneath him. Other than that the story kept me turning pages. I just hope the next installment of this series does better.

Karen Moning once again provides the right mix of science fiction, romance, and ancient Scottish culture. I have enjoyed the weaving of relationships within the Highlander series and this adventure didn't disappoint.

KMM has done it again.. Another great Druid story. They just keep getting better and better...and her Druids get sexier and sexier! Whew! I couldn't put this book down.. It was fun revisiting Daegus & Chloe and Drustan & Gwen...

Looking forward to her next one! Please hurry KMM! I need another fix...

karen Moning works her highland magic alll over again in one of the very best books she has written. She makes you laugh, and cry and want to pack up and head for the highlands!!!

One woman who works great magic!!

I eagerly awaited the publication of this book. Unfortunately, the plot is exactly the same as the previous books in this series. I was very surprised that Drustan and Dageus figured in the resolution of the story, again.

Wait for the paperback.

I ordered "Spell of the Highlander" by Karen Moning in this Large Print format as advertised and indicated in Search, and received Regular Print version from "greattimebooks". Cover totally different from pictured item and description. the store was very helpful and gracious and refunded my money. and recommending another seller. I love this book, have in regular print, but now need LP. Very disappointed in "greattimebooks" for this "error"?

Spell of the Highlander by Karen Marie Moning
Book #7 Highlander Series
Source: Purchase
My Rating: 4/5 stars
My Review:

Oh, balls!!! Book seven of the Highlander series is all kinds of crazy with magic mirrors, an arrogant and somewhat chauvinistic lost MacKeltar, a wicked crazy sorcerer hell bent on remaining immortal, and a bat-shit crazy plan to save everyone.

Jessi St. James knows her personal life is in the crapper but is willing to make the sacrifice if it means completing her PhD and getting out into the field to work. There will be plenty of time for dating once she’s a fully trained and practicing archaeologist. Unfortunately, that day is never going to come thanks to Cian MacKeltar, his insatiable need for revenge, and his unstoppable desire to possess Jessi. Well, crap! From the moment Jessi accepts there is actually a beautiful Highlander living in a mirror her world turns upside down, sideways, and four other inconvenient directions. Her life is threatened, she is forced to leave her home and school, and she is constantly having to lug around the ginormously large mirror Cian is trapped in. Furthermore, every time the damn man comes out of the mirror he manages to both turn her on and insult her.

Though he tries at every turn to convince Jessi of the seriousness of the situation, Jessi just doesn’t quite get it until her life is truly threatened. Though Cian is loath to tell the story of how he was trapped in a mirror, he does tell Jessi about the man who is pursuing him and what will happen if the big bad succeeds in catching Cian. Once the combination of the two sets in Jessi decides she will, at any cost help Cian defeat his most hated enemy. The only way to make things right is to get Cian and his mirror to Scotland where he can protect them on MacKeltar land and actually stand a chance in the battle to come. What throws everyone for a loop is the most unexpected meeting between Cian and his descendants, the MacKeltar twins. There is strength in numbers and between the three MacKeltar men there is also a lot of knowledge, skill, and bravery and courage beyond measure. As the day of doom comes every closer, Gabrielle is finally able to admit her feelings for Cian only to discover his true mission will result in his death. Yep, Jessi’s life sucks so hard!

The Bottom Line: This is yet another read that I made it through but didn’t get overly excited about . . . that is, until the last third of the book. The first two thirds of this read is all about getting Cian and Jessi to Scotland and to MacKeltar land. The last third of the read is all about the drama and action with Cian resigning himself to his fate and Jessi doing everything possible to save the man she loves. As always, I was totally thrilled to see the MacKeltar twins and their wives make an appearance and really, ride to the rescue once again. The final battle is dramatic and the road to the HEA is fraught with turmoil, anger, love, and even some brief moments of pure happiness. In all, the book really redeemed itself for me in the final third and I blazed right on through the final page.

***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***

Cian MacKelter has been imprisoned in the Dark Glass, an Unseelie Hallow since the ninth century and wonders if he'll ever break free. When by unbelievable chance his prison is stolen from his captor mere months before the tithe is due he sees in this action the hope of freedom. When he winds up in the hands of Jessica St. James a grad student pursing her PhD in archeology who needs his protection from death by his enemies it seems almost as for once fate has smiled on him. She not only offers his chance at freedom but provides the possibility of activities he hasn't participated in since the ninth century. Jessi St. James on the other hand thinks at first she's losing her mind, there's no way a man could be trapped in an ancient mirror, but as her life is threatened the events surrounding her become all too real and she has no choice but to free the mirror's mysterious captive. But can Cian keep Jessi alive for the twenty days it will take for the tithe to expire? And if he can does Jessi stand a chance of keeping her heart intact while in the sexy highlander's company?

The first thing I have to say is that as I read this again I noticed the ending letter from the author in which she give us an idea of where the hero and heroine are now, but she also mentions that she has no intention of ending the Highlander series for some time to come. She wrote this in 2005 and while the MacKelters are featured as minor sort of background characters in the Fever series who are there but really aren't established as being of great worth to the whole of the story, the Fever series isn't the Highlander series and I personally would like to see these fascinating Druids and their formerly Fae benefactor get a lot more play. She's mentions on her website that she doesn't think she could write a straight romance again and I'm fine with that. I like the way Mac and Barrons story came together in the Fever series. But I would like to see the MacKelters come back to take more prominent roles and not be relegated as somehow less powerful than the other players in the game. When you read this series you can't help but get attached to the characters. While most of the players in the first three novels weren't people you got attached to as they didn't really reappear in later stories with the exception of Adam, readers of the Highlander series have now spent multiple books featuring Gwen, Chloe, Drustan and Daegus MacKelter as well as Adam Black . And it's difficult not to also get attached to the fascinating Cian MacKelter and his mate Jessica in this novel as well. I want to see a novel where these characters are distinctive again. So at the moment after having read that letter to readers in the back of Spell of the Highlander I'm a little disappointed in Moning because it's been seven years since she promised another Highlander series book and while like everyone else who's had the pleasure of reading it I adored her Fever series, I want another Highlander novel too. Especially as this one leaves some lose ends that I didn't see answered in the Fever series. There's no denying that the events of Spell of the Highlander are a fabulous set up for the Fever series. I mean the book is a prominent concern in this novel, the Unseelie Hallows are a major focus and Aiobheal outright admits that she's set up the events of the Highlander series to bring them where she needs them so that they will be basically her little Druid army in the future events that occur in the Fever series. But she mentions five druids and well I know who three of them are and I'm guessing Christian from the Fever series is the fourth but Adam isn't a Druid and neither is Circenn Brodie so who is the fifth Druid who will fight to save the queen? Silvan is long dead so it's not him. And Mac is a Sidhe Seer, not a Druid and did we ever actually learn what exactly Barrons is? It's been so long since I've read the Fever series that I can't really remember if that question was ever truly answered.

The unanswered strands in this novel are a lot of the reasons I can't bring myself to give it a five stars because at this point the only Moning novel I haven't read is Into the Dreaming and that's on my Nightstand to start later tonight. And since Into the Dreaming is supposed to have come before these stories I don't think I'll find the answers there. What's really neat about this novel is like the Immortal Highlander it actually picks up in the same pivotal scene for The Dark Highlander after the Draghar have been slain. It's neat because you can see how this one moment in time affected so many different lives and you actually in a way see an example of how the fae queen manipulates the strands of the world. This really is an amazing book and while the love story is a little rushed it has to be since the threat of Cian's impending death and the dangers that surrounds them forces them not to hide from each other. Jessica is actually the one of the few female heroines Moning has produced where it almost makes sense that she is still a virgin in her twenties. She's so driven by goal and so haunted by her childhood views of relationships that being hesitant to take the step and go to bed with someone actually makes sense. Especially when you consider the time period during which most girls are hastily making the decision to take the leap into the world of sex Jessica was recovering from a debilitating injury which left her with a metal plate inside her head. At first when I was reading this I was thinking geeze another 20 some year old virgin, could you get any less realistic since the writer has now produced four unlikely modern day adult virgin heroines. But as you learn about Jessi's character it actually makes sense that she would be. So much like Gabrielle it actually made sense for her where it didn't so much with Chloe and Gwen. The close third person narrative offered in this story offers a thrill ride of action from beginning to end. One thing I don't understand though is how Moning could state on her website that this series was just a romance because honestly I saw so much more in the plots of this series. I could clearly see the set up of the series to come even if she claims they're unrelated just reading them you can see whether consciously or not the seeds and set up for the Fever series in the Highlander series. Each book in the Highlander series slowly builds this idea before the idea explodes in the first Fever series novel. If this were simply a romance, a typical happily ever after tale well honestly I doubt it would keep my attention. Yes I like my spice and happy endings in romance but there are very very few contemporary romances that keep my attention in any way shape or form and without a delicious secondary plot to a romance novel I tend not to get hooked on it. She references Darroc, who we'll really learn about in the Fever series though he was a big part of the Immortal Highlander as well, in this story. She continues in this novel to build this massively fascinating world, a world that is clearly the beginning of the Fever series. Her back story and tales of Fae and Druid history are absolutely fascinating and honestly as much as I like a good love story, it's that more than the romance that keeps me coming back to her Highlander series and leaves me wanting more. Moning is a talented story teller and Spell of the Highlander is an excellent demonstration of that. The sexual tension between Jessica and Cian is palpable but it's his curse and the hallows as well as the danger that makes this a fast paced, page turning ride from beginning to end. On top of that Moning offers just the right amount of humorous, laugh out loud scenes to keep the novel from becoming too dark. It's the perfect blend of everything I love about reading, there's magic, lore, love, danger and humor. Who could ask for more in such a story? With the exception for the loose ends I'd like to see tied up someday I can't think of anything I didn't like about this novel.

While my favorite MacKelter will always be Drustan of Kiss of the Highlander, Moning presents us with a deliciously interesting character in Cian. This man has lived for centuries imprisoned inside a mirror and always outside of life. He's seen thing so horrid none of us could even really comprehend them and done some things of which the guilt would kill a lesser man. He's not as broody as Daegus but he's an interesting, layered character all the same and I think I could read about him for novel after novel and still not get enough of him or the other MacKelters in this series. Jessica is also a fairly complex and layered character who seems a nice fit for Cian but at the same time she doesn't have the years and experience under her belt to offer the same amount of page turning interest as the hero. She's a character you can related to fairly well, but in some ways she's like Chloe where not everything she does really makes sense to me or is something I can relate to. Most of the secondary characters were already established in the series and while Moning gives us a little more build on Daegus's character most of their characterization relies on previously established books and a reader new to the series might have trouble finding at the very least Gwen and Chloe to be distinctive from each other. You can clearly see the difference in Daegus and Drustan but without having read Kiss of the Highlander and The Dark Highlander Chloe and Gwen might not be as easy to separate and see as individuals. Lucan the villain of this tale was fairly well developed and exceedingly interesting however and boy would I ever kill to see the stories behind this one. The meeting of Cian and Lucan and the events that led to Cian's imprisonment as well as various other back stories that provide the set up for this series. Moning gives us just enough of these characters to leave a reader salivating for more.

Overall I'd definitely recommend Spell of the Highlander to readers of Paranormal Romance and those readers who are fans of the Fever series. I think reading the Highlander series and Fever series both offers so much more to all the novels. Cian and Jessica's journey is thrilling to travel and time well spent. Highly recommended.

Cain McKeltar, a Druid in the ninth century, finds himself trapped in a mirror in the possession of a dark sorcerer, Lucan. The mirror is stolen and purchased by Jessi's boss, a history professor. The plot thickens as Jessica discovers that the mirror has a person inside of it and she can communicate with it. What happens next? Does Cian get out of the mirror? Does Jessica believe Cian's story of how he was placed inside of the mirror? I highly recommend you obtain this book and discover all of the questions and answers.

Don't get me wrong, I love the highlander series, but this book was by far the worst. It was filled with a lot of writing about nothing. A bunch of what ifs, should have, and why can't I's. It started off like a silly comedy. It was frustrating trying to get through all the thinking the characters did, just to get to the story. The actual story could have filled possibly two pages; the rest was filler nonsense.

I don't understand what happened, because usually her writing is great and completely entertaining as well as emotional, this book was just annoying. She made the main characters seem like they didn't have common sense at all.

She paused to detail you in on so many things that didn't matter in the story. It was like she wanted to write, but didn't know what to say, so she thought she would detail the color of blue, or the softness of earth "Crazy"!

This would have been a great book, if she had put her heart into it like she did all the others.

I'm very disappointed.

After reading the Fever series by this author, I just knew I was going to have to read her other books. The only thing though is that I had never really read a book involving Highlanders. I didn't know what to expect because I thought a Highlander would be set in the past. I certainly didn't expect a Highlander to be so sexy and drool worthy!

When Jessi -- who is swamped with school work and such -- is asked by her professor to go sign for a package at his office while he is in the hospital, she never expects to fall into a world full of supernatural beings and a gorgeous man to protect her. She unknowingly uncovers a mirror that is a relic of the Unseelie. Inside this mirror is a tall and certainly sexy man. Jessi thinks it is her overtired mind causing hallucinations and a man in the mirror is a figment of her imagination. When she finally accepts that Cian MacKeltar is real, she has to make a choice in helping him or running for her life.

Karen Marie Moning gives us her witty humor, sexual tension and dark suspense that she has never failed to give us. Her writing is exceptional and definitely has me craving the other books in this series. While this was the seventh book in the series -- before spinning off into the Fever series -- it can be read as a stand alone novel. With that being said, when you meet the side characters of the book, you will be scrambling for the others like I am.

I flipping love this series. It's the perfect blend of paranormal, alpha, wit, and soul searing love affairs. This book, like all the others, has a strong heroine and an over the top alpha. Cain and Jessica were hysterical together. Their introduction to each other was probably the funniest introduction to a book couple as I've ever read. I'm snickering just thinking about how ridiculous Cain was and just how completely baffled by him Jessie was. This may not have been my favorite but these books cannot be bad. It just isn't possible. Go forth and read this series. I'm hoping Ms. Moning keeps adds to this series in the future because I don't think I'll ever get sick of these Highland alphas.

Cian MacKeltar is all man, not too mention an extremely powerful sorcerer Druid. He is also trapped in the Dark Unseelie Glass, by none other than his enemy Lucan, a dark sorcerer who tricked him thousands of years ago.
Cian gets his chance for revenge when Lucan is out of the country and a theif breaks into the apartment stealing all of the Hallows.
This is when Cian meets Jessi St.James. She, a college student and also an assistant to Professor Keene is sent to his office to claim a package. This package is the mirror Cian is housed in.

Jessi has no idea what to make of this artifact and thinks the sexy strong highlander man she glimpses in the mirrior is just a fragment of her overworked stressed mind. She brushes aside this thought and immerses herself into work, but she finds out sooner than later that her life is endangered. Lucan will stop at nothing to get the mirror back, he has to pay the tithe at Samahain, in order to preserve his immortality.

Cian and Jessi are a funny adventurous couple. For those of you who love the twins, Dageous and Drustan, they reappear in the story with their mates. It's a good wholesome adventure and a great addition to Moning's Highlander series. Trust me on this, It's my second time reading the series. They are that good!

Karen Marie Moning may be better known for her Fever series, but her rich and occasionally rather purple, prose has been catering to romance readers' long before Mac and Barrons came into the spotlight. She was responsible for a good seven and half books of pure Highlander deliciousness, a series that ended with a bang, or should I say, multiple bangs.. Well a heck of a lot of banging, as featured in the last novel of the lot, Spell of the Highlander.

Now I generally suck at synopses, (what do you know, I got that word well spelled in the first try), so forgive me for merely relaying the gist. And what is it comprised of? Brainiac heroine, Jessica St. James, assistant to a university professor and virgin de rigueur, whose life is forever altered after reluctantly accepting a mysterious crate in said professor's name. And what does the crate contain, pray tell? Nothing but a man-sized looking glass with whole lotta ensorcelled Highlander inside. Why the hell do I only get junk mail and fast food coupons?

Needless to say, things get dangerous real quickly, as the baddie of the book, the powerful sorcerer responsible for Cian MacKeltar's sordid entrapment in the mirror wants him desperately back. His immortality is at stake if he doesn't get his hands back on his most prized possession and he's got a little over twenty days to do so. Of course he's willing to kill everyone and everything in sight to do so, including poor unfortunate Jessi.

Well, unfortunate might not be the best descriptor after all, not when Jessi decides to aid Cian in his struggle to get free from his enemy. The greedy arse mofo has kept him imprisoned within the glass for over 1000 years. Yes, Jessi's life is in jeopardy, but Cian agrees to protect her in return, and boy is he one formidable protector. He's sexy, he's huge (oh yeah... aren't they all), he's from the ninth century and his speech is peppered with the doonas and cannas any Highlander worth his salt is supposed to use. His ways may be slightly (or very) archaic, he might occasionally treat Jessi in a me-tarzan-you-jane way (and this is actually a line in the book) but who cares. Cian Mackeltar stays true to the tradition of the blindingly sensual MacKeltar men Moning already introduced us to in Kiss of the Highlander and The Dark Highlander, Books 4 and 5 respectively. True fans will be delighted to know Drustan and Dageus and their oh so lucky wives actually make an appearance in this installment.

Spell of the Highlander contains a heaping dose of all those things Karen Marie Moning enthusiast appreciate about her, an undercurrent of humor, and a larger than life alpha hero that scorches the pages with his kilted self, a slightly whiny but ultimately compelling heroine and an intricate, well thought out plot. The stakes are high in this last installment, and the battle between good and evil achieves apocalyptic proportions. And I just have to add, no one does sexual tension like this author, or at least very few excel the way she does. This may not be my favorite book in the series, as that title belongs to Kiss of the Highlander, but it's a solid four out of five read for me. Why did it loose a point? Perhaps because it just didn't affect me emotionally the same way as the aforementioned book, or Immortal Highlander (Adam Black's book) did. Nevertheless, there's still a rich, thick decadent serving of romance and action in this one. Yes, Jessi and Cian's inability to keep their hands off each other and their constant humping like energizer bunnies on any surface they could find was just a tad over the top, but hey, give me Cian and I might just turn into a Jessi myself. Like with any of Moning's Highlander books, it's made to enjoy, not to analyze. And it's quite a light, enjoyable page turner in fact.

Archeology graduate student Jessi St. James has an already full life with a research job, classes, and teaching. But when her advisor has an accident and asks her to receive a package for him, she can't exactly turn him down--even if she doesn't have time. The package turns out to be a strange mirror--with an eleven-hundred-year-old highlander druid/magician locked inside. The man who's owned that mirror for the last thousand years, the man who locked the highlander in the mirror, is desperate to recover it--and to make sure no one who saw the mirror survives.

Cian MacKeltar recognizes the attraction he feels for the sexy Jessi, but knows it can go nowhere. With all of the sins he's committed, he has only one goal from life--to keep the mirror, and its power, from Dark Magician Lucan Myrddin Trevayne for three weeks. At the end of that time, the magic will be undone and Lucan will die. But Lucan has assassins, dark magic, and the power of unseelie artifacts at his disposal. Better than a thousand years of magic have taught him to be ruthless--and to be cunning.

On the run from assassins, Jessi and Cian can think of little but the attraction that flows between them. That his mind control does not affect Jessi only makes her more attractive to Cian. But although Jessi has cast the spell to release Cian from the mirror, the effect is only temporary. The mirror calls him back--and will continue doing so (often at inconvenient times) until the spell is finally broken.

Author Karen Marie Moning writes a highly sensuous tale with the powerful and primative highlander, Cian MacKeltar taking center stage. Other members of the McKeltar clan, also brought up to the present from the distant past return from earlier books in the series, giving fans a treat as they see the familiar characters moving forward with their lives. A few minor inconsistencies--especially the repeated reference to Cian as the ancestor of the other MacKeltars (he wasn't married in the 9th century and presumably didn't raise bastards to be heirs so he wouldn't have been their ancestor, just a some number of greats uncle) distract, but not enough to spoil the story's enjoyment.

Fans of alpha male highlanders, loaded with muscle and magic, will definitely want to add SPELL OF THE HIGHLANDER to their reading list.

This read ties together many of Monings books and implies ties with the Fever series. What I didn't like was Chloe's nonrole. After being the heroine with a backbone here she was just a one dimensioned character. Even Gwen got more time than Chloe. But still a good read...headed to read book 8:)

I stumbled onto Karen Marie Moning's Highlander series after reading favorable reviews from the store. I was a little reluctant to pick them up at first because for some silly reason I thought the plot seemed far-fetched. After devouring the whole series, the only thing that seems silly is that I waited so long before I read the first one!

Cian MacKeltar is a Druid, and an ancestor of Dageus and Drustan. For the past eleven hundred+ years, he's been trapped inside an Unseelie mirror by his sworn enemy, the vile sorcerer Lucan. When a thief breaks into Lucan's home and steals the mirror from Lucan, Cian has no choice but to go along for the ride.

Jessi St. James is a hard-working twenty-four year old student pursuing a PhD. Her every waking moment is spent slaving away grading her professor's exams, or running errands for him. One night, he calls her up and requests she accept delivery of an item for him, since he can't do it himself. Jessi reluctantly drags herself out of bed and makes her way down to his office at the university. After unwrapping the rather large package, she discovers its contents--a mirror, and a gorgeous, powerful Highlander within. Fortunately, Cian can be summoned from the mirror for varying amounts of time, depending on the vagaries of the fae. Sparks quickly fly between these two. But soon, Jessi's life may be in danger as Lucan attempts to get the mirror back into his possession.

This book was a fun, worthwhile, exhilarating, and sexy read. I love Moning's Highlander Cian. He is definitely an alpha male and will stop at nothing to protect those he loves, but he is also very caring, intelligent, and resourceful. One thing in particular about this book that got my interest was a premise introduced at the end of the book that seems to insinuate there are still two more MacKeltar Druids to be found.

I only had a few problems with this book. One of them was that Jessi was impervious to influence by Druid powers due to a plate in her head. That seemed rather silly to me. I thought another explanation might have seemed more realistic.

Karen Marie Moning certainly knows what she's doing, because her books are brilliant. I feel her characters are richly drawn, well-characterized, and very human. Her heroines are strong and intelligent, and her males are never overbearing. I loved this installment in the Highlander series, and I am eagerly anticipating the next one.

This is definitely my least favorite of the Highlander series by Moning. The relationship started out very cute, but it quickly took a back seat to other story lines. In fact, the end was very truncated and we didn't get to learn how our couple fared. I think Moning realized this and tried to fix it by adding the author's note at the end, but it failed.

We do get to see old favorites, like Drustan and Drageus, but they continue to distract from the plot. I don't like investing 300 pages to a plot line that just doesn't get finished. Oh well...

Bottom line, if you are new to Moning, don't start with this one. If however, you have read the other six books, I won't try to dissuade you.

KMM tells a fabulous love story, with vivid and detailed descriptions of bonnie Scotland. There wasn't any time travel as there are in other KMM novels, but that didn't make a difference to the story. A great, must read addition to her "Highlander" series. The ending makes one wonder just what the Fae Queen is planning, and drops intriguing hints for the Tuatha De's future.

A few things sttuck in my craw though:

1) I'm sick of the "me so horny, but I'm a virgin" female leads. I can appreciate virginity as much as the next person, but it seems to be a re-occuring theme with KMM's heroines. I want to see a heroine who's had a few mistakes in her past, like most normal 24 year olds. A heroine with little/bad/no experience would be more interesting (& maybe with a jaded view of sex)with a hero who can teach her how it truly can be between two people.

2)Jessi & Cian ripping off hotels, clothing, airlines, etc..Says a bit about their character.

Oh, and one minor bit: the lack of desciption of how Jessi managed to enter Scotland without any forms of identification. One can assume she had a passport, but I wonder, because Cian did not want her to use any forms of id. This is unrealistic, but I'm stretching my imagination..

Overall, though, a great read. So far, though, I'd have to say that out of all her hero's, Adam's my fave with Lisa being my fave heroine. Would highly recommend reading Immortal Highlander and Highlander's Touch.

I love these highlanders. Although this one wasn't my favorite in the series, these alpha highlanders never fail to make me laugh. This book was no different.
I was reading this on while on a plane at 5:30am, hoping to avoid conversation with other passengers. That only worked until I started laughing...out loud. Seriously. When Jessi frees Cian, convinced the beautiful man is a dream, sidles up behind him, figures "why not, it's my dream" and licks him, I laughed so hard I almost dropped my book.
As usual, Karen Marie Moning writes a great alpha highlander. Cian is a ninth century alpha male who definitely looks, thinks and behaves like one. I love all of the highlanders in this series. I hope she writes more of them.

1 BEYOND THE HIGHLAND MIST
* A Midsummer Night's Dream-like time travel; a cute tale of a contemporary heroine (untrusting of attractive guys) & too gorgeous Hawk
2 TO TAME A HIGHLAND WARRIOR
* Grimm is a Berserker, sort of a 'touched' super warrior. The sexiest!(hot scenes) No time travel here.
3 HIGHLANDER'S TOUCH
* Circenn Brodie, Laird of Castle Brodie, is sworn to kill whoever's found a cursed flask. Our present day heroine working in a museum touches the 'artifact' & turns up at the feet of this massive Highland War Lord (@ his bath!). He debates killing her while she wanders the castle pondering how to get home to her sick mother.
4 KISS OF THE HIGHLANDER
* Modern virgin falls into cave while on vacation in Scotland - landing on a druid lord, she breaks his 500 year enchanted sleep. After waking him(Oh my) & getting him to try on some jeans;) she goes back in time to save his clan. Facing him in the past - without HIM knowing HER, his mate!
5 DARK HIGHLANDER
* Twin brother to Drustin from book 4 - Wild dark sexy Druid goes back & forth in time with his mate, she's a lover of artifacts, they're searching ancient texts for clues to combat evil spirits inside Daegus. He gets darker as they try to overtake him & um, rule the world.
6 IMMORTAL HIGHLANDER
* ADAM BLACK - THE Fairy Prince- Whuh! Too sexy. With all the BOLD language, funny moments & and some moments so sweet they bring on the tears ... find a private place to read this one.
7 SPELL OF THE HIGHLANDER
* Cian, Ancient Druid trapped in evil Dark Glass. This alpha male gets called out by a college student with big [...]. This story had exciting goings-on. Yet I would have enjoyed this 'alpha' male much more without the immaturity of Jessi's thoughts and attitude -did I mention she has big [...]? and she hit this woman in the face? and, and; dear diary entry day#:we're married! actually married!Can ya believe it?! - she annoyed.

Books in this series start to follow a patten after #4. Trusting that reading-between-the-lines will be enough to provide the same feelings. This sometimes makes the storyline empty after the initial excitement of the plot begins to fade. The characters' manners are carbon copied ... the binding vows seem inevitable ... the humor and sexuality lack originality and spice ...

Ah well, the author starts a new series soon.

This is the latest Karen Moning book that features the MacKeltars. All I can say is...READ THIS BOOK! It is a great mixture of magic, highlands, passion & humor. The characters are well developed and get you itching to read the rest of the MacKeltar books (#1 "Kiss of the Highlander" - (Drustans story),#2 "Dark Highlander" (drustans twin), #3 "Immortal Highlander" (Adam Black - side character interacting w/ MacKeltars), #4 "Spell of the Highlander" (part of MacKeltar clan), #5 "Highlander's Touch" (seperate story linked w/ Adam Black), #6 "Into the Dreaming" - a novella that features the fairy queen mentioned in the other books. NOTE: This is my suggestion for the order to read them in. There is not real official order in which to read them. All I know is once you finish this book, you will be itching to read the rest. ENJOY!!!