Review

I gave it my best shot, but I’ve figured out Scotsmen are not my cup o’ tea.

Plus, a 30 year-old female with a teenager’s spoiled demeanor, and demanding attitude was a complete turn off. Either way both characters repelled me versus drawing me in. To divulge deeper let’s start with Alec Mackeage. He’s Scottish, and the burr just kills me every time. Other than that I felt Alec was too smart for Carolina. He’s brilliant in fact, figuring out who Carolina is, surviving in the wilderness and in general absorbing all the magical happenings without flipping his lid. He’s extremely resourceful and if he didn’t fall for a pair of legs I would’ve been extremely impressed. His ‘courting’ wasn’t a bit traditional, and I really wanted to see more of him in the story. At times there was very little Alec, the balance between the two was present in the storytelling.

Then I got to Carolina and thought to myself, “If you’re 30 and still a virgin there may be more than value involved.” Really? She’s annoying, obnoxious, and tends to take over every conversation. I wasn’t impressed at any moment, well maybe at the beginning… when she was running from people try to capture her. She seemed defenseless, but my initial respect for a woman escaping captors disappeared when she opened her mouth.

The plot is riddled with information and you can’t miss a single word or you’ll miss a bit of plot. This story is a continuation of Chapman’s series involving magical druidhs, and the hundreds of gods and goddesses of different religions that are actually alive and breathing. For those who’ve read previous Chapman books then this may definitely be right up your alley. For me the H/H had me turned off before I could get completely involved. The courting of Carolina seems to be a farce to me, and I can’t support a story when I constantly want to smack the heroine over the head and go steal her man for myself.

Overall, if you like Chapman’s writing style and her characters then this would be a book to purchase. I would not recommend this story as the first of Chapman’s too pick up; instead browse the backlist first. While I admire the world she’s weaved around ours, it’s a bit easy to get lose your direction in it and this particular H/H did not keep me enamored.