Saturday, December 5, 2009

Dangerous Highlander-Donna Grant

Dangerous Highlander
Donna Grant
St. Martin’s, Jan 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780312381226

The Roman legions overwhelm Britannia including the Highlands. The Celtic tribes turn to the Druids for help. The Drough Druids use the dark magic of human sacrifice enabling them to free ancient evil gods from hell who repels the Romans. Afterward the Druids are unable to send the gods back to hell so they trap them inside of Warriors who are unaware what has become part of their heritage from generation to generation.

Three centuries ago the powerful MacLeod clan is destroyed in a single night. No one claimed credit for the massacre. However, three brothers who were away, Quinn, Lucan and Fallon searched for the source. Instead they became prisoners of the culprit, Deirdre the Drough, who thirsts for power to dominate the earth through the release of the evil gods, but eventually they escaped.

In 1603, Cara the orphan picks mushrooms near Castle MacLeod when her mother’s heirloom falls off her neck and she falls off a cliff during a nasty storm. Lucan who, with his siblings, resides in the castle saves her life. When Deidre sends her wyrren and Warriors to capture Cara and the heirloom called Demon’s Kiss, the MacLeod siblings save her from the monsters who killed everyone else in the village. As Lucan and Cara fall in love, Deirdre continues to send her beasts after them as she needs the woman, the heirloom, and the brothers to complete her quest.

This is a super historical romantic fantasy that grips readers from the onset and never slows down yet introduces the underlying premise, a strong support cast (the good, the bad and the monsters) and a terrific lead couple inside of vividly described realm. Fans will appreciate Donna Gant’s great opening Dark Sword while looking forward to the adventures in love and supernatural war starring the drunken widower Fallen the Laird of no clan and raging Quinn whose anger remains stratospheric.

Harriet Klausner

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