REVIEW - A HIGHLAND WEREWOLF WEDDING

"Now Cearnach's out to ensure that this sexy female wolf gets her fair share of her clan's treasure. He knows he should leave well enough alone, but it's too late to leave his heart out of it."

Author: Terry Spear
Pages: 384 pages
Publisher: Sourcebook Casablanca on May 2013
Form: E-book (from NetGalley for an honest review)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Heart of the Wolf #11
Amazon: Buy / $7.19 (Paperback) ( EU price, click to see yours )
Barnes & Noble: Buy / $7.99 (Paperback)
All Romance E-books: Buy / $7.99 (E-book)
Excerpt: Prologue

"Elaine Hawthorn is a gray American werewolf, currently out of work, and on a mission to share in a family treasure. When she arrives in Scotland, she nearly has a head-on collision with one hot, kilt-garbed Highlander, and runs him off the road.

Werewolf laird Cearnach MacNeill isn't happy Elaine ruined his car, but he quickly becomes her protector after a misunderstanding lands her right in the middle of two feuding clans. Now he's out to ensure that this sexy female wolf gets her fair share of her clan's treasure. He knows he should leave well enough alone, but it's too late to leave his heart out of it."  ~ From Goodreads

First of all I loved the previous book A Wolf in A SEAL's Clothing! A Highland Werewolf Wedding was more of a miss for me. It's harder to but my finger on why I didn't really enjoy reading this book after all the characters were funny, maybe slightly over the top, the action was there, but maybe little too messy and frantic yet times so slow, the romance was sexy but maybe not really hot more like convenient.

So you see I liked things and yet I didn't... has this happened to you before? It's really hard to point at the what nots when the whats greats are there too. I don't know! Alright, gathering myself here.

Perhaps what got me here was that there were a bunch of 'old characters' from the previous books - which I have not read - this didn't bother me in A Wolf in a SEAL's Clothing because the 'oldies' didn't make an appearance it was a great standalone from the Heart of The Wolf series, but A Highland Werewolf Wedding was odd as in you got this people you don't know smiling oddly or making weird comments that are totally them but you have no clue into their personality so all you are left with is a feeling 'that's odd'. When writing a stand-alone series you got to be really careful about not making your supporting cast aka the ones who came before too unique and impressive on their own right like they were in their own book - and please no knowing smiles it drives me nuts!

Okay, so this review felt little bit of the brunt of my annoyance at stand-alone series that get too odd when a bunch of previous characters make appearances - but I think that was my main beef with the book, then add in the things mentioned in the first paragraph and I just dragged through this.

I shall remove my stand-alone series rant off the rating below and just focus on the other things.

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REVIEW - THE DARKEST DAY

"Kelvin lives only to avenge his father, who died at the hands of the bloody Campbells. Honor demands he kill the Campbell heir, but when he learns that the lovely Izel is both Campbell and human, Kelvin is torn between duty and desire..."

Author: Britt Bury
Pages: 300 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing on July 2012
Form: E-book (from the author for an honest review)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: The Immortal Heat  #1
Amazon: Coming Soon (Kindle) ( EU price, click to see yours )
Barnes & Noble: Buy / $4.99 (Nook)

"ALL-CONSUMING DESIRE . . .
Izel Campbell was raised to believe she is an immortal Fionn with the magical skills fo persuasion. But when she travels to Scotland to visit her ancestral home, Izel discovers that she is actually the world's last living human. Forced to run for her life, Izel crosses paths with Kelvin Kerr, the Campbells' greatest foe-and the most magnificent warrior she has ever seen.

BURNS BRIGHTEST . . .
A thousand-year-old battle chief of the Kerr clan, Kelvin lives only to avenge his father, who died at the hands of the bloody Campbells. Honor demands he kill the Campbell heir, but when he learns that the lovely Izel is both Campbell and human, Kelvin is torn between duty and desire . . ."

I've found a new favorite series and new favorite author! The Darkest Day has that sexy adventure feel of Immortals After Dark series, which is a favorite of mine, the hero is hot as hell, dark and brooding and has a counterpart in a heroine coming to her powers which makes for some hot chemistry!

Bury writes entertaining adventure, sizzlingly sexy encounters and engaging characters - which all adds up to awesome paranormal romance! I absolutely loved the chemistry between Izel and Kelvin, from the very beginning where Kelvin tries to kill her the battle is on and even though it changes more into a verbal sparring it's very delicious reading indeed. Kelvin's brusque manners, lack of compassion and arrogance a mile wide is very entertaining reading especially when he can't seem to control his growing lust and attraction to Izel - who couldn't be more put off and turned on by the total brutish beast who think taking jabs on her innocence and previous lack of feelings is entertainment for their days long trek in the woods of Scottish Highlands.

The plot of Izel's importance was a great threat in the background for the pudding romance - and the blood feud between the Campbells and Kerrs gave it the Romeo and Juliet feel, which worked really well into both the romance and the whole feel of novel.

Want me to mention some of the things I didn't like? Okay! There weren't any! The book is a total package, love, passion, attraction, adventure so well written you simply cannot but the book down at night even though you know you only have 5 hours of sleeping time left. ;) When you finally do put the book down, it's in your dreams and the first thing in the morning you pick the book up to see what happens next.

Fans of Kresley Cole, you are going to love Britt Bury!

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Don't miss Britt Bury's Guest Blog tomorrow 

on The Benefits of Century Old Lover. ;D

REVIEW - HIGHLAND SHIFTER

"Helen Adams has a knack for finding lost objects, but the Simon McAllister she finds isn’t what she expected. The missing California teen is now a grown man—a kilted, sword wielding, Highland warrior."

Author: Catherine Bybee
Pages: 300 pages
Publisher: Self Published on February 2012
Form: E-book (from tour for an honest review)
Genre: Paranormal Time Travel Romance
Series: MacCoinnich Time Travel Series #4
Amazon: Buy / $2.99 (Kindle) ( EU price, click to see yours )
Barnes & Noble: Buy / $2.99 (Nook)
Smashwords: Buy / $2.99 (E-book)

Helen can find what she sets her heart to finding, in this case it's the teenage boy Simon McAllister, traveling all the way to Scotland is nothing compared to traveling back in time and finding Simon, in a kilt, sporting a giant sword, and yes in his thirties.

Traveling back to her time Simon tags along determined to find out why their paths crossed, being a druid he knows nothing happens by chance, and the attraction he feels for her doesn't quite allow him to leave her, especially when her shady boss breaks into her apartment. There is something going on and he won't let Helen get hurt, even if it means sticking around in the time of noise, cars and electricity just a little while longer.

I so enjoyed this! As the forth book in the series, this one is a stand alone, but still gives readers a glimpse into the lives of the couples that came before. Now I haven't read the previous three books, but now I want to! Bybee writes so well, Highland Shifter is full of action, romance and time-travel! Not just one way ticket to the past but a real entertaining back and forth. Bybee creates worlds in an effortless way and there's so much going on you don't get bored reading it, there will be no skipping pages here!

The romance was starting with a flirty slow burn and developed into deeper emotions, sexual tension and lust before we get to the fire works! Simon I loved, a man of two worlds born in the present and living in sixteenth century, he had best of both worlds, the modern view but with the dominant sixteenth century vibe. Simply delicious. I liked Helen too, she had a lot of package to bring to a relationship, being an orphan and stepping into Simon's 20+ family. With her rejection issues she put the brakes on with Simon more than once, but that was so enjoyable to read!

I will definitely be looking into the earlier books in the series, I'm quite hooked now... especially  after reading the last chapter, now I have to read Amber's story! What a cliffhanger!

I was trying to think of something to point out that I didn't like and well-- came up empty... this is a 5 Star read!

Rating :

REVIEW - SEDUCED BY HER HIGHLAND WARRIOR

"The pleasures of the marital bed seem long forgotten to Laren. Yet her warrior husband is looking at her with increasingly hungry eyes... This powerful highlander has seduction on his mind and his wife in his sights!"

Author: Michelle Willingham
Pages: 284 pages
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: July, 2011
Form: E-book (review copy from NetGalley)
Series: MacKinloch Clan #2
Genre: Historical Romance
Amazon: Buy / $6.25

"Alex MacKinloch is chief of his clan and, in these dark times of unrest, he has united his people. The void between him and his wife is proving a much harder challenge. When Alex discovers Laren has been keeping secrets from him, his thinly veiled frustration can no longer be contained. 

The pleasures of the marital bed seem long forgotten to Laren. Yet her warrior husband is looking at her with increasingly hungry eyes... This powerful highlander has seduction on his mind and his wife in his sights!"

I have to say I did not like the beginning of this book, I love my romances romantic and this started painfully darkly as Alex and Laren had grown apart and were both stubborn and had way too much pride. Sure they both wanted their marriage to get better but either was willing to budge. And I found it really hard to read, almost didn't want to keep reading.

Now what redeemed the book for me a little bit was that Alex did set out to correct the matter, but I still found Laren annoying there is something about characters that think they aren't good enough that have me cringing, well to a point, there was strength in her at times.

I can get the appeal of this book, the struggle to fix their marriage and the gorgeous setting they are in, 1300's Scotland. But it just wasn't for me, I like love to blossom in my stories, the misery of this just wasn't my cup of tea.

What I did like about this book was the setting, Scotland, the world painted by Willingham, that I did find rugged and facinating, and the supporting characters had lots of really interesting personalities.

Rating :