Monday, July 28, 2008

Review – Highland Guardian



Title: Highland Guardian
Author: Melissa Mayhue
Publishing Date: November 2007
Genre: Time Travel
Rating: B-
Sensuality: Warm

Sarah Douglas is a successful romance writer currently suffering from writers block. She has had this strange compulsion to visit Scotland. Since she can’t seem to make any progress on her book she finds a quant cottage to stay at for a few months. Maybe she will be able to write again if she scratches this itch. Sarah has always been able to sense other peoples’ feelings when she touches them. These feelings can sometimes incapacitate her. Sarah is unaware of the reason for her unusual “gift” is because she is a descendent of the Fae. After she meets the handsome Ian McCullogh, the owner of the quaint cottage where she is staying, she learns more than she ever wanted to about her gift. Ian is a guardian and half Fae himself. It has been his job for over 600 years to keep certain evil Fae out of the Faery Realm.

The plot may sound complicated but it’s really not. I felt that this was a light and fluffy story that was an enjoyable way to pass the time. It is not at all dark or heavy. Sarah is a very sweet heroine. For a 38 year old woman, she came across as very innocent (don’t worry, she wasn’t a virgin). It wasn’t over done where she seemed too perfect and therefore unlikeable. I actually liked her personality quite a bit. Ian was a good match for her. He realized what a good person she was right away. He was smart about Sarah for the most part. He does pull a bonehead move later on in the story, inevitably hurting Sarah. Thankfully it all gets resolved satisfactorily.

There are some interesting secondary characters. A little boy Will, who befriends Sarah, is a cute touch. There is also an interesting man Ramos, who the reader is not sure whose side he is on. Is he a good Fae or a bad Fae? I felt it made the conflict in the story more interesting. Sarah’s ex-husband was a little to over the top for me. He really says some nasty things to Sarah in front of other people that felt unbelievable to me. I really don’t think someone would say those things in public. Also, sometimes while reading this book I found my mind wondering. Now, I don’t know if it was me or the book. I don’t want to say that the book was boring, because it wasn’t. But maybe it just wasn’t that griping. Does that make sense? It flowed nicely but nothing really jumped out at me. Other than that I didn’t really have much of a problem with the story. If you want to take a time out from heavy novels and want something fluffy, give it a try.

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The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

2 comments:

nath said...

I think that makes a lot of sense. Books can be interesting without being griping... it's like you're not involved in the book, you're not sitting on the edge of your seat wondering what's going to happen next.

Sounds like a nice book, but I'm going to skip. Seeing fae is enough to drive me away ^_^;

Jill D. said...

Nath, Hah! Yeah, Maybe this one isn't for you. I know how you don't like the Fae :)