Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Re-Read Review of Highland Guardian by Melissa Mayhue

Read for: Re-Read Challenge, Series Challenge
 
Synopsis: "SARAH DOUGLAS is a successful thirty-eight year old romance novelist with big problems. She's come to Scotland on a three month working vacation hoping to recapture her muse - who's deserted her - and resolve the issue of her strange 'feelings' - the ones which allow her to sense the emotions of everyone she touches.

From the moment she arrives, however, her problems only intensify. She's being stalked, but by whom? Is he real or only a figment of her imagination? What about the darkly handsome owner of the cottage she's leasing? How is she ever going to deal with her growing attraction to a man ten years her junior? She knows from bitter experience men - particularly men who look like Ian - aren't interested in women like her.


IAN MCCULLOUGH is neck-deep in troubles of his own. As a half-mortal descendent of Faeries, he's a Guardian, sworn to protect both the mortals of this world and the Portals leading to the Faerie Realm. After six hundred years, he's confident he knows what to expect in just about every situation and exactly how to handle it. But he never counted on a woman like Sarah showing up in his life; a woman who intrigues and charms him. A woman who turns out to be of Faerie descent herself, although she has no idea of her heritage and no belief in any Otherworld beings.


When he's assigned to protect her, Ian finds the job is tougher than he could possibly have imagined. Oh, he can handle the stalker and the ex-husband and even the renegade Faeries trying to kidnap her for their own purpose. It's falling in love and forsaking his status as Guardian, a position he swore to honor at his father's deathbed, he's having trouble with.


Both Sarah and Ian struggle to battle the demons of self-doubt and their individual pasts. In the process they learn that healing will take the strongest magic of all, the true love that occurs only between two souls fated to be together."
 

My Review (5/31/2012): Wow! So I thought I loved the first book of the Daughters of the Glen series, but my oh my that has been surpassed! It was actually a little nice that it didn't just pick up where the first book left off. You are introduced to a whole new set of characters, at first I didn't think I liked the idea but I fell in love with Sarah and Ian even more than Cate and Connor (who by the way did make an appearance). I do have to say though it was a little odd going from the first book which was a time travel/historical/fantasy romance to this one which was a modern time & fantasy romance, not at all what I was expecting but I think Melissa Mayhue is doing a great job of keeping things fresh and giving us new things to dig our toes into. Anywho back to this book, I loved the characters, Sarah was a little weak and fragile compared to my normal favorite female characters but it really suited her and the story. Melissa really knows how to create a hunky male character for us to drool over, Ian is fantastic!! Not to mention the sub-characters, Danny, Nessa, and Will make an adorable family (honestly who would love that little boy?!) as well as the Fae characters, and Henry, I loved them all! I also like how we finally got to see how this book was tied to the first when we see not only Cate and Connor but also Pol. The story takes so many twists and turns, you think you know what will happen next but you are never quite sure. Another great book and I can't wait to start the next one in the series!


My Re-Read Review: I wasn't as over the moon with this book this time I read it, I still enjoyed it quite a bit though. Again I had some issues settling into this story, completely new characters, settings and plot line. We only had a tiny glimpse of Cate & Connor from the previous book and it was almost as an after thought (like Mayhue didn't realize that this would end up being a series until she went back with final edits). The book wasn't tied back to the first solidly until the epilogue so it will be interesting to see how they work with the rest of the series. I still did enjoy both Sarah and Ian, and again Mayhue did a fantastic job with creating intriguing and well rounded sub-characters as well. The one nice thing about this book is that you could potentially read it as a standalone novel, or as part of the series.

My Rating: My original rating would have been Four Paws and a Stump Wag but after this re-read it didn't capture quite like the first time reading the book.  I am rather curious how everything will be incorporated. I give it a rating of Three Paws.

2 comments:

  1. I just reread a book that I wasn't quite as enamored with the second time either. This one did sounds great though. Too bad it didn't hold up to a reread.

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    1. It was still good but I have found a lot of times re-reads don't hold up for me either. It was good to read it again though as I continue the series.

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