Spell of the Highlander (Highlander, #7) in Moning Maniacs

Jun 21, 2009 Laura rated it it was amazing

Shelves: highlander-books

Updated review:

A couple years ago, I discovered a fabulous author(Monica McCarty). When I finished with her books, I asked her who her "go-to" authors were. Monica's answer? Karen Marie Moning. Since my library only had this book by her, this is what I read. Wow, Cian is one hunky medieval male. I immediately returned this book and bought the whole series.

This book focuses on Cian MacKeltar, a 9th century druid who is trapped in a mirror..a mirror that is an Unseelie Hallow (a fae created relic Updated review:

A couple years ago, I discovered a fabulous author(Monica McCarty). When I finished with her books, I asked her who her "go-to" authors were. Monica's answer? Karen Marie Moning. Since my library only had this book by her, this is what I read. Wow, Cian is one hunky medieval male. I immediately returned this book and bought the whole series.

This book focuses on Cian MacKeltar, a 9th century druid who is trapped in a mirror..a mirror that is an Unseelie Hallow (a fae created relic).

Jessi is a grad student who accidentally sees Cian (aka the sex god) in the mirror. What she didn't know was that her professor had bought this antique mirror after it was stolen from Lucan during a power outage (that is alluded to in the Fever series), another ancient druid. Well, he wants it back. Lucan sends assassains after anyone who has had any contact with the mirror. Cian decides to help Jessi, so he tells her the spell to release him from the mirror. Problem is, she thinks it was just a dream, because super hot sex-gods don't live in mirors and help random grad students, right? Totally a dream.

Unfortunately, if Cian is freed from the mirror, its only temporary. And there's no set time-the mirror is fickle and reclaims him after a few hours, or after a day. It's never consistent.

Cian helps her, convinces her he's real and that her life is in danger. So they head off to Scotland, to MacKeltar land, hoping to hide her out in the Highlands. But lo and behold, there are many more MacKeltars than expected! Not only the current line of Christopher and Maggie, but Drustan and Gwen, and Daegus and Chloe!! The way Daegus and Cian meet is hysterical! I loved that scene and I loved the whole gathering of the MacKeltar clan.

[anyone who can get this on audio-do so! Phil Gigante doing all the Keltar men in one room? OMG I drooled]

They grudgingly help Cian and Jessi defeat the evil dark druid Lucan who had entrapped Cian in the mirror so long ago. But there's a twist-to escape the mirror permanently, will cause his death. How on earth will he do it? Will Daegus surprise us with his (still) dark knowledge from the Drughar? Will he double-cross Jessi and Cian? Gotta read to find out....

And at the very end, we get a brief glimpse of Aivheal the Seelie queen. That is the part that is important to the Fever series.

Total foreshadowing for the Fever series...if you don't like romances but like Urban Fantasy, read the Fever series, but add this and The Immortal Highlander to it, almost as prequels. ...more

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Jul 08, 2008 Beth F rated it really liked it

Shelves: time-travel, scottish, 2007, re-reads, druids, chicago

Since I’d already broken the rules and started with book six I decided to continue on my merry-way with book seven in Karen Marie Moning’s Highlander Series. Plus, I’d been reading both this book and The Immortal Highlander as e-books and they didn’t have some of the earlier books in the series available to download.

As in the first book I’d read by this author, the humor appealed the most to me. The heroine is a sexually frustrated virgin who is living in Chicago and going to school for her PhD Since I’d already broken the rules and started with book six I decided to continue on my merry-way with book seven in Karen Marie Moning’s Highlander Series. Plus, I’d been reading both this book and The Immortal Highlander as e-books and they didn’t have some of the earlier books in the series available to download.

As in the first book I’d read by this author, the humor appealed the most to me. The heroine is a sexually frustrated virgin who is living in Chicago and going to school for her PhD. The hero is a 9th century Druid who’s been trapped in a cursed mirror for over 1,100 years. And to keep things extra interesting, even though Jessica is able to release Cian from the cursed mirror, his release is never permanent. After a short period of time passes he is always sucked back into his mirror prison, unable to be released again for a period of 24 hours.

That premise alone is enough to give even a cynic something to laugh about.

21st century Jessica St. James and 9th century Cian MacKeltar obviously have different outlooks on life but as one would expect from a book like this, an undeniable attraction exists between the two of them. As one would also expect from a book like this, Jessica denies Cian’s advances for the same reason that many virgins do: fear of being used and then dumped. However, before Cian came into the picture, one gets the notion that while Jessie isn’t actively seeking someone to give her virginity to; she’s no longer a proud, card-carrying member of the V-Club. So it doesn’t come as a huge surprise that her defenses are slackened and she quickly falls for him.

However, the author is able to extend the romance and seduction through to the end of the novel by using Cian’s entrapment to the cursed mirror. It becomes increasingly difficult for him to woo Jessica, protect her from bad guys and to attempt to break his curse when he is continually zapped out of the world and back into the prison inside his mirror.

Bizarre and hilarious! I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

These aren’t the sorts of books I would freely recommend to anyone because they aren’t fabulous stories that fall into the category of ‘can’t be missed.’ But they are thoroughly enjoyable and if the combination of fantasy and romance written by an educated author with a flair for story-telling doesn’t squick your brain, I’d give at least one of them a try. And yes, they are part of a series; however, I don’t think that reading them in order is highly critical. There are certain things that were somewhat confusing (having started towards the end of the series) but since the main focus of each book is the relationship between the main characters, understanding the very loose connections between each of the books is not crucial.
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Mar 04, 2008 Kathryn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Re-read March 2013.
I've upped my star rating on this one after re-reading it. Mostly because I forgot how much this tied into the fever series. After reading this again I have to go back and re-read the fever series so I can pick up on more of the subtle tie ins that Karen hides everywhere. ...more

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