Tharaen

Immortal Highlander, #2

Hazel Hunter

Self-Pub, Oct 2017

Kindle, 364 Pages

Also available in paperback

Genre(s) Time-Travel Romance

Source Author

Other books in this series

Lachlan #1, Evander #3, Tormod #4

My Disclaimer:

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book. I am voluntarily providing an honest review in which all opinions are fully my own. I am not being compensated in any way.

~ Judi E. Easley for Blue Cat Review

What it’s about…

Tharaen is the right-hand man and bodyguard of the chieftain of his immortal clan. Right now he’s got his hands full with what the undead are planning.

LT Diana Burke has a cold-case to solve but she’s fallen through a hole to find herself in medieval Scotland. She applies all her skills, but she’s still caught snooping around the castle by the big man in charge of security, Tharaen.

They shoot sparks off each other, quite literally. Can they set aside their own feelings long enough to figure out what to do about the undead Romans? Will Tharaen survive Diana’s solution?

Technical Tidbits…

The cover is absolutely yummy! Where does she get these lovely men? But this series is more than that. There is that larger than life font with the wonderful caps and serifs in gold. The use of the plaid, Celtic symbols, and the old buildings in the background with the stormy sky.

The storyline is the almost same as the first one, but with a different intent and it’s told with different twists.

The characters from the first aren’t embellished on, but the new characters are explained very nicely.

The pace is great. You just have a chance to catch your breath between crazy events before you’re on to the next one. Sometimes it’s a bigger breath than others.

The tension starts as soon as you realize she’s looking for Kinley at the canyon and it stays with you until she agrees to marry him.

And this is where you STOP if you don’t want to see any SPOILERS…

The good, the bad, and the ugly…and how much it lit up my life… ✰✰✰✰✰

I really liked this new character, Diana Burke. For the longest time, I didn’t realize she was so sick. I just figured she was a loner and a hard worker. She was cleaning up cold cases and Kinley’s was today’s cold case. Then like Alice, she was down the rabbit hole! And when she got to Scotland, she really fit right in, even better than Kinley did early on. She dressed like the guys, except on Sundays for Margaret, and was willing to learn things to fit in with their play and their work. She was already a large woman standing over 6′, so she really did fit in well. Being a fit, athletic woman worked well for her, too. She wouldn’t have fit into this role as well had she been a fashionista in heels and pencil skirts or a librarian in twin sets and cute flats or shy and retiring. She was just the type Tharaen needed to stand up to him and be his mate.

I started out not liking the druid, Bhaltair. Of course, that’s how it was supposed to be. It seemed like he meant to hurt her somehow. It took the whole book to understand that he was more afraid of how she could hurt him that he wanted her to go. Bhaltair didn’t want to think that Yana could have lied to him and hidden his own child from him. But finally, they both had family. Two lonely people who had never had any family now had this one other person to claim as their own. This was a big thing for both of them. And I think Diana is just the person to melt through the armor that Bhaltair keeps around him with her honest and open personality. That will bring a closer relationship between the clan and the druids as well.

This was a good follow-up to the first book, but I’m hoping that the third book, Evander, is a bit different. The synopsis I’ve read seems like it might be. Then the fourth book, Tormod, looks like it’s a lot different when two people come through and one makes it to the clan and the other one goes elsewhere. I wonder how many of these Ms. Hunter plans to write. It’s a really good series, but I think it would have its limitations after a certain point.

Recommended.

754 wc