Evander

Immortal Highlander, #3

Hazel Hunter

Allure Press, Nov 2017

Kindle, 370 Pages

Also available in paperback

Genre(s) Fantasy Romance, Time-travel Romance

Source Author

Other books in this series

Lachlan, Tharaen, Tormod (Dec)

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…

Rachel Ingram’s parents have recently died in an electrical fire in their home. David, Rachel’s fiance, has encouraged her to move up their wedding. After putting her legal affairs in David’s father’s hands, Rachel and David drive off to a justice of the peace and then to a seaside cottage honeymoon. Rachel hasn’t been feeling well and falls asleep on the drive to the cottage.

David is full of surprises for his new wife. Not only wasn’t the power-of-attorney she signed for him, but for her billions of dollars. Now the seaside cottage has turned into an oak grove picnic. And the sweet HEA she envisioned has turned into a stab in the back, literally. As Rachel bleeds her life away, David digs her grave. Once he has a shallow trench, he lowers her into it and begins covering her the dirt. The couple talks the whole time about why he’s doing this. It appears David has huge gambling debts with threats attached to them. Rachel is his easiest way of taking care of them.

Evander has brought flowers to Fiona’s grave for six months since she died of the plaque. Today, as he lays the flowers on the grave, a hand grasps his forearm. Could this be his Fiona come back to him? And he digs out the woman in the shallow grave. She has a lot of blood on her back but she seems to have no injury. She speaks strangely and wears strange clothing. This is a time of superstition. Evander takes her to his home and takes care of her. He gives her some of Fiona’s clothing and teaches her how to do things the way they do things here. He keeps her safe.

Can these two broken people heal each others’ hearts? Can Rachel help Evander reconnect with his clan? Can they help the clan resolve the problem of the undead?

Technical Tidbits…

The cover is the same style as the other two books in the series. This time the plaid is purple, which appeals to me greatly, being my favorite color.

The storyline is very good. I’m not sure where Ms. Hunter gets these ideas, but she’s really good at it!

The characters are excellent. Of course, we have the characters we know from the previous books, Lachlan and Kinley from Book One and Tharaen and Diana from Book Two. Plus we are familiar with the people who work around the castle and the other chieftains who are normally in attendance around Lachlan. There are usually one or two of the druids around as well, so we’ve gotten to know them. We even know a lot of the undead Roman legion. Hazel has done a wonderful job of introducing us to both Rachel Ingram and Evander. We met Evander before when he actually stabbed Tharaen in the neck, which is the only way to kill one of these immortals.

The pace was good. It moved along rapidly, but not so fast that you couldn’t keep up with what was going on.

The tension was good. It didn’t have me on needles and pins because having read the two previous books, I was comfortable with both the style and the concept of the books. So I had certain expectations.

Hazel Hunter has a wonderful style and quality to her writing that makes any book she writes a pleasure to read. This is not her only series. Nor is it the only one I read of hers. I have never been disappointed when I have picked up one of her books. It surprises me that her name is not better known. I am certainly doing my best to get her name out there. You can look forward to seeing more of her books reviewed here on my blog and all the sites I post.

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 love the characters that Hazel has created this time! David and his father are the sleaziest ones. His father is Rachel’s lawyer. A rather intimate relationship, don’t you think? Well, he introduces David to Rachel for just the purpose David has in mind. David has huge gambling debts and he’s being threatened with danger if he doesn’t pay them off. So he needs someone with big money to be able to pay them off. He tampers with the wiring in the family house so that it burns. That separates Rachel from her parents and leaves her completely alone and vulnerable. What would be more natural than to turn to your trusted lawyer and your fiance, especially when they are father and son? Sleazebags, both of them! Too bad only one of them gets punished! Is that considered being quartered?

The table is what convinces Rachel that she has traveled back in time and this is real. And she accepts it so passively. That amazed me. She never really fought any of this. She wasn’t happy about the clothes, but she seemed to accept everything else. She actually seemed to prefer this time to her own time. Well, except when the “chicks from the future club” met. Then they all had things from the future they missed. They all agreed TP was the most missed item. I’m not so sure about the inside of birch bark. And Rachel had asked Evander to make her a simple rotisserie so she could cook her meat without the constant stewing and hauling all the water. She’s very clever about blending the times and finding ways to adapt.

The to-ing and fro-ing between life and death was rather interesting this time. It was done a bit more in this book than in others. It was even bargained for. Evander throws his deadly spear for which he is so well known and skewers Rachel and the Marquess Ermindale. That makes him dust and the undead run away. Evander grabs Rachel and offers his life as forfeit to Taraen, but Lachlan claims the right as chief of the clan. That’s Rachel and Evander dead. Then the spirits of Rachel and Fiona meet in the grove and Fiona is reuniting with her father there. She tells Rachel to tell Evander that she really didn’t mean to betray the clan and she wishes him the best. Then Evander and Rachel meet and Evander explains he has forfeited his life for her and Rachel is returned to life. She grabs the druid Cailean and forces him to bring Evander back using something she’s seen in his mind. Lachlan and the clan accept that Evander has forfeited his life once already and can be accepted back into the clan. So now they are both alive and immortal. And Fiona’s spirit is settled with her father’s. For some reason, my mind was taken with all this running around of live and dead people trying to settle Evander’s debt. It sort of became a cartoon in my head! I won’t draw it, but after you read it, I think you’ll be able to picture it, too!

I’m all set to get the ARC for Tormod, now, so that I can continue the story. I love this series! It just takes me awhile to get to each book because I have so many books scheduled to read! Starting Friday, December 1, Monday, December 4th, I will be reading Christmas themed books until Christmas, then I go back to regular books. And I’m already scheduled into February! I do some swapping out with requests and my own choices when I need to. My New Year’s Resolution is that every Monday I will have a review of the “In Death” series by J.D. Robb. I have been meaning to re-read this series for some time and now is the time. I now own all but 4 of them in e-book format, so I’m going to start reading them right after Christmas. I know they aren’t new, but I don’t always read new. And this is a series worth reading again! That’s why I bought it! Who knows, maybe y’all will read it along with me and we can discuss them along the way.

Recommended

1454 wc