HIGHLAND KNIGHT – Cindy Miles
Signet Eclipse
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-22439-2
ISBN-10: 0-451-22439-6
June 2008
Paranormal Romance

Munro Keep, Scotland; Charleston, South Carolina – Present Day

Amelia Landry is a young, successful writer -- at least she was. Crippled by writer’s block for a year now, Amelia cannot produce anything worth printing. Her writing mojo is dried up. Locked into feeling like a failure, Amelia is discouraged when her friend and assistant, Zuzu, comes up with a wonderful idea. Zuzu books a trip to Scotland for Amelia to stay at Munro Keep, a 14th century tower. Amelia loves a good mystery, and a haunted keep is sure to inspire her. Doubtful at first, as Amelia settles in, the charm of the land and the mystery of what happened to the “Bluidy Munro” captures her interest.

Laird Ethan Munro and several of his clansmen spent the last seven centuries in an enchanted trap. They are neither alive nor dead, and take on corporeal substance for only one hour each day, during the gloaming (twilight). Trapped in a magical mist in the middle of an unexpected attack, they try to make contact with someone who might be able to help them with this mystery, all to no avail...until Amelia arrives.

Amelia can see them all, and she is not like other women; the ghostly mystery intrigues her. She is intelligent and adventurous, not easily frightened. As the weeks pass, she begins to fall in love with Ethan, who feels the same way, but is afraid to admit it. Every time Ethan expressed attraction to a woman in the past, she mysteriously died -- Ethan swears this will not happen with Amelia. Can Amelia solve the mystery and end the curse, and if she does, will this mean she must lose Ethan to his own time?

HIGHLAND KNIGHT moves too slowly in the first half of the book. There is too much discussion about how verra lovely Amelia is, and what a sexy medieval warrior Ethan is. Amelia is a great character, humorous, down-to-earth, yet audacious. No he-man from the 14th century is going to intimidate her! Ethan is a more standard character; stalwart, a leader of men, gruff, yet endearing. It was refreshing that he didn’t have any difficulty accepting this lovely woman as the only one who could solve his mystery.

There are some humorous scenes of Amelia introducing the men to 21st century pop culture and teaching them martial arts. The second half picks up the main thrust of the story as Amelia and Ethan get busy clearing his name and breaking the curse. From this point on, the pace picks up, ending happily-ever-after. Paranormal fans who like humor and a romantic story will enjoy HIGHLAND KNIGHT.

Lisa Baca