Oh, what a wonderful world!

Written in red

 

In this world where humans are prey, Meg Corbyn’s odds of survival are slim at best. As a blood prophet, owned and kept by her human Controller, she’s had little exposure to the outside world. Now, she has escaped and finds herself at the mercy of a world she doesn’t understand.

Pursued by her Controller, Meg finds refuge in the unlikeliest of places – the Lakeside courtyard, a business district operated by “The Others”, the supernatural predators who control the world. Here, she begins to learn about the world of the humans and “The Others”. She makes some unlikely allies and friends, and her unusual kindness and innocence soon have “The Others” re-evaluating the relationships between their kind and the humans who work for them in the business district.

But Meg’s Controller wants her back, and he will stop at nothing to require his property, even if it means destroying the tenuous peace between the humans and “The Others.

Oh, what a world! The detailed intricacies and characters are like a carefully drawn map and each corner reveals yet another delight. What a magical, beautiful and brutal place this is, full of every kind of creature you could imagine. Each has its place within this political and familial society of “The Others”.

It is a delight to meet each character and to unravel their strength’s, weaknesses and quirks. Each character has its own journey and they come together in a beautiful tale of friendship told by a very talented author!

4 of 5 stars to “Highland Shift” by Laura Harner

highland-shift

Hot Scot, romance and magic…

Elena MacFarland is on her way to Scotland, to take possession of a small farm due to her in a legal settlement with her ex-fiance, when she meets Faolan MacGailtry on the airplane. He’s attractive, dangerous and exceedingly arrogant, and Elena, thinking they will go their separate ways when they land, makes pleasant small talk on the flight.

Upon arrival in Scotland however, Elena finds herself at the receiving end of more than one murder and kidnapping attempt. Faolan, conveniently, happens to be present and manages to foil these attempts. He appoints himself protector and moves into Elena’s small farm house.

Soon, Elena finds herself drawn into Faolan’s dark world of ancient, magical secrets. How long can she stay alive and withstand his dangerous, magnetic attraction.

I quite enjoyed this novel. It has many draw-cards: a handsome, brawny Scot, an independent heroine, danger, romance, paranormal, ancient magic and plenty of hot attraction. The writer in me felt that it should possibly have been two separate books since there are two distinct segments to the novel. There’s the first part when Elena and Faolan meet. This part was wrought with hot tension and intrigue and was well-paced. Then there is the second part, after the two fall in love. This part felt very rushed, almost as though the author wanted to shove too many things into the last few chapters. The result was an ending that skipped over some important story-lines, but still had a darkly-magical feel to it.

The plot and characters were still interesting and there were some amazingly steamy sex scenes. Overall, it was a fun story.