Beyond the Highland Mist (Highlander, #1)

by Karen Marie Moning

book data

1,109 ratings, 4.04 average rating, 87 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		38%
4		35%
3		19%
2		5%
1		1%

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published

May 29th 2004 (first published 1999) by Dell

binding

Mass Market Paperback, 375 pages

characters

Hawk, Adrienne Simone

isbn

0440244161 (isbn13: 9780440244165)

description

AN ALLURING LAIRD
He was known throughout the kingdom as Hawk, legendary predator of the battlefield and the boudoir. No woman could refuse his ...more

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06/26/08

The Black Pearl rated it:

bookshelves: time-travel

I love historical romances - especially those featuring pirates, knights, and highlanders - so I was excited to discover Karen Marie Moning's "Highlander" series. "Beyond the Highland Mist" is the first in the series and I am so glad I picked this book up!

Sixteenth Century - Sidheach (Sid-hawk) James Lyon Douglas is known as Hawk, legendary lover to countless women. His sensuality just oozes off the pages. He is well-aware of the hold his beauty and his sexuality...more I love historical romances - especially those featuring pirates, knights, and highlanders - so I was excited to discover Karen Marie Moning's "Highlander" series. "Beyond the Highland Mist" is the first in the series and I am so glad I picked this book up!

Sixteenth Century - Sidheach (Sid-hawk) James Lyon Douglas is known as Hawk, legendary lover to countless women. His sensuality just oozes off the pages. He is well-aware of the hold his beauty and his sexuality holds over the women who are lucky/unlucky enough to share his bed. As he so arrogantly brags to his best friend and captain of the guard, Grimm, "There is not a woman I can not have." A wish upon a star by his friend soon finds the legendary lover eating those very words.

Twentieth Century - Adrienne de Simone has had enough with beautiful men. Finding her world turned upside down by a failed and almost fatal relationship with a gorgeous playboy, she swears off beautiful men forever. Finding herself the pawn in a game between the mortals and the fae, Adrienne is thrust back in time to the sixteenth century where she is to be wed to the man who is the very epitome of everything she has sworn off in men.

Things getting very interesting when the first time Hawk sees his wife, who he was determined before to ignore, she's checking out the blacksmith, Adam Black. Once so sure of himself, Hawk finds himself treading the very unfamiliar waters of jealousy. Determined to not lose his bride to a blacksmith, Hawk sets out to seduce her only to find his every plan thwarted by the not so easily won Adrienne.

I laughed until I cried at these two! Hawk's jealousy towards Adam was hilarious...and touching. The secondary characters were just as enjoyable, too! From Lady Lydia, the Hawk's mother to Tavis and his "I'll say" to the Rom and their superstitions - all come together to form a wonderful story of wit, mayhem, and magic!

By the way, I found myself just as enchanted by Adam Black the blacksmith as the heroine and after a quick search on Amazon.com I found that he has his own book! *squeal Of course it comes much later in the series and so I'll have to wait patiently until I've finished the others before I can find out what happened to my favorite "prankster". *wink
(less)

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10/14/08

Alaine rated it:

(review of isbn 0440242169)

bookshelves: 2009-read, own-audio, romance-historical

Read in January, 2009

These books are written for pure escapism and this one will not disappoint. It's a fun time travel historical romance, the first in a series of eight called the Highland Series.

The Fairy Queen upsets men in her court by praising the gorgeous mortal Hawk, a Scottish lord. The Queen's jester wants to show that he's more desirable than Hawk, so he transports Adrienne, from the 20th century because she hates beautiful men, back in time to the 1600's and makes her Hawk's bride. She doesn...more

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02/17/09

LibraryLass rated it:

bookshelves: 2009, monthly-challenges

Read in March, 2009

Loved it!!! I thoroughly enjoyed the whole premise of this book. The idea of a man (Hawk) getting his comeuppance by sending a woman (Adrienne) who hates beautiful men, just tickled me right from the beginning.

I thought it was a clever plotline. I have read time-travel before and enjoyed but this was clever and funny. It certainly had its poignant moments too and this just added a bit of depth to the story.

I loved how KMM developed Hawk and Adrienne's characters. T...more

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6 comments

03/04/09

Jen rated it:

(review of isbn 1423341260)

bookshelves: audio, pnr-fantasy-scifi-horror

Read in March, 2009

Fantastic start and decent ending, but a horribly frustrating middle. Why must KMM insist on writing about such irritating heroines? Hawk mostly makes up for his woman's stupidity, but even he has his aggravating moments.

I bought this audiobook for Fever series hints. This book contains a tiny bit of background, but not enough to make this book worthwhile. If I could do it over, I'd have bought the paperback and just skimmed for the good stuff. ~3.25 Stars

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02/14/09

BJ Rose rated it:

bookshelves: historical-romance, time-travel

Read in March, 2009

What an intriguing idea for time travel - the fairy folk interfere out of anger or revenge. And that was after the Hawk had a miserable 15 years serving a very vengeful king. Adrienne got the best of the deal - she was whisked out of a life she didn't really want, but just when they both had what they wanted, the fairy fool interfered again. And this was all because the fairy queen lied!!! Lots of angst for a while, but what a wonderful last chapter and epilogue.

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6 comments

04/07/09

Lori Rosenbrook rated it:

Read in March, 2009

I bought this as an audio book. It was my first audio book and I cant say that I loved it. I'm not entirely sure how much of my review is based on the fact that it was an audio book and how much is on the story itself.
As for the audio part, I found that there times that I would rather be reading quickly/skimming boring parts, but of course I could not do this, because its an audio book. Then, there's the voices. The reader is a male and he does okay with male parts. He even sounds a bit ...more

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06/10/09

Krista rated it:

Read in June, 2009

A romance novel with time travel and a strong female. I haven't read a "Harlequin" style romance in YEARS, maybe since my late teens, so this was a departure from my normal reading material. I have to say the story sucked me in immediately and I stayed up until 2AM to finish it.

Basically a 1990's woman who hates "beautiful men" because of her marriage to one who was less than kind, and as it turns out a criminal, is suddenly and without explanation transported t...more

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02/25/09

Angie rated it:

bookshelves: paper-back-swap

Read in March, 2009

I've cursed J.R. Ward once and I have to do it again. Darn you, J.R. Ward. As much as I complain about your silly vampire names and their slang, I like them entirely too much. You've ruined me for all other paranormal romance! I couldn't quite concentrate on BtHM for thinking about the next book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

As a rule I don't like Highlander romance. When I read a romance that takes place any time after 1850 it's easy for me to imagine a bathed and civilize...more

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01/22/09

Christina rated it:

Read in December, 2007

recommended to Christina by: My Aunt Debbie, ha!
recommends it for: you know who you are ladies!

Top notch in smutty and ridiculous love relationships. The only series of romance novels I will probably ever bother to read.It was like watching soft core porn only things always are better in my head *wink wink*

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03/25/09

Awallens rated it:

Read in April, 2009

I wasn't sure about this book. I'm not one for romancy romances. I like a little plot with my romance, thank you very much. So when I picked up this book I had my doubts. But I was wrong and I can't wait to get the rest of the books in the series into my hot little hands. The plot moved at a cracking pace, and the characters weren't cookie-cuttter versions which is always nice to see. the heroine could have had a little more oomph, and I always get impatient with these books and the misunders...more

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09/01/08

Whitelady3 rated it:

bookshelves: not-own

Read in December, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I already knew this book wasn't a masterpiece, it wasn't on the level of The Lions of Al-Rassan, neither did I wanted it to be, but still I was waiting more from it than what it was delivered.

We follow the story of Hawk, a nice example of man and whose virility was much appreciated by the women who had lay with him, among whom the queen of the Tuatha Dé Danann could be counted, without however he ever falling in love. After the queen's rejoice over his deeds, Hawk becomes the target...more I already knew this book wasn't a masterpiece, it wasn't on the level of The Lions of Al-Rassan, neither did I wanted it to be, but still I was waiting more from it than what it was delivered.

We follow the story of Hawk, a nice example of man and whose virility was much appreciated by the women who had lay with him, among whom the queen of the Tuatha Dé Danann could be counted, without however he ever falling in love. After the queen's rejoice over his deeds, Hawk becomes the target for a revenge led by the queen's lovers. That's what leads Adrienne, who due to her past hates beautiful womanizer men, to be sent from the 20th century to the 16th to be a pawn on the revenge.

The first two thirds of the book revolve around Hawk and Adam Black trying to get Adrienne into sleeping with them. Really... I would like to be kidding but it's true, you can resume those two thirds to it. Of course there's some intrigue here and there, but basically is about two guys promising her how they would be able to take her to heaven (or Valhala...) if she chose one of them to have sex with. Adam Black is a reasonable interesting character, but Hawk and Adrienne, the two leading characters, are simply boring. He spends most of his time wondering why does she dislikes him, since is such a virile and beautiful man, while she spends her time regretting being betrayed by a beautiful man which lead her to distrust all beautiful men and so deny Hawk's moves towards her. Character's depth? Practically nonexistent.

Fortunately the third part is a bit better; the story becomes more interesting with their separation after they realize they're in love. But still, this book loses when compared to Outlander, for example, in which there's also a travel through time which leads the lead characters to meet and fall in love. There we have depth to the characters, who question the world to which they were brought, who question why that happen, something this book seems to lack.

The author is a good writer, she writes very well, the sex scenes were hot, but still I would like her to develop the characters and their story, to make us connect with the characters, to cheer for them, root for them, to want them together from the beginning and not only on the very end. I was really close to put it aside due to the lack of empathy I felt towards the characters.(less)

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07/08/08

Beth(MN) rated it:

bookshelves: 2007, get-a-load-of-that-man-candy, love-slave, re-reads, scottish, time-travel

Read in January, 2007

After finishing books six and seven, I finally decided to do it right by reading the first book in the Highlander Series by Karen Marie Moning. I wasn’t terribly impressed with this novel. I thought the relationship between the main characters felt trite and formulaic and the plot was underdeveloped. In other words, it’s exactly what one would expect from a book of it’s’ genre. In all fairness, I would say the final 1/3 of the book isn’t bad. But it felt like the first 2/3 were merely ...more

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05/27/08

Jill rated it:

bookshelves: karen-marie-moning

Read in May, 2008

This was so good, I finished it in one day--an unheard of thing for me these days! This is the 1st one in Moning's "Highlander" series and was excellent! Adrienne de Simone, trying to recover from a relationship gone very, very bad, has sworn off men, vowing to hate all beautiful men when she is suddenly transported back in time 500 years and finds herself married to a Highland Laird. A beautiful Highland Laird, Hawk is a legend among men and women for his prowess on the battlefield an...more

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12/26/07

Rhapsody rated it:

bookshelves: fiction, romance, romance-fey, romance-historical, romance-paranormal, romance-time-travel

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: romance readers who like time-travel/Scottish heroes

Pretty funny story. The Fairy Queen alienates some of the men in her court by praising the gorgeous mortal Hawk, a Scottish lord. They Queen's jester wants to show that he's more desirable than Hawk, so he transports Adrienne, a lonely woman from the 20th century who hates beautiful men, back in time to the 1500's and replaces Hawk's bride with her. Although Adrienne is technically Hawk's wife, she doesn't trust him and always pushes him away, and Adam and Hawk have to compete for her love.
...more

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06/25/09

Denise rated it:

bookshelves: to-read

Read in June, 2009

OK it wasn't Outlander but it had highlanders, time travel, strong female character, and romance. There were similarities but it took place in the 1500's not 1700's (not much was different though). I really liked it and this is the first of books in this series. They aren't as "deep" in detail as the Outlander series but I kind of like that part. Interesting premise and not totally, only partially predictable at times. It was a page turner that I didn't want to put down. QUICK READ...more

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06/20/09

Kimmy Wooten rated it:

Read in July, 2007

Almost a soft core porn highlander series. I loved the time travel idea, and the writing was very good, but the characters irritated me to no end. Hawk was such a pretty boy ego monster, and the heroine was at times so sniveling, that on more than one occasion I chucked the book across the room, turned off the light and went to sleep. I have read other books in this series that I have enjoyed greatly, so don't give up on Karen's writing.

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01/16/09

Sunflower rated it:

bookshelves: fiction-read-2009, time-travel--romance

Read in January, 2009

Think "The Taming of the Shrew" and The Outlander series put in a blender, with a sprinkle of Mills and Boon, and you pretty much have this book, (though it isn't as good as the first two).
Why did I finish it? I actually ordered it from Amazon because it isn't available in NZ, so it had clocked up a few carbon debits on its way to me, and deserved to be read. I was catching up with one of my book groups who read this earlier, and it belongs to another of the genres I don't frequ...more

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01/11/09

Laurie G rated it:

Read in January, 2009

I kinda got into the buff Highlander time travel thing and this delivers on several levels. What kept this from getting 5 stars was I didn't like the ending as much as I thought I would. I could see several other ways to go, and thought the way it turned out was nice...but too stayed.

Overall...I liked the book...liked the story...He could eat crackers in my bed any day of the week...so it wasn't a waste of time.

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05/26/09

penelopewanders rated it:

(review of isbn 1423341260)

Read in May, 2009

Had heard a lot about this series and was a wee bit disappointed. Reminded me a bit of Outlander, but not as good.. Found myself irritated by Arianne's insistence on being unpleasant to Hawk. Arianne didn't seem really three dimensional to me... just a lot of anger and bitterness. The good news is that I have several others in the series so I can see if it gets better.

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09/19/07

Char rated it:

I wanted to like this book. As Publisher's Weekly says,"Moning offers the promise of a terrific plotline in her debut romance: a troubled young woman, Adrienne is transported from the 20th century to 16th-century Scotland by an evil jester to take revenge on a Scottish laird. The author has the right characters: there's the heroine who doesn't trust beautiful men and a handsome hero cursed to love a woman who will not return his love. Add gypsies and Scottish mysticism, against the backdrop...more

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