I am a big fan of Karen Marie Moning. I love her Highlander books and her Fever series. But Beyond the Highland Mist was written before she hit that sweet spot in her writing that made me a fan for life. It’s not that it’s a bad book –it’s not. It’s just a little better than a standard OK-romance novel.

Hawk Douglas is the sexiest and hottest lover to ever grace the Highlands. And when the Fairy Queen wishes to make her consorts jealous, she sings his praises. It works. They decide to punish him by pairing him with a woman who will deny him. The Court Fool, Adam Black, plucks Adrienne out of the present day and drops her into the lap of the father of the woman Hawk is betrothed to. Janet, the woman Hawk is supposed to marry –though he has never met, is actually dead. So her father forces Adrienne to impersonate his daughter and marry Hawk.

Adrienne has been badly betrayed by her former fiance and she has sworn off “beautiful men.” When you couple that with Hawk’s reputation as a womanizer, she vows never to give in to his advances. Of course that makes him want her all the more. To complicate matters further, Adam Black has insinuated himself into the picture, posing as an uber-sexy blacksmith, also vying for Adrienne’s attentions.

What I think I liked least about this book is that when seduction seemed to fail, Hawk turns to other methods to force Adrienne’s affections. The story compares it to “seeling” a falcon and, yes, by that point, Adrienne was secretly in love with him. But it still did not sit well with me.

Of course, Adrienne has her flaws too. She is downright cruel to Hawk, even when we get to a point where he clearly is in love with her. We all have our hang-ups and fears but there were times I found myself yelling at her to just get over it already.

Otherwise, the story was alright. It doesn’t measure up to Kiss of the Highlander , but it is in this book we meet the illustrious Adam, who plays a role in almost every Highlander story and even makes a cameo in the last Fever book. He’s a very different “man” than he becomes over time, but it’s interesting to see his evolution through the books.