***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***

Ellie Denton’s life is falling apart, if it weren’t enough to lose her mother, the last of her family she has a rose shaped mark appear on her chest and her former stepfather just showed up and took everything she owned claiming it as his because her mother never bothered to divorce the man. Worse, she’s losing her mind because she swears she can hear animals talking to her. So when she’s drowning in her own tears over her favorite Highlander romance novel as she’s hiding on her own land she makes a silly wish for her one true love and a highlander of her own. What she doesn’t count on is that she’s a descendent of the Fae and that mark is the sign she’d been granted the powers rightfully hers, making her wish a spell that whisks her into the thirteenth century into the barn of none of other than Caden MacAlister. After his betrothed betrayed him nine years ago almost causing the deaths of his cousin and sister just to get away from her marriage to him Caden wants nothing to do with women. He’s certain the fates have decreed he’s not meant to fall in love so when Ellie shows up in her foreign clothes he sees her as nothing other than another Fae problem he doesn’t want to deal with. He doesn’t count on being irresistibly attracted to her. He need to figure out why he’s there so he can send her home or marry her off to one of his brothers, whichever is more convenient. When he falls for her he’s not sure what he wants anymore, but will the Fae who’ve tempted him with her take her away again?

I debated between four and five stars for this book, I mean I really loved it, the journey was a pure delight to read. I couldn’t immediately think of issues which should have given me adequate reason to give it a five stars, but for some reason I didn’t think it was quite five stars yet. So I had to sit and think, what bothered me about this book to the point I wasn’t ready to give it a perfect rating. Then I realized it was some of the set up, minor details that had been bothering me. First of all the idea that Ellie lost her home in that manner didn’t quite make sense. Whether or not his brother in law was the sheriff or not if you don’t leave a will I was under the impression and correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the state then decided what was to become of your things and could legally actually take them. Additionally whether her mother was divorced or not, if she’d been separated from her ex for a considerable period of time as it sounded and the property was hers before meeting him I would think the blood daughter she has would have more claim to the property than the spouse she’d kicked out years ago. And while I’ll admit small town law enforcement can get away with a lot more than they should, there’s too many other legal systems in place like the state police and doesn’t Texas have their rangers, for something quite this disastrous to just up and happen. So the set up I find a little hard to believe and although I LOVED the twist in the epilogue, I also find that a little bit hard to believe as well especially if both women were Texans. I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense if you haven’t read the book but to give more than that away would spoil the epilogue and while I know I give away more spoilers than I should, I don’t write reviews intending to give away their twists and moments designed to make the reader smile.

An additional issue I had with the book is some of the reoccurring characters from the series just seemed different somehow. I realize nine years has passed for them since the last book, but at the end of the last book it seemed that things were going well for the most part of the MacKeirnan/MacAlister family seemed to be doing well and when we revisit them in this book they all seemed sort of broken, wounded by events of the previous novel. I mean I get that Drew was injured and Caden’s fiancé was the one who betrayed them, but I just didn’t get the impression that there were quite as many scars on this family in the last novel as there are when we rejoin them in this novel. However I will admit that I didn’t think as much on these thing when I was actually reading the novel, I just knew when I finished it that I didn’t think it was quite five stars and had to sit and figure out why. The well written close third person novel was a true delight to read. Beyond just a love story there’s a lot of different things going on in this novel. You’ve got Caden’s brother and the Laird being held hostage because of his brother’s stance in the war, problems with the sheep, a backstabbing friend, the old fiancé back in the picture, not to mention the problems Ellie left behind before the magic brought her there with her stepfather stealing her land and telling her the only way she could live there was if she was willing to be his consort. I’m not sure if I’d call them separate plot lines, well maybe a couple of them might be interwoven plot lines but no doubt this is a lot more than a love story. As with the other novels sex is used sparingly and tastefully to accent the love story, but isn’t substituted for the love story. The attraction and the fire between the two characters all but jumps from the page and the description and setting were vividly written.

As with the other books the characters are fairly well developed. We’ve seen Anabella, Rosalie and Blaine in three out of four novels in the series now so they’re really familiar characters. All of them are fairly well developed secondary characters and it was wonderful to see Blaine get his own secondary love story even if his new significant other wasn’t as developed of a character as I would have liked her to be. Most of the characters in the previous novel, at least those that live in the thirteenth century make a reappearance in this novel as well. There are a few new characters but not many so for readers of the series returning to these characters almost feels like coming home because such and effort is made to create realistic secondary characters within this series. Of course because this is a romance the male and female leads are exceptionally developed. Both of the leads are both brooding and fiery. One thing I didn’t like about Caden is that you would think after what he’d learned about trusting on blind faith in people during the last novel he wouldn’t have fallen into the traps he did in this one, but I guess some people are just blind to the true natures of others and Caden is definitely one of those people. He blames himself for everything, but he’s definitely got the Alpha male vibe going on as well. He’s easy to relate to and other than constantly wanting to pair off Ellie with his brothers even though he wants her for himself he’s definitely one of those men you wouldn’t mind bringing home (that is if you weren’t already engaged.) Ellie is fiery, strong and opinionated but she’s let the world beat up on her too much and it takes her time during the course of novel to really find that inner strength. She’s intelligent but insecure and one of those characters that you can’t help but like.

Overall as with the rest of the series it’s highly recommend for readers of both historical and paranormal romance, after all who doesn’t want a highlander of their own?