Tracy’s review of Awaken the Highland Warrior by Anita Clenney.
Historian Bree Kirkland has always been in love with the past, but when she accidentally wakes an ancient Scottish warrior who’s spent the past 150 years sleeping in her backyard, her present is suddenly fraught with danger. Faelan has awakened from the time vault hungry and horny. He grieves for his lost family, wondering who sent the woman to wake him. If she’s a demon, Faelan will have to kill her. If she’s innocent, she’s unleashed the gates of hell in her backyard. Either way they must rely on each other to save their future.
Bree Kirkland has been treasure hunting all of her life so when she finds out that there might be a treasure in her own backyard, literally, she’s pretty excited about it. She manages to open the huge crypt and in there she finds….a man? And a beautiful kilted one as well.
It seems that Faelen Connor was put into a time vault by a demon 150 years ago and Bree’s the one that has set him free. Faelan’s obviously not used to anything here in the 21st century but he picks up on things quickly. The quickest thing he does is go after Bree – but she has no idea who or what he is and he has no clue if she’s on the side of the demon’s or not. There are definite trust issues there but they have to work together for a time to try to find out where Faelan came from.
Bree does end up helping Faelan find his family (descendants) in Scotland but that just reminds Faelan that there’s horrible evil in the world and he wants Bree to have no part of it. You see Faelan is from a clan of warriors that fight demons and are given their tasks/missions by none other than Michael the archangel himself. Now Faelan has to find the demon that he was assigned to kill 150 years ago, find an ancient book that belongs to his family as well as stop all of the humans on the planet from dying and that includes Bree. All in a days work, ya know? But can he push Bree out of his head long enough to get the job done?
This was a great first book in what looks like a very good series about kilted warriors, demons and vampires. Faelan ended up having such a huge extended family that I couldn’t decide who I wanted to read about next!
Those of you who like a sweet romance in all of your books, however, may find this one a little lacking in the “sweet” – but if you’re looking for an independent heroine and the man who’s brought to his knees by her then this is your kind of book. There definitely are moments of soft emotion in this book but the romance took place during battles and family gatherings and though I don’t normally like that it just worked for me in this book.
Now Bree – even at the end of the book – remained a mystery to me. She could do things that even seasoned warriors couldn’t (not physical stuff) but that part was never quite explained. Yes, where she came from was, but I think I was left with a few unanswered questions when I turned the last page. I can’t say I cared for that all that much but I’m hoping that we get more info about Bree in future books.
Overall a really good paranormal with suspense, romance, family and history – just a great combination.
Rating: 4.25 out of 5
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place
This book is available from Sourcebooks Casablanca. You can buy it here
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