WILD HIGHLAND MAGIC

Author: Kendra Leigh Castle ISBN: 9781402218569 5/2009 PARANORMAL Publisher: SOURCEBOOKS

As soon as she laid eyes on him, her animal instincts took over. For generations, the MacInnes werewolves have been guarding the portal between Earth and the Drakkyn realm. Bastian and his sister came through the portal from Drakkyn, seeking sanctuary in the beautiful Scottish Highlands and relief from the curse that haunts him. Solitary and despairing, Bastian must find a way to break the curse or it will kill him. A family squabble 25 years ago drove a rift between the MacInnes alpha and his brother, and Catrionna MacInnes has never met her MacInnes relatives nor had any guidance in how to be a werewolf. When her father brings his family to Scotland seeking reconciliation, Cat lays eyes on Bastian, and her most basic animal instincts kick in. Bastian tries to resist Cat - no good can come of their attraction - but she won't take no for an answer. She knows that all she wants - what she must have - is to mark him as her own.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Kendra Leigh Castle sets her paranormal romance, WILD HIGHLAND MAGIC, in present day Scotland where Catrionna MacInnes, her father and two sisters are visiting their dad’s side of the family for the first time. In fact, the girls didn’t even know that their dad had any living relatives. He’s been trying to deny his werewolf genetics for the last forty years and left his daughters to discover their powers on their own. Which wasn’t easy, because their witch mother didn’t really train them in the powers from her side of the family either.

Meanwhile, the MacInnes clan has a visitor staying in a cottage on the property. Bastien an Morgaine is the brother-in-law to Cat’s cousin. He’s half ice mage and his mother comes from a long line of goddesses. Oh, better make that two visitors. Bastien has been harboring his sister’s half brother, a dragon shape-shifter, because he hopes that the dragon’s blood will strengthen him in order to throw off a daemon curse that sucks the life out of him more and more each day. Sigh. Better make that three visitors. Bastien’s curse includes having a Narial (shadowy demon) attached to him. Despite all of Bastien’s baggage, Cat falls for him on sight. I’m not even sure what to think about the possible permutations of their progeny.

Castle explains most of the non-human sorts as arrivals from another planet via portals known as Destiny Stones. There’s a chapel on MacInnes property with one of these stones in it, and there are dragons blackmailing Cat’s dad for access back to their home world. So that’s how they got him back to his homeland after forty years. Anyway, despite the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to including so many paranormals as well as allusions to various other paranormal novels and series, it all boils down to love at first sight, soulmates, head-over-heels in lust and mutual love bites determining mates for life. It is just a tad humorous that a werewolf is known as Cat. And of course, I always enjoy a little vicarious erotic friskiness as much as the next gal.

WILD HIGHLAND MAGIC is definitely wild, and the interplay between some of the secondary characters is almost better than the main couple! It is nearly too wild trying to keep up with all of the players and their abilities. The violence (particularly the dungeon torture scenes) seems a bit gratuitous, but most paranormal readers should be able to handle it.

Susan Barton