Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Review: Warrior's Redemption


Warrior's Redemption (Warrior #1)

by Melissa Mayhue 

Blurb:

Will the magic of modern romance help him defeat an evil ancient power?
MALCOLM MACDOWYLT sees himself a failed warrior, haunted by the death of the woman he married to become laird of Clan MacGahan. Neither his Viking heritage nor his claim to descend from Norse gods can restore his confidence in his ability to protect his people. His sister is held captive, her life in jeopardy, and his Magically powerful half brother wants him dead. The last thing he needs is more responsibility, but that's exactly what he gets when his Faerie mother-in-law arrives seeking justice for her daughter in the form of an enticing woman from seven hundred years in the future.
DANIELLE DEARMON has waited fifteen years to discover the life she is supposed to live. She just never dreamed she'd end up in the thirteenth century with a handsome Scot bent on saving everyone but himself.
With the lives of those most dear to him hanging in the balance, Malcolm sets out to battle a powerful evil Magic, only to learn that the redemption he seeks exists only in the arms of the woman he loves.

Review:

Warrior’s Redemption is the first in the new series by Melissa Mayhue.  Time travel, Fey magic, Norse gods and Scottish Highlanders all come together in an explosive meeting of past and future, myth and fact.  Never having read anything before by this author, I was thrilled to find a lot of my favorite themes in writing all together.  Malcolm and Dani are fabulous characters and the blending of their lives into one is done so well as to be seamless.  I’ve never come across an author who could combine all these themes so artfully and produce such a wonderful love story.
Dani has lived her entire life feeling just a little out of step with everyone around her.  The stories of the Faeries have always resonated with her, leaving her begging them for their help and offering devotions to them as a way to implore that help. The only time she’s ever felt even a little bit like herself is when she’s in the kitchen.  Finally she decides that using the magic of Samhain is the only chance she has of reaching the faeries.   But when she finally makes contact with them, she wakes up in a whole new world.
Malcolm, dealing with the guilt he feels over the death of his first wife, is surprised when his mother-in-law, a suspected Faerie, arrives back in his life.  Convinced finally that Malcolm isn’t to blame for what has happened to her daughter, she decides to use her powerscombined with the magic of Samhain and the blessings of her goddessto offer Malcolm the reward of his Soulmate.  Sent to the stone circle, Malcolm finds a beautiful but mysterious young woman, Dani, in the circle on the brink of death.  Taking her back to his keep, Malcolm is immediately caught by the passion and emotion that Dani brings out in him. 
The two wrestle with their feelings and the truth about Dani’s origins, but in the end they are unable to resist each other.  Giving in to their passion they are caught in the evil machinations of Malcolm’s half-brother, who is determined to see Malcolm and all his siblings pay for their lives.  Trapped in the circumstances that could lead to their deaths, Dani is forced to rescue Malcolm and herself if they are to have any chance of a future together.
I love Dani’s spunk; she is such a lovable and exciting character to read about.  Being from the future, Malcolm doesn’t really know how to handle Dani’s fire, more used to 13th century women being meek and submissive.  Dani frustrates Malcolm and confuses him, but she brings out all the tenderness inside him, giving him something to live for other than his duty.  As they work and love together, both Dani and Malcolm finally begin to accept what the Goddess knew all along.  That they are meant to be together and they can’t let anything or anyone come between them.
I thoroughly loved Malcolm and Dani’s story and as the beginning of a new series this book hits all the important points and was a home run.  The myth and magic in the story give that extra bit of spice, but at its heart Warrior’s Redemption is about just that.  The redemption of a man’s soul as he accepts that he isn’t all powerful, but he is strong enough to protect those he loves as long as he believes in himself.   Dani is the one woman that could bring him to trust in himself again and she is determined to make sure that he knows it.  There is obviously a lot going on in this book, but it is so well weaved together that you are never left with moments of confusion or feeling like you’ve missed something.  I can’t wait to read more in this series and I am looking for to the evil Torquil being vanquished once and for all.

Rating: 4.25 stars

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