A Highlander's Passion by Vonnie Davis

Title: A Highlander's Passion (Highlander's Beloved #2)
Author: Vonnie Davis
Source: NetGalley
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: Novel
Release Date: April 7, 2015
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Rating - 4
Sexual - 3

As a bear-shifter in a pack roaming the Scottish countryside, Bryce Matheson
embodies brute force and untamed abandon. As a widower, he's running scared. When Bryce attempted to open his scarred heart to another, she grew tired of waiting for him to state his intentions, and the unearthly beauty spurned him for someone who wasn't worthy. But now that fate has conspired to set Kenzie Denune free once again, Bryce vows to finally win her love.

Kenzie is a witch who summons her powers to protect those too weak to care for themselves. After surviving an abusive husband, she swears off men—even men like Bryce, whose iron muscles make her knees weak, and whose piercing eyes fill her with longing. Her life's purpose is to help others. However, dark forces have different plans for her gifts. To save herself, Kenzie must team up with the shifter who has always stirred her soul—and trust in a passion powerful enough to set her blood aflame.

Ok - so this one was nothing like I expected. I had expected a fun Scottish historical featuring shifters. It is acutally a fun Scottish CONTEMPORARY featuring all sorts of paranormal types. I'd long wondered why there weren't more Scottish contemporaries, and I finally found one! Yay! I just wish I had known it going in because I was a tad confused for the first little bit. The narrative was also written with a touch of Scottish accent built in and that took a little getting used to.

Now once I adjusted to that a bit, I really fell in love with the story. It had so many fun elements like elderly witches with pink hair, jealous teddy bear like shifters, and a bad guy that was seriously scary. Bryce Matheson was a bit of an odd duck - and he always wore a kilt. He and Kenzie both have their fair share of tragedy in their past, and they will need to deal with it before they can move on.

There are a lot of twists and surprises in this. I was surprised at how easily they were worked into the storyline so that they just seemed to fit just right.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble

Review: Never Seduce a Scot by Maya Banks

Title: Never Seduce a Scot (The Montgomerys and Armstrongs #1)
Author: Maya Banks
Source: Self Purchased
Genre: Historical Romance (Scottish)
Length: Novel
Release Date: September 25, 2012
Reviewer: Jasmyn

Eveline Armstrong is fiercely loved and protected by her powerful clan, but outsiders consider her "touched." Beautiful, fey, with a level, intent gaze, she doesn't speak.  No one, not even her family, knows that she cannot hear.  Content with her life of seclusion, Eveline has taught herself to read lips and allows the outside world to view her as daft.  But when an arranged marriage into a rival clan makes Graeme Montgomery her husband, Eveline accepts her duty - unprepared for the delights to come. Graeme is a rugged warrior with a voice so deep and powerful that his new bride can hear it, and hands and kisses so tender and skilled that he stirs her deepest passions.

Grame is intrigued by the mysterious Eveline, whose silent lips are ripe with temptation and whose bright, intelligent eyes can see into his soul.  As intimacy deepens, he learns her secret.  But when clan rivalries and dark deeds threaten the wife he has only begun to cherish, the Scottish warrior will move heaven and earth to save the woman who has awakened his heart to the beautiful song of a rare and magical love.