Hazel Hunter

I'm enjoying this medieval Scottish time-traveling series by Hazel Hunter. I thought it would be ridiculous because it is about an immortal Scottish clan fighting immortal Roman vampires who the author calls “undead” but it's not ridiculous. It's good.

In the last book, we met Kinley who time traveled from San Diego to medieval Scotland and ended up marrying the McDonnel Clan leader, Lachlan.

In this book, Diana Burke is the detective from the Missing Person's Unit in charge of looking for Kinley. She ends up falling into medieval Scotland and finds Kinley living happily with Clan McDonnel.

Diana finds herself liking it there too, especially because of one gorgeous tattooed Scot named Tharaen aka Raen. She wants to stay but finds herself with a powerful opponent, a druid named Bhaltair. The moment he saw Diana, he wanted her to be gone. He looked like he hated her and she didn't know why.

They know that anyone who travels through the gate from the future has druid blood. Diana's druid gift is that she can track people so the clan finds her useful and may side with her against the druids. This might not end well.

There are some graphic and strange sex scenes in this book which had me cringing but other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.… (more)

This was different. It was a smorgasbord of subject matter all rolled into one story. There's time travel, Highlanders, druids and vampires which seems kind of hokie but the author made it work.

Captain Kinley Chandler of the USAF was in an explosion and was caught in enemy fire. She survived but suspects she will soon die in the VA hospital in San Diego. Although her body is a wreck, she was not burned in the explosion. She's never been burned.

Her therapist takes her on a wheelchair ride to try to cheer her up. When the therapist leaves her in an oak grove to run back to the van to get her phone, Kinley sees her chance to roll down the hill and end things.

Instead of dying, she's transported to medieval Scotland in the middle of a battle between what looks like Romans and Highlanders. When six Romans surround one of the men, Kinley runs out and ends up frying them with the fire that shoots out of her hands.

She thinks she's either dead or in a coma, dreaming up this wild tale. She is completely healed so she knows it has to be a dream.

Lachlan McDonnel is the laird of his clan. He was fighting the undead when the lass came out from behind the stones and saved his life. He kissed her. She punched him so or of his men knocked her out and he takes her back to his castle.

The book was entertaining and we'll written. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.… (more)

There were already a mix of supernatural myths or legends in this series such as immortal Highlanders, Druids and vampires but now Vikings and Norse gods have been tossed into the salad. It's quite a lot to digest.

Tormod is a Viking who was enslaved by the Pritani when he was younger. He had given up his freedom in order to get his sister Thora to safety. As far as I can glean from the story, Pritani were what the ancient Picts or early Gaelic tribes were called.

Thora thought Tormod had been killed. She became a shield maiden and spent the rest of her life getting revenge by killing every Pritani she could find. She was known as Thora the Merciless.

Tormod spends lot of his free time looking for her grave so he can bury her bones next to his parents.

Jema is an archeologist who is intent on finding Freya's Eye to make a name for herself, not for her own gain but in hopes of getting a teaching position so she can earn enough to help her twin brother who is dying of ALS

Jema takes her withered brother Gavin to the dig she is working on after everyone else has gone home. They both end up falling back into time to medieval Scotland. Jema loses her memory and they are separated. She is literally thrown into Tormod's arms when she shoots out of the tomb.

It was interesting following all the different storylines going on in this book. There is Quintus who is the leader of the undead Roman Legion whose main goal is to destroy the immortal McDonnel Clan. He keeps being defeated in each book but always comes up with another scheme. Then there is Gavin who has his own adventure and, of course, Jema and Tormod are the main story. With so much going on, it took a little from the romance side of things.

The next book is titled Gavin so I'm off to read it now.… (more)