The Immortal Highlander - Karen Marie Moning

The Immortal Highlander by Karen Marie Moning
Fantasy Romance
Form: Audio Book

With his long, black hair and dark, mesmerizing eyes, Adam Black is Trouble with a capital T. Immortal, arrogant, and intensely sensual, he is free to roam across time and continents in pursuit of his insatiable desires. That is, until a curse strips him of his immortality and makes him invisible, a cruel fate for so irresistible a man. With his very life at stake, Adam's only hope for survival is in the hands of the one woman who can actually see him.

Enter law student Gabrielle O'Callaghan. For Gabrielle, cursed with the ability to see both worlds, Mortal and Faery, it is the beginning of a long, dangerous seduction. But as Adam's quest to regain his immortality plunges them into a world of timeless magic, the price of surrender could be their very lives. Unless they can thwart the conspiracy that threatens both Mortal and Faery realms...and give them a shot at a destiny few mortals ever know: glorious, wondrous, endless love...

The Immortal Highlander, as I thought it would be, was the my favorite book of the Highlander series. I still have 2 more I haven’t gotten through, but it’s going to be very hard to top this one as I have a bit of a thing for Faeries, and would love more books about them. Adam Black as the super sexy fae/human was wonderful. You learned so much about him in this book that you didn’t even get a glimpse at in the other books he was in. In The Dark Highlander you did get a touch of his human compassion, at which I was actually surprised at given his behavior in Beyond the Highland Midst. Here we learned a little bit more about his compassion, the extent of it as well as perhaps why for a time he lacked that compassion as well. For me it was heart wrenching.

Gabrielle was not my very favorite female lead, but she wasn’t bad at all. I like that I learned more about the concept of being a Sidhe Seer, the term I’d only first learned about in Dark Fever. She wasn’t really witty or feisty as some of Karen’s previous leads. In fact, I thought her character lacked some depth this time, although it didn’t really detract from the book. Hearing (the narrator for the Highlander books is excellent!) Adam Black say Gabrielle’s name was melting, and that was enough to make up for it. Gabrielle’s best scene actually was when she was telling the maids at Castle Keltar how awful Adam was as a lover. That was quite humorous.

Adam starts off the book as seriously arrogant, which was not very endearing really. I didn’t like he felt he had to “buy” Gabrielle’s trust and affection with gifts either. Watching his seduction change over to courting was great. The best part was when he realized that he thought he had been communicating his feelings to Gabrielle, but really was just confusing her. An age old mistake made my many a man, but he certainly made up for it wit his sacrifice I’d say.

A few of my favorite scenes include the train ride; just picturing Gabrielle sprawled against Adam in the train so intimately yet also innocently. Then when she tried to move away from him, my mind’s eye watching Adam try and keep hold of her as she realized she was in a different dimension and someone was sitting IN her. I just imagined him following her up to a sitting position, watching her with his deep eyes trying not to break physical contact, and keeping his head within a few inches of hers…– it was scorchingly sexy! Every time Adam says “You aren’t falling for me, are you Irish?” equally sexy. But the absolute best, made my heart pound out of my chest, part was when Adam recited the Scottish binding vows to Gabrielle. Once again, the narrator is the one who made that scene, but when his voice broke over the word “soul” I just smiled ear-to-ear. It was breathtaking to say the least!

The only complaint I have about Highlanders…..the hair. I do not like men with waist long hair. Maybe it’s just me, but in my altered version of the men, they usually have shorter hair that is wild long enough to run your hands through and even grab fistfuls, but nothing past the shoulders, or even past the ears really. I’ll never get the long haired hero of many a romance novel…what’s the deal? What’s the drawl? Muscles, yeah sure….but long hair???