Shawnee Moon [Paperback]

From the inside front:

Twilight of destiny...

Condemned for a desperate act, Ailin MacGreggor approaches the gallows frightened yet unbowed. But with a word, her young life will be spared--if she agrees to wed the despised enemy who destroyed her stepfather on the field of battle.

Shawnee moon...

When his Shawnee mother died, handsome half-breed Sterling Gray left the noble tribe that raised him--and crossed an ocean to become a British soldier and a gentleman. Now he is returning to his homeland with a breathtaking new bride--a Scottish hellion wearing an ancient Celtic necklace, whom he rescued from the hangman's noose. And though his very presence inflames Cailin's heart with vengeful fire, Sterling knows the dangerous beauty is his destiny--a love foretold in mystic visions that he must risk his passion, his pride, and his future to win.

And my review:

This book had so much promise, and it got off to a great start. Sterling, the hero, saw Cailin, the heroine, during his vision quest for a spirit guide, and has been haunted by her face ever since. Finally, he sees her in real life, on a battlefield. However, the heroine hates him, for she comes upon him just in time to see him kill her beloved stepfather.

Because of his vision, Sterling feels compelled to save her from the gallows. He knows that she will play a key role in his life. Cailin hates him and swears to avenge her stepfather. Sterling takes her to America to claim his heritage (land granted to his late mother by the King). Cailin agrees that she will remain with him for two years, and then she will return to Scotland to seek out her family. But of course the two fall in love.

While I enjoyed the first part of this novel, I felt that it started to fizzle at the halfway point. The "enemies" part of the book was so well done that their sudden turnaround to lovers felt a bit rushed. Especially in the case of the hero. He kept telling the heroine that he loved her, even though she kept saying that she was going to leave him. It was sweet, but a bit unrealistic. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of a gradual buildup of affection.

Once they slept together the first time, they seemed to do nothing else. While I don't have a problem with sex in a romance novel, there were just too many scenes of it here. After a while, I was rolling my eyes and muttering, "For Pete's sake, are they at it again?" One or two love scenes is sufficient. A dozen detailed ones gets to be overkill after a while. Also, the fact that the heroine hadn't said, "I love you," took away from some of my enjoyment of the novel. I like to read about a couple with a real emotional connection, not just a physical one. Unfortunately, I never really felt it here.

Also, there was a lot of emphasis on Native American tribes and traditions that I felt took time away from the romance. And while I thought the idea of the heroine having "the sight" and being connected to the hero in a paranormal way was interesting, I felt that so much time was devoted to that storyline that the romance was a bit shortchanged.

All in all, it was an okay read, but not one I'm keeping to read again.

› Go to Amazon U.S. to see the review  3.0 out of 5 stars