Jen HollingRezensionen

A-MAZ-ING! The heroine, a gifted healer, sets out on a quest to find the hero who's rumored to possess divine healing powers after she's unable to heal her dying father. The hero, a recluse in self exile, is tortured by his guilt and hunted as a demon by his towns folk. At first he refuses to see her but she's stubborn and desperate and finally she gains audience with him. He has good reason to deny her pleas along with everyone else's, but he's lonely and develops a kinship toward the beautiful woman. He's not selfish, nor evil but his gifts have brought him nothing but loathing and heartache. He agrees to help her and they set off towards her keep. The way the characters spoke to each other and acted around one another was nothing short or brilliance. They possessed such chemistry and spark and balanced each other out so perfectly that I don't think I've read about two characters who I've loved more. I'm a sucker for a man with grey hair and the hero, though young, has peppered silver streaks thanks to his healing gifts. The heroine, though betrothed to another, falls in love with him the first time she's meets him as he poses as a servant, though she doesn't know it. As the reader, you're taken on a spectacular journey as two lost and damaged souls find each other at the most desperate times of their lives and struggle to keep their passions from having dire consequences. I can't even express how much I loved this book and am counting down the days until I can read it again.

The last thing the hero wants is to be saddled to another wife-even one as beautiful at the heroine. But when his dying friend calls in a favor for the hero to marry his youngest daughter, he can't refuse. Betrayed by his first wife and grieving his dead son, the hero is at first cold and standoffish. His deep distrust of women is justified but he's having a hard time disliking his new betrothed. The heroine really wants to marry the Earl for 3 reasons. First off, it's her dying fathers wish and she would do anything to please him. Secondly, she really wants to be a countess. And lastly, it's either the Earl or the Frenchman and there's no way she'll move to France. She's enraptured by her new husband. He's handsome and strong but cold and distrusting of everything she does. But when they travel to her new home, she begins to see a new side of him. He's soft and tender and begins to treat her with love. So when it becomes apparently that someone is trying to kill her, he must do what he can to protect her. Despite the fact that rumors still swirl around that he killed his first wife and that her family still think he trying to hill her, the heroine is never in doubt about his feelings for her. He doesn't believe in magic or ghosts-doesn't believe that his new wife is a witch- but what will he do if the supernatural is the only way to save her life? I thought this is be a great book. The heroine was horribly naïve and ignorant of the world around her. Her mother was burned at the stake for witchcraft but she insists on practicing her newly discovered magic at her peril. I found it frustrating that she would do such a thing-especially in a new place where people aren't so forgiving of witches. I could understand that hero's irritation at her insistence to blame everything on the supernatural when there are very real dangers in living people. But in the scheme of things he was tolerant of his wife's quirks because he loved her, only wanting what's best for her and getting angry when she puts her life in danger. I thought this was a good story albeit slow at times. The ending kicked it up but until that point I found the plot and the over all slow pace of your typical historical romance to be lacking in excitement and conflict. The hero sort of faded off for me during the middle, losing, I felt, a bit of his charisma. The major lack luster factor about this book was that there was very little tension between the characters after the married and slept together. Over all, I enjoyed this book but thinking back to My Shadow Warrior (Rose's story) and remembering the passion and the excitement of that story and how much I loved it, sort of put a damper on this story. I don't feel it measured up to the next book in the series. But, this was still a lovely book. Just less grand.

The hero, crippled with terrible back pain after his spine healed crooked spends his life proving that he is a capable, if not whole, man. The heroine started out just a spoiled whiny girl. She even leaves the poor guy behind in the woods one night because she thought he would have problems keeping up with her. But as the story went on you could tell that she went from pitying him to loving him. When the hero died after being tortured, I cried right along with her. My only objection was how many times the villain could have been killed and they let the chances pass by. The heroine wouldn't have had to become a vampire if they'd have just killed the bastard.

A witch that can talk with animals, a gift she hates and tries to block from her life. An evil man that considers himself a servant of god hunts her and burns "witches" through out Scotland. He has hunted and taunted her since she was twelve, she can't live with the constant fear. She searches for the mythical Blood Witch, who may be able to remove her "curse". She travels far and meets up with a drunken handsome crippled man (in more ways than one) from her childhood that will change her life. They embark on a journey filled with terrors, triumphs and awakening hearts.
I picked this book up at a book sale not knowing the author. I am so glad I did I found the story engaging and was unable to put it down. It is a light quick read with "real" characters.

so far from the quality of the first few in this series this book should not be included as part of the series. very poor plot.

good story base, poor blood witch plot.½

A girl who communicates with animals has been hunted most of her life by a witchhunter that is obsessed with her. Determined to be rid of her curse she seeks out a Blood Witch. Her search first brings her to Stephen Ross who is crippled. Together they set out to find the true Blood Witch.
During their journey they are hunted by Luthias the witchhunter. Twice he has caught up with them and twice they have been able to barely escape.
Deidra and Stephen do fall in love and he is detirmened to make the Blood Witch make him a whole man. Unprepared he sees the Blood Witch, realizes, almost too late that he would rather have Deidra he barely escapes. However he is weak and confused. When he goes to the sea village in search of Deidra he falls into Luthias' trap.
I really liked the pace of this book. I couldn't read it fast enough. I can't wait for My Immortal Promise.

My Rating: A

My Review:

As I always do, I really enjoyed Jen Holling's newest book. What I enjoyed the most was the type of romance there was between Drake and Hannah. Because of their baggage their love grew with mostly a start from an angry and probably unhealthy passion. But that passion led to letting down the walls and realizing that they were perfect for each other. It seemed a bit more real to me.

I wish that at the end of the book we would have seen more of what happens to them after their demons are taken care of. An epilogue would have been nice, but it didn't take away from the book to not have one.

The only other issue I had with the book was that in the first 50 pages or so, the author continued to point out things that were characteristics of being a blood witch (a vampire) which was pretty unnecessary. But the farther you got into the book the less it was done, until it just never happened again.

All in all a great book. It could stand alone from the first, but I recommend reading the first in the series before this one.

Full review located at http://paganbookreviews.com/2008/12/12/my-immortal-promise-by-jen-holling/

I thought this was a pretty good book ! Yes the story was a bit predictable but it was still very good!

If you like historical romances, that aren't of the really steamy variety, especially during this time period, you'll like this book. I found it nice to read a book like this for a change, it was very different from her MacDonell Brides Trilogy. This had more historical detail, intrigue and suspense to it, with a real plot, even though it ran off on tangents at times, which might have been more acceptable if the book were longer. In any event, I still liked it.

http://ktleyed.blogspot.com/2008/12/time-for-dreams-by-jen-holling.html½

This is the third and last of the series about the three young beautiful sisters who are witches and are trying to figure out what is killing their father, who has married them off (or planning to) to different lairds throughout Scotland to keep them safe once he's gone. I was pleasantly surprised with this one, it was much better than I thought it would be. I found the first two to be a little dull, but this one made up for it with an interesting twist. It becomes obvious very soon in this book that this particular daughter, Rose, is not destined to marry the man she has been betrothed to.

http://ktleyed.blogspot.com/2008/06/my-shadow-warrior-by-jen-holling.html½

if you like witchy romances, you'd probably like this book (I'm not into witches). I found the outcome predictable and guessed who was behind the mysterious deaths and poisonings and I'm pretty positive I know what is the mysterious illness that is killing their father.

http://ktleyed.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-devilish-scotsman-by-jen-holling.html

Well, I'm not sorry I read "My Immortal Promise" by Jen Holling, but I'm not glad either. My major beef is that the hero does something bonehead stupid in the first chapter. He lets the bad guy get away. Then he fights the bad guy over and over for the rest of the book. So I get that fighting the bad guy is the 'conflict' in the book, but couldn't the bad guy have gotten away in some other way? Why did the hero have to be such a bonehead? But really, the more I think about it, the more I didn't like the hero. He did more boneheaded things. Anyway, the heroine is a 'blood witch' (vampire) and at the end of Holling's first book, the hero had agreed to come back to the blood witch and let her make him a blood witch too. But while he was gone she apparently changes her mind. They're attracted to each other, but don't want to be for different reasons. They must overcome their pasts and beat the bad guy. Meh.

I had high hopes for My Shadow Warrior when I picked it up...And in the end, I wasn't too disappointed. True, it wasn't my favorite book, but it was still pretty good. The story line was perfect-- a historical romance set in Scotland, but with a slight paranormal twist. I love paranormal romances, so when an author is able to weave together both historical and paranormal, I'm very happy. Holling was able to do that in My Shadow Warrior, but I felt like, at times, she wasn't quite reaching it's full potential. Especially in the passion department.

I think that is my only complaint, really. There was amble opportunity to take the love scenes and turn up the heat, not in a straight-forward erotic way, but in a combination of love and lust, both of which the hero and heroine had plenty of. In fact, through out the whole book, the H/H only had one sexual encounter, and it was pretty tame, over in only a few pages and not filled with a whole lot of conversation *Which, depending on the story and the author's writing, can be just as erotic as the actual sex* or, well, sex. I felt disappointed, because even though the main point of a romance book is the romance, the love and connection, I think that, in a way, the intimate connection they share is also important. If she [Jen Holling] had only added a tad bit more passion to Will and Rose's story, I probably would have gave it a perfect rating.

The healing/magic subplot was brillantly done, and I will probably go back to read her previous books about Rose's sisters. Jen may not write very 'hot' romance, as in the love scenes, but she does write a great historical/paranormal romance, set in Scotland, no less, which is one my favorite backdrops for books.

4.5/5 STARS! My Shadow Warrior is a perfect combination of a lush Scotland setting with a paranormal twist. The story is filled with magic and mystery, love and danger, connection and even a few laughs. A great story, though a bit lacking in heat. Still, this is a book I would recommend to any romance fan.½

Didn't particularly enjoy this book. Both the hero and heroine were extremely irritating at times. She's a witch who can communicate with animals born into a lineage of witches. Her father is a strong healer. She is hanted by a witch-hunter who blames her for his fierce desire for her. The hero was crippled when he took a bullet to the back while trying to save a friend. He resents her efforts to care for him. They both think a visit to a vampire can help with their problems.

You can likely figure out the tale from here...I did.

During a turbulent time in Scotland, full of witch hunts and burnings, Alan MacDonell sent his three beautiful and “gifted” daughters away for safekeeping. A dozen years later, he sends a trusted friend to retrieve his eldest daughter from England.

Sir Philip Kilpatrick is immediately intrigued by but wary of the enigmatic Isobel MacDonell, but his mission is not to be intrigued - he is only to escort her to the safety of her father’s keep. But the more time spent together, the more fascinated they are by each other; and the more Philip is upset by Isobel’s impending marriage - especially to an earl he neither respects nor trusts.

To complicate matters further, as Philip continues to see overwhelming evidence of Isobel’s power, he becomes hopeful that she may be able to help him right an old wrong. When they are diverted from their course, opportunity arises for them to learn to trust one another with their secrets and perhaps even their hearts.

This was a nice medieval Scottish romance with a psychic twist. Philip is the classic “knight in shining armor” hero (except in a kilt), though he may need a rescuer of his own at some point, with a couple of entertaining sidekicks. Isobel is a willful and heartwarming damsel, who uses her powers to help people despite the danger to herself. Nothing epic here, but a good addition to the genre and I look forward to the sequels about her two sisters.