Books to Bury Yourself In

Embrace the Highland Warrior
( Book #2 )
by Anita Clenney

Genre: Paranormal Romance

They were driven apart by a timeless secret...

Cody MacBain let the woman of his destiny slip away.  A member of an ancient clan of Scottish warriors, he grew up beside Shay Logan as her secret protector, but his heart compelled him to become more.  Until Shay's true identity was revealed, the fated pair's chance was gone...

But danger will drive them back into each others arms...

 Shay fell for the boy next door, suspecting nothing of the ancient secrets he guarded.  After a stinging betrayal, she's determining to banish the memories of her first love forever.  But the past can't let go, and the boy she once loved has returned to her a warrior determined to protect her from the unspeakable evil fate has planned... 

When the powerful demon that left Shay for dead discovers her empty grave, he comes seeking retribution, believing she possesses an ancient book he has sought for centuries. Knowing she can’t fight the demon alone, Shay returns to her clan and the Scottish Warrior who betrayed her…the only man she’s ever loved, where she discovers that betrayal isn’t always what it seems. Sometimes it’s far worse. 

When a stalker began to haunt Shay in Scotland, she escaped to take sanctuary in a place she had not visited in over 10 years - the Virginia home she ran away from at 18.  It became difficult returning to a place that bought to life so many memories from her childhood, becasue the family/friends that concealed secrets from her since birth were still in residence. Yet, upon returning, Shay was bombarded with intense feelings for a man who once was her best friend/first love and as past mistakes slowly became resolved, a much darker force was coming...solely for her.

Honestly, I forgot I read Book #1 by Anita Clenney (which I am satisfied to say the book cover greatly improved with Book #2, hehe) and was presently surprised to catch up with past characters that I was some-what familiar with.  Shay and Cody were easy to enjoy as the protagonists, but I was more fond of them earlier on in the story than I was at the end due to their relationship being built on jealousy/mistrust/constant-bickering. Also, their earlier awkward awareness of each other was a lot more exciting and animate, for the reader, than their quick excuse for comforting relations (i.e. sex) in the second half of the book. Thus, I was discontented with the evolvement of romance in this story.  Yet, if you like lots of highlander adventures that travel through Scotland and reside in castles - this could be an entertaining read for you, but don't expect a grand epic tale.

Likes: Shay and Cody's childhood memories were some of my favorite parts of the whole story, especially the younger ones that revolved around them innocently playing together.

Dislikes: The story fell a little flat for me half-way through since I was expecting more character development (esp. with the relationship between Shay and Cody as adults) and yet there were many superficial jumps in the tale that left me dissatisfied overall. 

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