The Immortal Highlander

Adam Black is a full-blooded faery. Through the thousands of years of his existence, one of his favorite pastimes is spying on humans (and sometimes meddling). He has finally pushed his queen too far and is punished by becoming mortal. Only humans can’t see him and he can’t see faeries. Until he comes across Gabrielle O’Callaghan, a beautiful law student cursed with the gift of being able to see faeries.

Gabrielle was taught from her earliest memories to avoid all contact with faeries, that if they knew she could see them, they would hunt her as they did her ancestors in years long past. Her family has kept tons of volumes on fairy encounters. When she sees breathtakingly gorgeous Adam Black, she knew she made her first mistake when she couldn’t peel her eyes away.

Adam needs Gabby’s help to get the attention of the queen and regain his immortality and his powers. He plans on seducing beautiful Gabby from the first, but he doesn’t count on the human feelings he will experience and the need for her.

Gabby has always been told to avoid faeries but she has always been drawn to their beauty and has harbored a secret fantasy about a faery prince who would fall in love with her. Adam is the epitome of faery with his drop-dead gorgeous looks and bad ass attitude. Can she put her prejudices aside and live in the now?

Adam has appeared in other books in this series, usually in the guise of trying to screw things up for the main characters. My feelings for him before The Immortal Highlander verged on loathe. He was cocky and manipulative, deceptive and cunning and did I mention vain? He was shallow and self-centered, well you get the gist. I didn’t think his good looks could save him from being a jackass but Moning humanized Adam and as the book progressed, Adam started actually being a human and caring about others, especially Gabby, I just had to love him.

Gabby, like all of Moning’s heroine’s, is a tough twenty first century woman with a fiery temperament to match Adam’s cool demeanor. She holds her own even when she fears the outcome. Brave, beautiful and strong, she’s Adam’s match. It was easy to love her from the first page.

Karen Marie Moning has done two outstanding things in this series and primarily this book. First she gives us these incredibly hot Highlander male leads and pairs them with fiercely strong, take no crap female leads and tells us a great love story. Second, she has created a whole new world with her books. A world where Druids and Faeries exist and co-mingle – and it’s a detailed world, with secrets and enchantments, bad guys and your run of the mill, everyday faery politics.

Filled with humor, passion, sexy as hell Highlanders and a compelling story, this may now be my favorite in the series. I haven’t read any other Highlander romance novels so I have nothing to compare this with, but for romance in general, these are great reads.