Review.....HIGHLAND DRAGON by Kimberly Killion

Raise your hand if you love men in skirts.........OK, OK kilts! Does it really matter? They are all sexy as hell and I do adore a brutish alpha male with a sensitive heart in a kilt. Oh and that lovable Scottish brogue. How can I contain myself. Well, it was hard I tell you, damn hard reading HIGHLAND DRAGON by Kimberly Killion, because I fell in love. In love with a wounded Scottish Highlander with a heart of gold, a heart that has been tormented by tragedy and death and war so much loss. A Scottish Highlander who's heart is under lock and key due to being blinded by his quest for vengeance of his father's death. A Scottish Highlander who is now the MacLeod Laird and must protect his clan more than ever against a tyrannical and murderous Beast. A Scottish Highlander who falls in love unexpectedly and allows the steel cage his heart has been locked away in to shatter and break free as he discovers life and love have more value than his vengeance. There is something to live for and her name is Akira, Akira Neish. I was so excited when I finished this book because it was just THAT good, it has taken me a few days to right this review and gather my thoughts. I truly loved it so much that I feel like I want to tell you EVERY detail so you too can fall in love with Akira & Calin. But, I will be good, no spoilers..... because my little kiddies, you will have to wait until October 06, 2009 to read this gem. And I know you won't regret adding it to your TBR List. First let me tell you I am Highlander Time travel fan (Karen Marie Moning ruined me) I do like very much Hannah Howell and Lindsey Sands as well (sometimes), but to be perfectly frank and honest I haven't branched out beyond my comfort zone to read any true historical & very steamy medieval romances. First, well secondly actually the dialect bothers me in most historicals, especially Scottish one's so much so that I have a hard time letting the words flow through my brain. NOT HERE my friends, the verbiage was so smooth that I almost forgot what I was reading I was so transfixed back unto the 16th Century. Then my other pet peeve is the imagery, ugh please spare me the 2-4 page detailed description of how green the knoll was or the fine stitching of the tapestry. OK, imagery is needed I agree just don't blather about it nonstop. NOT HERE, Kimberly Killion has intertwined the adequate amount of imagery needed into the dialog to place me in 1502 and fill my head and imagination just enough to where I felt as though I was there standing beside the character's as though I was watching their lives in real time, I cried with them, I laughed with them, I felt their anger and remorse and I certainly blushed with them during those smokin hot sex scenes. I could smell the heather and lavender, imagine the highland countryside and the stone floors of the castle without feeling smothered and frankly without skipping pages to save my own sanity! So........on with the review and enough of MY blathering!
Our Story begins as a reflection eighteen long years prior where the beautiful and much abused Lena is giving birth to her 4th daughter with the Laird Baen Kinnon aka The Beast, he is evil personified and one scary and ruthless man. It is believed he has has his three infant daughter's murdered as they were not born male. Thus brings us to Lena, she fears he will kill her new baby since she is convinced she is a girl so she partitions for help from Laird MacLeod for protection and a unification of their clans. But in doing this they fall in love and after she gives birth so brutally on the council table in front of Kinnon and MacLeod clansman Laird MacLeod is slain as well as his men. The babe just feeding of his mother as she is murdered as well. Little does anyone know that ten year old Calin MacLeod is hiding in a secret wall and has just witnessed the entire ordeal. He takes the baby girl and his father's signet ring and brands her on her butt with the MacLeod crest, the bull, he is his, she will be his wife, she will be the pawn to unite the clans and she MUST live. The Beast has taken a whore's child, a male child and passed it off as his own son to the villagers of Dalkirth and for 18 years proceeded to carry out this lie. Calin is ready to claim his bride, she is 18 and he is anxious to set his plan for vengeance in place, but when he approaches his long time friend Kendrick Neish about his half sister Akira who he gave to when she was just a baby. Kendrick is confused and thought since she has gone missing that Calin has already set his plan in place and just taken her. The find out she was kidnapped and will be sold at auction at Tigh Diabhail aka The Devil's House where they bartered female captives. Calin is able to save Akira and comes face to face with his feisty spirited bride to be. Through a couple days travel they have their spats which are quite hilarious to watch Akira and Calin begin to have a stirring of feelings for each other. But both keep those feelings or inklings at this point highly guarded as she finds out that Calin has been her benefactor all this time paying for her education as well. Akira thinking she is a witch since childhood and teased and tortured without remorse is scared that she will not be welcomed into the clan, but is immediately loved by all especially little Andrew who I found to be the shinning light of the entire book. He offered such humor and as much arrogance (albeit adorable) that small toddler could muster, his story is one I would love to hear in the future as he fights in the wedding games his Akira's kiss and triumphs as with winner taking down Calin for sport. But at the end of the games evil once again shows it's face in Catriona the once mistress of Calin who basically screwed half the clan as well. Jealous of Akira she tries to come in between to two newlyweds and almost drives a edge right through their marriage. Calin is a good man, a strong man, a man who have been wounded and lived through battles and loss and is already realizing that he is falling in love with Akira and afraid to lose her to his secrets and lies. It was the plan, she didn't need to know, but now that Calin loves Akira he is afraid that he will lose her if she becomes aware that her father is Laird Kinnon who she despises and that his first intention was to only marry her for alliance and unity in the Isles. To appease her or his conscious, he tells her half truths about his and Kendrick's plan to destroy The Beast which helps Akira understand the reasoning behind the marriage and now she is in full support of this plan. In the meantime Akira has taken it upon herself with the approval of the council to educate the children of the Clan as she was educated with the help of Calin (her benefactor), the clan's women and the children lover her and she has etched her place in their hearts as well. She has become quite the Lady of Cànwyck Castle. One spotlight character or two rather who make important but all too brief appearances for my liking (I so adored them and wanted more), was Akira's sister Isobel and Calin's cousin Jamie. Isobel was hurt as a child and hasn't walked in some ten years and Jamie is the handsome cousin who was raised as a brother with Calin, handsome, rakish, if you asked any man he would say confident; I would say full of himself but in a charming way. Jamie has women falling at his feet but Isobel is tough and doesn't give him the satisfaction. They fall in love and it is adorable, he makes her legs come alive and she begins to heal.... oh I could start crying again now! But the adventure has begun for Akira, Catriona has a plan against her, she has abused the long used claim that Akira is a witch and barters for her life with Akira's to the Laird Kinnon. At the same time Calin has told Akira of King James request to support the alliance and his war against The Beast, but he must take an English wife, Catriona and his marriage to Akira will be annulled, all in the name of pacifying the King of England. Calin refuses but Akira knows this is what is best for the clan, they need the King's support and she is broken inside at the thought of leaving her husband who she loves. The dilemma tore my heart out but I was forced to keep turning the pages and learn that Akira has been yet again kidnapped and brought to Brycen Castle to face Laird Kinnon. You are thrown from one emotion to the next throughout the pages of this book and the height reached where these two lovers are torn apart and Akira's life is once again threatened at the hands of The Beast. Akira is wise, shall I say snarky a bit, educated, vulnerable and beautiful. She makes you want to root for her at every turn, she is not whinny but clever and understanding, she is dealing with a lot, a new marriage to someone she hardly knows, the idea she is a witch and cursed, an ex-mistress of her husbands who threatens to steel him back, not to mention two kidnappings and threats to her life and a tremendous loss towards the end of the book. Calin, oh I so adore him, although a brute he is a brute with a heart, and his soul belongs to Akira as he defends his love and his clan to find a peace inside his heart from all the vengeance and hatred that has been living inside him for eighteen years. You want to root for him throughout every page! They are both cunning and cleaver, fiercely loyal, insecure with their emotions at times and yet both Calin and Akira has this magnetic power by the grace of Kimberly Killion's words to time-warp you back to 1502 and experience their struggle for love and peace, as well as their grief at times. I was truly enthralled and taken away!

5 STARS- LOVED IT! COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN (if I could give it 10 stars you bet your bippy I would!)

SNIPPET: " A desire that defies all limits… and a love that was meant to be…
Scotland 1502. Akira Neish has been raised as a peasant, her belly often empty and her family subject to the cruel whims of her clan's laird. To the clan’s children, the horned shaped birthmark she bears means she is a witch. But she is neither peasant nor witch—and now the man who knows the truth has returned to claim her for his own.
Calin MacLeod has kept Akira's secrets and to avenge his father, the sensual young laird must marry her. He is more than a match for the fiery nature of the woman he adores. Yet the passion they share—and truths that can no longer remain hidden—could rip all of Scotland apart..."

AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER

ISBN-10: 1420104411 & ISBN-13: 978-1420104417

ALSO don't forget Kimberly is running a SUMMER SIZZLER CONTEST, ends Sept 01, 2009