REVIEWED by J.A. Kenney

Review: 4.00 Stars

Summary:

Night of the Highland Dragon is book 3 in Isabel Cooper’s Highland Dragon series.

“They say,” said the girl, “that people disappear up there. And I heard that the lady doesna’ ever grow any older.”
“The lady?” William asked.
“Lady MacAlasdair. She lives in the castle, and she’s been there years, but she stays young and beautiful forever.”

In the Scottish Highlands, legend is as powerful as the sword-and nowhere is that more true than in the remote village of Loch Aranoch. Its mysterious ruler, Judith MacAlasdair, is fiercely protective of her land-and her secrets. If anyone were to find out what she really was, she and her entire clan would be hunted down as monsters.

William Arundell is on the trail of a killer. Special agent for an arcane branch of the English government, his latest assignment has led him to a remote Highland castle and the undeniably magnetic lady who rules there. Yet as lies begin to unravel and a dark threat gathers, William finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into the mystery of the Highlands…and the woman he can neither trust nor deny.

He prays she isn’t the murderer; he never dreamed she was a dragon.

Positives: 

Let me start by saying this is a HISTORICAL PARANORMAL ROMANCE so it is a member of a small, unique, and relatively new little genre.  As such it has aspects of both a paranormal romance, and a historical romance.  There is magic, demons, dragons, and plenty of action and adventure as you might expect in a paranormal romance, but it is based in Victorian Era Scotland.

To me this book read as mostly a paranormal. The story revolves around murders that are supernatural in nature, an agent of the crown who investigates paranormal crimes, and a dragon.

However, there are the classic historical romance concerns with reputation, and propriety that you would never see in a contemporary paranormal.

I have read other Historical Paranormals/Fantasies and I have never enjoyed them much.  For some reason the mix didn’t work for me even though I like both genres individually.

But this book changed my mind, it blended the two well, and featured an incredible female protagonist who really made the book IMHO.

Because I liked this book so much I actually went back and purchased the other two books in the series Legend of the Highland Dragon & The Highland Dragon’s Lady, and both were enjoyable but this was the best of the three.

Negatives:

I normally recommend reading a series in order! However, in this case each book can stand alone, and sadly the first is the weakest of the three.  SO, I suggest working backwards, or simply starting with the second book The Highland Dragon’s Lady.

Also, keep in mind, that if you are not a fan of historical romance this series is probably not for you.

Last, and unfortunately not least there are some internal consistency issues with the mythos in these books.  They are most glaring in the first book, but there are minor issues with all three.

For example, the size of the dragons in their non-human form. A comment in one chapter might say the dragon was “5 times my size” and another might say “he weighed more than a ton”. So 500 ish pounds or 2,000? In addition, one manages to navigate and fight in a London townhouse, going through doors and down hallways, while another can’t change shape inside a country manor to demonstrate his dual nature, because he would cause too much damage.

The image in my head kept blinking back and forth between a small car, and mid-sized lion.

Another example is that silver and certain woods doing more injury to the dragons is mentioned ONLY in the third book, even though the brothers are more magically inclined then their sister.

I managed to enjoy these books anyway, but did find the little quirky differences a tad bit annoying.

Overall:

This was the first and only historical paranormal romance series I truly enjoyed and as such I am very glad I read the whole!

Taken by itself Night of the Highland Dragon is an excellent paranormal romance with a historical twist!

Keep Reading!

J.A. Kenney

Genre: Historical Paranormal Romance

Publication date: June 2nd, 2015

Length: 352 Pages

Blush Quotient: Red

Disclaimer: This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair review.