Review: Highland Knight by Cindy Miles

Lawson’s review of Highland Knight by Cindy Miles
Contemporary paranormal romance released by Signet Eclipse 3 Jun 08

I really enjoyed Miles’ first book, Spirited Away. It was cute, light and sweet. I was far less impressed with her second book, Into Thin Air. I wasn’t too excited when Sybil gave me this one because the last one kinda made me not want to read anything else by this author. But I figured, I’d give it a try and see if the last book was just a sophomore slump and I’d enjoy this one.

Well uh, I didn’t. It was just more of the same. In fact, it seemed nearly the same plot line to Spirited Away rehashed a bit and trying to make it a little different. You’ve got the 14th century warrior that was cursed (or enchanted) and wakes up 100 years after the horrible event happens. He’s forced to stay the same through time and lives in a castle waiting for the person that can come along and figure out what happened and make him real again.

He’s got his retinue of loyal knights there with him who keep him in manly shape by continuing to use swordplay and fighting skills. Add in the plucky American heroine and there ya go. There are some differences, but it didn’t make the plot any less the same. Amelia Landry is a mystery novelist who comes to Scotland to get some inspiration and meets Ethan Munro and his knights (who are all his family, brothers and cousins) and doesn’t freak out or run away. Because even though she admits she’s a scaredy-cat about most things, she likes the rush of adrenaline.

Being a novelist she decides to write down Ethan and the knight’s story as her next book, because now her writer’s block is gone. So in writing the story and getting the information from Ethan she begins to fall for him. The twist? He’s corporeal for an hour each day at sunset and so they get to make out. For a mystery novelist it takes a long time for Amelia to get to the point where she actually starts to figure out the truth behind what happened to all the knights.

And much eye rolling ensued.

What gets to me about Miles’ books is she purposely puts obstacles in the path of the sex lives of her characters. Amelia is not a virgin, but she’s only slept with one guy and that guy was one she thought she was going to marry. He instead dumps her and moves to France. So she teases Ethan and talks about being celibate for a year, but then won’t let him get past second base. The lone sex scene in the book is, like the other two books, in the epilogue, and by then I just didn’t care.

The mystery isn’t really a mystery, because there’s the deus ex machina moment that fixes everything and gives a very ridiculous ending. The thing that got to me the most in the whole thing though, was it felt like the entire book was a fantasy of Miles’ being lived out, and she got paid for writing it. It all was a rather ick feeling, especially with the 6 foot 7 inch tall overly muscled macho alpha male Ethan always wanting to protect everyone and take charge.

For one thing, any man that tall just can’t be lust inducing for anyone less than some sort of Amazon. Okay, as someone 5 foot 1 inch maybe I just don’t want to think about the need for so much flexibility there. Add in the long hair and the loyal retinue of knights who are also thinking dirty thoughts of the heroine and it’s someone’s fantasy of male attention and what they wish could happen. Which is just ewwww. And makes it where I can’t give this book any less than an F. For the intrusion into someone’s weird fantasy, rehashed plot, and a heroine who’s only modern attribute is her disgusting addiction to Cheese Whiz.

Grade: F

Blurb:

Bestselling mystery novelist Amelia Landry journeys to the Scottish Highlands to stay in a remote 14th-century tower, hoping to re-awaken her imagination. She finds the inspiration she seeks in the ghostly form of Laird Ethan Munro—who has spent six centuries trying to discover why he is neither alive nor dead.

Ethan senses that Amelia may be the one he has been waiting for. Only she can uncover the truth behind the curse and free his heart…