BevQB’s review of Kiss of the Highlander (Highlander Series, Book 4) by Karen Marie Moning
Paranormal Historical Time Travel Romance Audiobook published by Brilliance Audio on 20 Jan 08
Original Review posted 17 Mar 08
Kiss of the Highlander in audio format is the perfect mating of story and storyteller, and I can’t imagine merely reading this story from a printed page ever again. Narrator Phil Gigante brings every minute of this pure escapist fantasy story to life. Audiobooks, in fact most romance books, don’t get any better than this!
WAIT! WAIT! I know you are expecting me to once again squee about the aural pleasures to be found in Phil Gigante’s eargasmic portrayal of Drustan (and, oh, I will), but there’s much more to expound on in this absolutely spellbinding audiobook.
This is the fourth audiobook release in KMM’s Highlanders series and centers on Drustan MacKelter and Gwen Cassidy. Containing both paranormal and fantasy (fae) elements, Kiss is set, through time travel, in historic and modern day Scotland. This is a standalone story, so it is not necessary to be familiar with the previous books in the series to enjoy this one, but, trust me; you’re going to want them all!
Have I ever mentioned just how damn ENTERTAINING Phil G’s narration is? In fact, I really hesitate to refer to what he does as mere narration. It’s a PERFORMANCE. The voices and effects he uses for all the characters, both lead and minor, are spot on. Often, when a man attempts a woman’s voice, it comes off as mocking. However, while no one will ever mistake Phil’s voice for a woman’s, I quickly was no longer conscious that a man was voicing the female characters. Yes, he uses a higher pitched voice for women, but there’s something else there too… a softness, a vulnerability… something… that does not scream “man mocking woman.”
Unless he wants to. One of the most entertaining moments in this audiobook and one that showcases Phil G’s amazing talent is when Drustan is teasing Gwen and repeating her words in her “voice.” So we’re treated to Phil as Drustan mocking Phil as Gwen using Drustan’s version of Gwen’s voice. Trust me, Phil nails it!! Just hand him next year’s Audie Award now!
When I think of The Highlanders series, Kiss of the Highlander has always been the first one to come to mind. But if, like me, you are also a fan of KMM’s brilliant Fever series, you will have a lot of fun listening for Fever clues throughout the Highlander books. Kiss is the second book with a direct link to the later series (The Hallows appear in book 3, The Highlander’s Touch), and is the first of the MacKelter books (we meet Christian MacKelter, from Bloodfever, toward the end of Kiss). It’s fascinating to revisit all the Highlander fae lore that eventually comes together to spawn the complex Fever books.
But, the most compelling reason (besides my all-time favorite Nathan Kamp cover pic) to buy this (and all the rest of the series) in audio format is what narrator Phil Gigante does for your ears— and other body parts that are directly or indirectly attached to them. Be sure to use earphones when listening to Drustan’s seduction of Gwen – Phil uses a deep vibrating growl that you can seriously feel down to your toes! I’m not ashamed to admit that listening to Phil G’s Scottish brogue has become an addiction and an obsession for me.
Grade: A
Summary:
A laird trapped between centuries Enchanted by a powerful spell, Highland laird Drustan MacKeltar slumbered for nearly five centuries hidden deep in a cave, until an unlikely savior awakened him. The enticing lass who dressed and spoke like no woman he’d ever known was from his distant future, where crumbled ruins were all that remained of his vanished world. Drustan knew he had to return to his own century if he was to save his people from a terrible fate. And he needed the bewitching woman by his side…. A woman changed forever in his arms Gwen Cassidy had come to Scotland to shake up her humdrum life and, just maybe, meet a man. How could she have known that a tumble down a Highland ravine would send her plunging into an underground cavern – to land atop the most devastatingly seductive man she’d ever seen? Or that once he’d kissed her, he wouldn’t let her go? Bound to Drustan by a passion stronger than time, Gwen is swept back to sixteenth-century Scotland, where a treacherous enemy plots against them…and where a warrior with the power to change history will defy time itself for the woman he loves….
Listen to an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
