Sandy M’s review of The Magic Knot by Helen Scott Taylor
Contemporary Paranormal Romance released by Love Spell 27 Jan 09

Red alert! Red alert!  New author on the scene.  Make that a terrific new author.  Helen Scott Taylor’s debut book is a terrific read.  It has everything from Irish twin brothers to the Queen of the Tuatha Dé Danaan to a greedy, evil father to the pisky who are on the brink of elimination.  Oh, the love and the magic is pretty darned good too.

Sometimes in picking up a book I don’t read the back cover.  It’s a book for review that I have to read, so I pick it up and I begin.  When I took a look at the cover of this book, I thought it was an historical.  I got a really nice surprise on the first page that threw the historical out the window and plopped paranormal down in its place.  I was actually glad then and as I got further into the book that I hadn’t read the blurb.  This book flows so naturally on its own, I didn’t need any help to begin with.

Niall O’Connor and his twin brother Michael are half Tuatha Dé Danaan and half leprechaun.  Michael is the free spirited one who the ladies go for.  Niall is the responsible one, currently making sure their Queen doesn’t harm his brother or their leprechaun sister, Ana, because he refused the Queen’s advances.  That’s why they left Ireland and are now living in Cornwall. The further away the better to stay out of her clutches.  Niall’s routine has hit a snag, though, when he delivers his quarterly payment to Tristan Jago for the spell to keep his siblings safe.  A pisky has entered Cornwall and Tristan wants the fairy brought to him, so he blackmails Niall into doing so.

But the pisky Niall encounters is nothing like he expects.  Rose Tremain is a financial investigator, she helps people in trouble, which is why she’s in Cornwall at the Elephant’s Nest.  Though she does find problems with the way the books are handled and the owner has a beautiful face and a killer smile, it’s his handsome and dangerous-looking brother who fires up her libido.

When she snoops to get to the bottom of Michael’s financial fiasco, she finds Niall’s Magic Knot, which is so like her own.  All it takes is a touch of those stones and she’s put in motion a connection to him that is so deep, so all consuming that it takes everything Niall’s got to keep her at arm’s length.  He has to keep his family safe and getting involved with a pisky who doesn’t realize her powers and who has secrets just won’t work, especially when he finds out who her father is.

The pace really picks up when Niall and company head to Ireland to face the Queen for information to save Rose’s piskies.  Once there and faced with danger and vindictiveness from every direction, their bond only grows stronger and Rose’s inner fairy and magic begin to emerge. What an adventure that was for all the characters involved.  The Queen is one freaky goddess who’s right-hand man is the twins’ father, another story that takes on a life of its own.  One of my favorites is Nightshade, a vampiric nightstalker from Rose’s childhood.  This is the first book in Ms. Taylor’s new series, so I’m assuming we’ll get Michael’s story, but I hope she’ll also give us Nightshade’s book.  He’s definitely a character who needs some love.

This is just one of those books that captivates you from the first page.  It’s different, emotional, full of evil but with plenty of love to counteract those bad guys.  Ms. Taylor is going on my autobuy list for sure.

Grade: A+

Summary:

When Rose discovers she is the Cornish pisky queen and her father is a dark druid who has imprisoned her people in portraits, the race is on to discover the fairy lore needed to release her people before her father destroys the piskies forever.

She seeks help from the sinfully sexy Irish fairy twins, the O’Connor brothers. Niall’s faint air of menace flutters dark thrills of anticipation through her, but does he want to kiss her or kill her when she accidentally touches his Magic Knot and forges a mystical lovers’ bond with him? And can she resist the seductive glamor of his mischievous brother Michael?

With the survival of the Cornish piskies in her hands, Rose must escape from a vampiric, winged fairy, outwit The Queen of Nightmares and surrender her mind, body and spirit to Niall to release her hidden inner fairy. The Tarot cards warn he will stab her in the back, but when she’s in his arms, the last thing on her mind is death.

Read an excerpt.