Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi
Midnight’s Master is the first installment of Donna Grant’s Dark Warrior series, which is a spin-off to her popular Dark Sword series.
Gwynn Austin and her father have never been close, but they have been trying to build a relationship since her mother’s death. But now he’s gone missing without a word and the only clue she has was a GPS signal from his last phone call, which leads her to take a leave from work and to hop on a plane to Scotland in search of him.
While showing her father’s picture around to the locals she comes across a strange and sexy man, Logan. Logan seems a bit odd to Gwynn considering he doesn’t know what several common things are such as cell phones, internet, and even hotels. She is shocked and a bit skeptical when he confides in her that he has traveled to her time from the year 1603. And, if that wasn’t bad enough he is a warrior a man that has a god inside him that can cause him to turn into a monster with claws and fangs when he lets the god take control. But as he helps her discover the magic inside herself and that she is a druid, nothing seems so strange anymore.
Now Gwynn and Logan along with all the other residents of MacLeod Castle are on a mission to stop the warriors’ and druids’ evil nemesis, Deidre, who created the warriors with the intent of controlling them. She also will capture every druid she comes across to drain them of their magic and kill them. The only way for them to be safe is to kill her. And, now they discover there is another evil player to contend with, Declan Wallace, who plans to keep Gwynn for his very own at least until her usefulness runs out.
Now they are all after the same artifact and it’s a race to see who can find it first. Declan and Deidre want it for their own evil agendas and the warriors and droids need it in order to defeat Deidre once and for all.
I feel with a spin-off series like this that it’s important to point out that I never read the original series, Dark Sword, so I feel that I may have been at a disadvantage when it comes to starting this series. I was getting confused when all the residents of MacLeod Castle were introduced at the same time and I never could keep them straight. I’m sure if I had read the Dark Sword books that the transition would have been much smoother. I hope to get a chance to go back and read those books eventually so I can have more backstory on some of the characters.
I found the beginning of Midnight’s Master to be pretty slow and a bit dull. I understand that the story had to be built up, but the process seemed a bit dragged out. The story does start to pick up after Logan and Gwynn finally give in to their feelings for one another.
And, let me tell you….the sex scenes were off the charts hot! The first one especially. What is it about shower scenes that are always so steamy (pun intended)? I think it’s a testament that Grant’s calling is definitely romance writing!
Overall, I thought the book was just OK, but again that could be from me not reading the other series. I do see potential in this series and hope that it gets better from here now that the premise has been laid out for us. It definitely has promise and I’m optimistic with book #2, Midnight’s Lover.
