Review: Highlander's Challenge (Challenge #1) by Jo Barrett ★★★

Amelia Tucker, or Tuck as she prefers to be called, latest personal bodyguard assignment turns into one she'll never forget, thanks to a crazed kidnapper, one enchanted fountain, and a sixteenth-century Highland Warrior determined to keep her under lock and key. Who will win this battle of wills?

Review:

An enjoyable time travel highlander romp. If you've read one of these you've kind of read them all. Whether they get sent through time via a circle of druid stones, a stone henge, or, as in this case, a magical fountain, as long as the modern-day girl gets thrown back in time a few centuries, often landing in the lap of a hot knight or highlander, you can usually be sure that an amusing and entertaining tale is about to unfold.

Quite frankly I'm not really bothered about how the heroine ends up back in time. If I know it's coming then I much prefer the author to just get on with it (as Barrett thankfully does). I don't like to mess around with an elaborate lead up to the "shocking" event. I've already got my suspension of disbelief hat firmly atop my head and I'm ready to rock and roll.

For the most part, I enjoyed this story. The main draw for me was the fact that the heroine, Amelia Tucker or "Tuck", was ex-army and currently a bodyguard. This aspect actually ended upbringing as much annoyance as entertainment though I have to say. Although I really enjoyed her using her fighting abilities- including martial arts, wrestling, etc, on these medieval warriors that only know how to fight using superior strength and a head-on attack- And I also enjoyed the resulting dumbfounded looks on all their faces. I, unfortunately, found her accompanying brash, argumentative attitude slightly grating.

She had some great lines, don't get me wrong, but she didn't even try to fit in: refusing to wear anything but her jeans, using her modern vernacular (she kept calling people Hot Shot and using slang terms they had no chance of understanding), and just basically doing the exact opposite of what anyone told her to do, no matter how small the request. It just got a bit too much.

The hero, Colin, I quite liked. He was as stubborn as you'd expect in the beginning, but I appreciated his ability to accept her for how she was later on in the book.

For those looking for a book filled with lots of sex scenes, you will be disappointed in that area as they are a long time coming and even then they are short and sparse.

Altogether, I enjoyed it, it entertained me, I found myself grinning from time to time at some of the altercations, but I would have liked a bit more growth in the lead characters.

3 Stars ★★★