She is Kassandra, a "wild child" raised in a magical forest, a fey dreamer who is innocent of society's rules and too reckless to follow them anyway. In her nighttime visions, she sees a powerful Scottish laird with whom she is destined to share a passionate bond...if she can save him from a hooded murderer. For him, she will travel to the king's court, risking ridicule and confronting treachery in her quest to claim the man of her dreams...

He is Cadedryn, battle-hardened and emotionally scarred, a man driven to regain the title and honor his father threw away in the name of love. No redheaded firebrand will stop him from making a favorable political marriage for himself, no matter how persistent her warnings or how irresistible her allure. But when Kassandra's dire predictions begin to come true, Cadedryn must face the truth: Violence threatens him on all sides...and Kassandra holds the key to both his survival and his every chance for happiness.

While the story had the potential to be much more than it actually became, I found that the characters in this story were annoying at best and brought the entire ensemble to a screeching halt. Kassandra's penchant for finding trouble left her a helpless waif who couldn't put one foot in front of the other without the warrior hero stepping in to save the day. I found myself dealing with more than my fair share of anxiety based on the simple fact that I needed to wring her neck, but couldn't find a way to reach through the pages to wrap my fingers around her skinny little throat. Then we have Cadedryn: handsome, tough, and rugged. In the beginning of the book, he did his best to run screaming from the little psychopath, but for some strange reason, suddenly turned face and realized that he couldn't live without her? Huh, I don't get it.

After reading the author's previous novel, I was expecting more drama, adventure, and a much deeper plot than was delivered in this attempt. The villains were entirely too antagonistic to not have the whodunit figured out immediately, which left little else to urge me to continue flipping the pages.

With the flood of romance novels out there today, I recommend skipping over this one and finding another stack of pages in which to indulge your time.

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Publisher: Signet (February 6, 2007)
ISBN: 0451220641
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