Midnight's Master by Donna Grant

Midnight's Master, Donna Grant, St. Martin's Press
Dark Warriors #1
Gwynn Austin has no idea why her father has disappeared on a mysterious trip to Scotland. When she goes on a desperate mission to search for him she finds more than she bargains for in a ruggedly handsome, wickedly exciting Highlander who exudes danger and mystery. And when she discovers her own link to Scotland, she’ll have to trust her heart to help lead her...

Propelled through time by powerful Druid Magic, Logan Hamilton uses his immortality and powers of the god inside him to help prevent the awakening of an ancient evil in the modern world. He never expects to find help in the form of a beautiful, alluring, and all too tempting woman whose passion and strength matches his own. Together, Logan and Gywnn must fight for their love—before a demon from the past destroys them both…

Excerpt:

The blackness, the unending void ate away at Logan as he was yanked out of the year 1603 and thrown forward in time. He felt himself falling and desperately reached for something to hang onto

The wind rushed by him, hurting his ears with the high pitched sound and drowning out any noise. The wind took his breath, making it difficult to breath. He was tossed first one way, and then the other. Determining which way was up was soon forgotten.

Where were the others? Ramsey, Arran, and Camdyn? The Druids had told him they didn’t know where any of them would end up. All Logan could pray for as he felt the years and decades pass by was that he landed in the right time.

Around him, the inky darkness began to shimmer – the same shimmer that had appeared when the Druids cast the spell to send Logan and the others traveling through time.

Almost instantly, he was dumped out of the abyss onto his hands and knees into the midst of a vicious rainstorm.

Logan swallowed and gave himself a moment to let his head stop spinning. He pushed his fingers into the wet ground and smiled when he felt the dirt between his hands.

He sat back on his heels and looked around. It was day, but the storm had darkened the sky. An urgent need pulled at him, called to him to return to Eigg, but he pushed it aside. He had to find Ian. That was his duty.

Logan wiped off his hands and took stock of his whereabouts on a hillside, the tall grass swaying with the howling wind. But what grabbed his interest were the dots of light below him.

Logan blinked through the cold, torrential rain and climbed to his feet. Those weren’t fires he saw flickering in the valley. What they were, he didn’t know. Yet.

He rose to his feet and ran a hand through his hair to get it out of his face. It was time to discover just where the Druids had managed to toss him in the future.

On his way down to the valley, Logan crossed a road that had been covered with some hard, black substance with bright white lines painted on it.

He squatted down to touch the surface and felt the rumbling of the ground beneath his fingers. Logan rose and stepped back as something large and loud came rolling down the lane.

As the object passed, Logan spotted a person inside who looked like they controlled the loud contraption.

More confused than ever, Logan walked over the road and down to the town. He could hardly believe his eyes when he reached the village to find buildings lined down the street, one right next to the other. They were all painted the same bright white with many more of those noisy contraptions lining the road as well as traveling down it.

Logan kept to the side of the road where he saw other people walking. A few gave him odd glances but most paid him no heed.

He passed store after store, trying to learn the language written on the signs. The fact that he had a primeval god inside him, a god so ancient his name had been forgotten, was the only way he was able to pick up this new language so quickly.

“You’re soaked through, lad,” said an elderly woman as she opened a door to a store Logan was walking past.

He gave a slight nod and felt the knot in his belly loosen as he heard her brogue. He was still in Scotland. Now, to determine when he was.

“Ah, not much of a talker,” she said and laughed.

Logan smiled. “What year is it?”

She blinked and cocked her gray head at him. “You’ve quite the brogue, lad. It’s been many a years since I’ve heard one so thick.” She smiled, a far away look stealing across her face.

Logan took a step toward her. “The year, lady?”

“Oh.” She chuckled and patted her chest. “Forgive me. It’s 2012. What an odd question.”

“I’ve been living by myself…away from everyone.”

“And everything,” she said as she eyed his kilt.

Logan looked around him and shrugged. “What village am I in?”

This time the old woman frowned as she watched him. “Salen, not far from the Isle of Skye.”

He knew the village, but the last time he had seen it, there had barely been anything there. It had grown tremendously since then.

What else had changed in the four centuries since he had left his friends behind at MacLeod Castle?

“I thank you,” he said to the woman and walked on before she could ask more questions.

Logan looked at the town of Salen with new eyes. If this almost nonexistent village could grow so much in just a few centuries, what had become of Edinburgh or Glasgow? And did he even want to know?

He paused as a young woman ran in front of him to one of the contraptions sitting on the side of the road. She jerked at the handle as she held a bag over her head in an effort to keep from getting wet. It wasn’t working.

“Rory! You wanker! Unlock the bloody door so I can get in the car!” she yelled over her shoulder.

Logan turned his head to see a thin man come out of the shop, walk around the…car, insert something small into the door, and open it.

The woman yanked on her door again then banged on the window above it. “Rory. Unlock the bloody door now!”

After another moment, Rory leaned over the door and pulled on something. A moment later, the woman got in. She was still yelling as the car rolled away. 

So, the contraptions were called cars, and apparently people rode them much as Logan rode horses. He sighed and continued forward. It wasn’t just the landscape that had changed. The people had changed as well.

No lady Logan had known would ever have spoken as the woman with Rory had. Not even whores spoke so crudely.

Logan heard footsteps coming fast behind him. His muscles seized and fangs filled his mouth. Logan spun around, claws lengthening as he readied himself to behead whoever thought to attack him.

He pulled his hand back, stopping himself just in time as two young lads who ran past him, laughing and soaking wet. Logan stepped into the doorway of an unused building and took a deep breath.

Was he so used to fighting that he would attack anyone? Even children? He shook his head and struggled to tamp down the god inside him.

Athleus. He was the god of betrayal inside Logan, an ancient god who wanted nothing but death and destruction. It had taken decades for Logan to gain control over his god. 

But sometimes, that control slipped.

Logan carried enough burdens. He didn’t need to add the death of two young lads to the weight. 

Once his fangs and claws had retreated, and Logan was sure his skin wasn’t the silver of his god, he stepped out of the shadows and lengthened his stride as he exited the town. The urge to return to Eigg was sharp and true in his chest.

If anyone found out that he had a monster inside him, that he could release the god and become a beast, Logan was sure they’d kill him.

But he didn’t just have a god inside him. He was able to use Athleus’ power, a power able to control water. And Logan was going to the Isle of Eigg, an isle surrounded by water.

He wasn’t sure when he had made that decision, only that he had. Logan couldn’t hold back the desperate need to return there as soon as possible.

The last time he had been to Eigg, which to him was just a matter of hours – not centuries – earlier, he had been looking for an artifact hidden there by the Druids.

Not only had he not found the artifact, but his friend and fellow Warrior, Duncan, had been killed by Deirdre. Deirdre was a drough, a Druid who had given herself to evil and black magic. She was on a mission to take over the world, and as great as her magic was, Logan feared she might just win.

It had been Deirdre who had unleashed the gods inside the Warriors. And it would be Warriors who would help end Deirdre once and for all.

But first, Logan had to find Ian, Duncan’s twin.

He couldn’t imagine what Ian was going through. Ian and Duncan, as twins, had shared a god, and with Duncan’s death, the full power and rage of their god would overtake Ian. If he couldn’t control his god, his god would control him and he would be ripe for Deirdre to claim. Which is just what she had wanted when she killed Duncan.

Logan had no idea where Ian had gone, but he knew Deirdre. She had leaped forward in time to 2012 in order to thwart him and the others in their mission to find the artifacts before she did.

He frowned. Or had she?

If Deirdre could travel through time whenever she wanted, why hadn’t she done so before now? She could have changed the outcome to anything that hadn’t gone her way, including gaining the artifacts before the MacLeods. 

If Deirdre hadn’t traveled through time on her own, that meant someone had to have helped her.

But who? And, more importantly, why?

Logan wasn’t sure he’d have those answers anytime soon. Regardless, in order to defeat Deirdre, the Warriors would still need the artifacts. The one he had been sent to get was on Eigg.

He paused and looked around him. None of the other three Warriors who had volunteered to look for Ian had landed with Logan. He wasn’t even sure if they had been taken as he had.

Yet, he knew the Druids at MacLeod Castle. Each one was powerful in her own right, and together, they wielded magic and quite literally took his breath away.

He had no doubt they had succeeded in tossing the others forward in time along with him. He had no means of communicating with anyone, nor could he take the chance of traveling to MacLeod Castle yet. He had to find Ian before Deirdre did.

If she didna have him already.

Review:
Yes this series is a spin off of Donna Grant's Dark Sword series, yes there are character's and couples from that series in this book, no I have not read that series yet(but I plan to) but I did not in any way feel lost because I had not read them. I know most of our long time readers are probably in shock at this statement coming from me. It has been well documented that I am a little OCD about things being read in order. But knowing that, I hope it reaffirms that you do not have to read the DS series to thoroughly enjoy this book.

This book starts with  Gwynn Austin looking for her missing father. She travels to Scotland where her father was last seen, but isn't finding any clues to his whereabouts. Logan Hamilton is one of four who travel from 400 years in the past to the future to find one of the missing Warriors who was brought forth in time by the same entity that brought Deirdre. As both Gwynn and Logan start their search, they find each other and soon learn that they will both need the other if either is to succeed.

This book moves at a fast pace with just enough action, history, back story and romance to make it a very balanced story. Ms. Grant does a great job of weaving the story line from the previous series with this story so that you feel informed but not overwhelmed or bored.

Logan is a man with dark secrets and you can tell from the beginning that he is working towards atonement. His sense of loyalty and honor are his driving force.

The more I learned about Gwynn and her past I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She needs the  strong family ties that comes from the other druids and warriors at Castle MacLeod.

We get not one, but two truly evil villains in this book with Declan and Deirdre and you really don't know which one you want to die first.

This was a great start to the new series and meshed the best of both the historical and contemporary. This is a definite read for those of you that enjoy any type of fantasy/time travel/sexy highlander books!!!

Buy Links: Midnight's Master
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RATING: 5 Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries.  This book was given to us by the author. Many thanks.

Don't forget the contest, we will have three winners.
1. Copy of Midnight's Master(ebook)
2. Copy of  Dark King's Trilogy(ebook)Dark Craving, Night's Awakening & Dawn's Desire
3. Copy of A Forbidden Temptation(ebook)

Donna Grant is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than forty novels and novellas spanning multiple genres of romance.
She was born and raised in Texas but loves to travel. Her adventures have taken her throughout the United States as well as to Jamaica, Mexico, and Scotland. Growing up on the Texas/Louisiana border, Donna’s Cajun side of the family taught her the “spicy” side of life while her Texas roots gave her two-steppin’ and bareback riding.
Her childhood dream was to become a professional ballet dancer and study under the amazing Mikhail Baryshnikov. Though she never got to meet Baryshnikov, she did make it to New York City and performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Later, Donna’s love of the romance genre and the constant stories running through her head prompted her to sit down and write her first book. Once that book was completed, there was no turning back.
Donna sold her first book in November 2005 while displaced from Hurricane Rita, a storm that destroyed portions of the Texas Gulf Coast. Since then, Donna has sold novels and novellas to both electronic and print publishers. Her books include several complete series such as Druids Glen, The Shields, Royal Chronicles, Sisters of Magic, Dark Sword, Dark Warriors, and her new series, Dark Kings.
Despite the deadlines and her voracious reading, Donna still manages to keep up with her two young children, four cats, three fish, and one long haired Chihuahua. She’s blessed with a proud, supportive husband who loves to read and travel as much as she does.