Reviewed by Buffie Johnson
Published by Penguin
Grade 3.00

This book starts out with a wonderful quote and I just had to share it.   “There are men and there are Highlanders.  Woe be to anyone fool enough not to know the difference.”

Sir Hardwin de Studley of Seagrave is a cursed man.   Literally.   Centuries ago, Sir Hardwin (better known as Hardwick) denied a traveling bard the comforts of his home and the bard cast a wizard’s spell upon the roguish Scottish knight. The curse is simply this – he must please a different woman every single night without the benefit of love or even enjoying his own release.  After 700 years of pleasing women, Hardwick has had enough. He travels to the underworld and makes a deal with the Dark One, or the devil as some may call him. The terms of the deal are simple. Hardwick will be relieved of his curse and granted the everlasting sleep he so desires if he can keep himself from becoming aroused for a year and a day. If he should fail, the curse will return, only this time Hardwick will not be able to roam the world and centuries choosing his own bedmates.  Instead he will be confined to the pits of hell and required to pleasure the hell hags. The Dark One even allows Hardwick to decide the location of his proving period.    Hardwick believes he has chosen well. Dunroamin Castle is a registered residential care home, and with a small group of elderly people living there, Hardwick is certain he will have no problem winning the Dark One’s deal. But when Cilla Swanner walks into Dunroamin Castle, Hardwick realizes he is in deep trouble. He realizes he would sell his soul to the Dark One for one long night with Cilla.

Visiting Scotland for the first time, Cilla Swanner is excited about her vacation.  She is in Scotland to visit with her Aunt Birdie and Uncle Mac, the owners and proprietors of a residential care home, and to finally see their home, an honest to goodness Scottish castle.  Of course, it always helps to leave the country when your boyfriend has dumped you for the rich girl in town.  The evening Cilla arrives at Dunroamin Castle, she finds her room filled with shadows and antiques, just as she pictured any room in a Scottish castle.  But one thing she wasn’t prepared to see was the tall, dark, and kilted man walking around the picture hanging on the wall in her room. Believing she is suffering from jet lag, Cilla pushes the sight from her eyes.  But this handsome kilted man keeps showing up around the castle and Cilla is too much of a woman not to notice him, even if he has the appearance of a wee ghostie.  Cilla soon finds out there is nothing wee about Hardwick.

When I first heard about the premise for this book, I thought of the endless possibilities it had and wonderful opportunities it could provide to a reader seeking a fun, sexy read.    But the book left me feeling unsatisfied.   Between the Dark One, the possibility of Viking ghosts pillaging Uncle Mac’s peat fields, a broken down castle in need of desperate repairs, a large interfering bird, and some cranky elderly people, there just seemed to be too much going on behind the scenes. I felt there could have been more focus on Cilla and Hardwick and their desires to be together at all costs. I was fully expecting to have more than two love scenes in a novel where the hero has 700 years of experience pleasuring a woman. On the up side, there were a few parts of the book that I did enjoy.  Such as the time when Hardwick is talking to Cilla about the specifics of the curse and all the women in his past and Cilla questions his feelings for her. Hardwick responds with “You are the sweet, golden light I didn’t know I was missing. The honeyed warmth I doubt I e’er knew existed, even in my earth life. You may no’ be the first woman I’ve drawn into my arms, but you are the only one I’ve given my heart.”   The last quarter of the book was reasonably good as the reader is able to see the relationship between Hardwick and Cilla bloom.  But for most of the book, I felt like the story just missed the mark.   This book had all the ingredients for a fabulous, hot, sexy read, but its potential was not realized.