REVIEW: First Time with a Highlander by Gwyn Cready

In First Time with a Highlander (Sirens of the Scottish Borderlands #2) by Gwyn Cready, Serafina Fallon shouldn’t have trusted her now ex-fiance Edward Turnbull with her late father’s merchant business. She now has to plot a way to get the precious cargo and ship back after he took what was rightfully hers. But the potion her friend Undine creates to bring her a stand-in for Edward has sent Gerard Innes…from the twenty-first century! Will Sera’s plan to use Gerard as Edward’s lookalike on the ship backfire when she realizes how deeply she’s come to care for the charming time traveler?

“I don’t want to go, Sera. We’ve started something here. I don’t know what it is, but I want more time.”
“…I canna lie to you,” she said. “I want more time too. But it’s not to be, and…and I’ve lost too much to want you and lose you too. So, please dinna make me want you any more than I do.”

Waking up in Edinburgh in 1706, not in his hotel room in New York in 2015, has scrambled Gerard’s mind. Not that the centuries old whiskey he guzzled last night didn’t already do that. He also wakes up next to a red-haired beauty who needs his help procuring her inheritance. Gerard is used to being able to talk his way out of any situation. His challenge will be to somehow fit in with the townspeople three hundred years in the past–having to wear a blasted kilt, no less!–and to keep himself from falling in love with Serafina.

‘He’d known her for two days, and already he knew, with as much certainty as he’d ever known anything, that life back in New York would never be the equal of anything here.’

First Time with a Highlander was a quick-paced time travel novel that had me laughing frequently at the banter between our hero and heroine. The mix of a twenty-first century ladies man and an eighteenth century fiery lass was all kinds of enjoyable.

I have to give author Gwyn Cready kudos for making a time travel story so entertaining and for keeping it understandable. Some stories I have read in the past were difficult to follow. But Serafina and Gerard’s tale was easy to comprehend while still having a solid plot. I liked that there was an air of mystery as to who stole the cargo from Sera, as well as who was double-dealing in the treaty between the Scottish and English. That kept things exciting and made this into a real page turner for me.

The characters were a lot of fun. Serafina was sharp-witted, caring and very loyal. Gerard started off as a playboy-type who cared only about his career, but turned out to be charming, smart and exceedingly thoughtful. I loved them together as a couple. Even though they were from different times, they had a connection that transcended it all. *sigh* Like I said before, Gerard and Sera’s bantering was comical and had me in stitches. They volleyed back and forth so quickly, blending the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries in a way that just has to be read to be comprehended. Funny stuff!

I think it would be beneficial to have first read book one, Just in Time for a Highlander, before this one but it is not essential. Readers will still understand the time travel concept and get to know Duncan, Abby and Undine from the first installment as they are a big part of the storyline here. I think everyone will get a kick out of these secondary, but important, characters. Duncan, especially.

If you like some time travel mixed in with your historical romance, or if you are just looking for something a little different, First Time with a Highlander will be sure to grab your attention and not let go.

Book Info:

Publication: Published October 6th 2015 | Sourcebooks Casablanca | Sirens of the Scottish Borderlands #2

From the “master of time travel romance”: Award-winning author Gwyn Cready continues her steamy Sirens of the Scottish Borderlands series

She needs a man-but only for a night
What do you get when you imbibe centuries-old whiskey-besides a hangover the size of the Highlands? If you’re twenty-first century ad exec Gerard Innes, you get swept back to 18th-century Edinburgh and into the bed of a gorgeous, fiery redhead. Gerard has only a foggy idea what he and the lady have been up to…but what he does remember draws him into the most dangerous and exhilarating campaign of his life.

Be careful what you wish for…
Serafina Seonag Fallon’s scoundrel of a fiancé has left her with nothing, and she’s determined to turn the tables. If she can come up with a ringer, she can claim the cargo he stole from her. But the dashing man she summons from the future demands more than a night, and Serafina finds it easier to command the seas under her feet than the crashing waves he unleashes in her heart.

Praise for Just in Time for a Highlander:
“Highly satisfying… filled with humor, clever schemes, and a wonderful cast of imaginative characters.” -Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review.
“Wonderfully entertaining…romantic and wickedly witty…Cready has outdone herself.” -RT Book Reviews, 4 stars
“RITA Award winner and master of time-travel romance Cready has done it again… Political intrigue, young spies, an embezzling estate manager, and a witch add to the fun.” -Booklist