Review: Incredibly annoying female lead character
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 9, 2012
Summary:  Dermot MacKay is a Druid Laird from 6th century.  He and the warriors from his clan have been cursed with immortality after the death of Dermot's wife during an attack on their keep.  Dermot's wife was part Fae and had to give up her immortality in order to marry him.  After her death, her mother Anya placed the curse on Dermot to punish him for allowing her daughter to die.The only way to break the curse is to find his wife's reincarnated soul in the body of another human and return her to the place of her death on the anniversary of her death.  Finally, in current day Minneapolis, Dermot finds his wife's soul in the body of Sidney St. George.Although the only thing Dermot had ever wanted was a mortal death, meeting Sidney makes him wish for a mortal life instead.  While struggling with his attraction to Sidney, he must also convince her to help his clan by returning with him to Scotland.  Along the way, Dermot and Sidney begin to fall in love.  Can there be a happy ending when death is around the corner?The path back to Scotland is not without peril.  Anya is not willing to let Dermot out of the curse, and she will do anything to stop them.Review:  I listened to the audio book version of this book, and right out of the gate I loved the narrator, Chloe Campbell.  Her Scottish burr for the male characters was phenomenal and definitely added a feel of authenticity.  If I ever get to Scotland one day, that Scottish accent is going to have me crushing on every man who talks to me.  No wonder I love Celtic love stories.With that said, the story itself was ho-hum.  The plot started out interesting, but never went anywhere.  The men have to bring Sidney to Scotland to break the curse, and Anya wants to stop them.  That is about it.  Sidney and Dermot have this constant push and pull thing going on between them, but it is far more irritating than it is captivating.  It was repetitive and trivial.  Sidney and her best friend Zoe use outdated phrases and slang, making the book sound like it was written a couple of decades ago instead of being a contemporary 2011 novel.There is a major storyline about Dermot not telling Sidney the big "secret" about the possibility that he might die when the curse is lifted.  But if she had a brain in her head at all, the thought would have occurred to her.  Besides her complete lack of intuition, Sidney's personality and argumentative nature were equivalent to fingernails on a chalkboard.  She refers to Anya as "scary faerie" throughout the entire book like a little girl might.  I found myself wondering why anyone would make this annoying woman the main character in a love story.The secondary characters of Thomas and Zoe were a lot more fun than Dermot and Sidney.  I even preferred reading about Anya, the Fae villain.  I would have liked the book better if more time was spent on these characters.Anyhoo, if I hadn't enjoyed the audio narrator, I'm not sure I would have finished the book.  I found it very disappointing, particularly since I'm always on the hunt for good Scottish novels.