In this historical romance, Moning introduces readers to Adrienne de Simonne, a woman from 1997 who’s been burned by her ex-financé and has sworn off beautiful men as a result, and Sidheach James Lyon Douglas, Third Earl of Dalkeith, also known as The Hawk, a legendary predator of the battlefield and boudoir, no woman of the sixteen century can resist his touch, although none have stirred his heart. In a jealous fit, the Fairy King, with the help of the Fool, devises a plan to ruin the Hawk and transports Adrienne through time to 1513 Scotland because he believes she’s the one woman who will resist the Hawk’s irresistible charm.

This oddly matched pair is forced into a marriage, and the plot gets more ridiculous. There’s so much going on, what with the Fae meddlings at every turn; Moning’s attempt at showcasing a twentieth-century woman standing her ground, which felt more like a grown woman having a tantrum like a two-year-old. And this attitude got old really fast, yet the pattern kept repeating itself. Adrienne’s mindset remained closed off to the possibility that not all men are the same, and she stubbornly continued to believe that if one beautiful man hurt her in the past, then it goes to say no beautiful man can be trusted. However, when she thinks it can benefit her, she pits one, her husband, against the other, the Fairy Fool, to see what will happen. It is so juvenile; readers would expect this from a YA novel, so for this continued behavior to be so prominently part of the plot just felt disjointed.

The Hawk wasn’t better. He acted like a lovesick or jealous fool, and there wasn’t much depth to his character. There’s no believable reason he’s so love-struck. Oh yeah, she’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever met, and that’s it. He’s madly in love? Come on! The failed attempts to portray his famous Casanova exploits while trying to seduce his wife to no avail were annoyingly comical at best and could have been edited to make him more the virile Viking he’s supposed to be.

Where Moning’s voice indeed shown was in the beautiful and vivid description of Scotland: the cliffs, gardens, lochs, etc., she quickly transported her readers there with her words and the minute details she added about Hawk’s woodworking. The nursery he built came to life; readers could feel the soft carved wood of the cradles, dolls, and toy soldiers under their fingertips and see them glisten with the caring hand oiling them. Everything else fell flat and longwinded. All in all, this book is over-written. It could have been cut in half, and nothing of the story would have been lost since so much of it is the same, making this a 2-star read.