Customer Reviews

Mistress of the Waters (Love Spell)

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(3)
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This book falls way short of a romance novel. I ordinarily love the time travel to a romantic land and a handsome Celt storyline. This story made it difficult to get into the mood, when the heroine of the book is in essence having an affair with a married man about to become a father. The actual time passage scenairo was very vague and loosely written, and I don't know about you, but when I am fantacizing about a gorgeous hunk of a man, I wan't him AVAILABLE, not in essence, cheating on his pregnant wife.(No matter what the customs of Beltane dictate.) Definately a turn off. The end does not justify the means in this story.

Heroine Shannon Rose is a 'good girl' college kid, with no friends, no life, and no family ties - in essence a cardboard character. When a college acquaintance enlists her help in researching the 'maypole' for the renaissance faire committee, she reluctantly agrees, little realizing that the research will trigger a series of events which will send her back in time to ancient Ireland.

Enter the hero Ian. Ian, an aspiring bard is an appallingly lazy man obsessed with womanizing and avoiding his responsibilities. Fed up with his laziness, his father punishes him by sentencing him to herd cattle for one year. Yes. You read it right folks. Herd cattle(!) As if this were not bad enough, he is also forced to marry a widow named Clodagh.

Enter Shannon, who has now succeeded in time traveling back to Ireland. Found by Ian, she is brought back to the fort on the night of Beltane, and forced to marry him as his `Beltane Wife,' before Ian begins his yearlong sentence as a cowherd. They frolic in the hills for a while, before Shannon learns the truth... That Ian is already married to Clodagh. Can their love survive the test of time?

I really didn't like this book. I thought Ian was a miserable immature user who never seemed to grow up. I never found him particularly romantic or, desirable. Shannon was a typical romance heroine, with no real personality and no backbone. Some of the descriptions were well written, however many of the characters talked and acted like modern people, despite being set in ancient Ireland. The husband's bigamy was a real turn off for me and poorly handled. Overall... I cannot really recommend this novel. It was disappointing on too many levels

I believe that the other reviewers did not finish the book. THe plot isn't so bad afterall. I will admit Shannon is an airhead when it comes to certain things in the book, but wouldn't you be too if you were sent back into ancient Eire? First off, she has an affair with a married man but the others do not elaborate when it comes to the type of relationship Ian had with her. Her child wasn't hs, it was from a previous marriage and they had an arranged marriage forced on Ian to protet her from other tribes that she was from. Her previous husband was killed and she was "unwanted" since she was preggers. Ian was lazy but grew into being a real man towards the end. It is kinda fantasy/sci-fi with the whole time travel thing.

I agree with one of the other reviewers - this books is not that bad.

The main sticking point with other reviewers seems to be Ian's "bigamy" or "cheating on his pregnant wife" so call me a scandalous hussy, but I didn't find that offputting in the slightest. It's a ROMANCE NOVEL - of course the baby his "wife" was carrying wasn't his.

However, I found it pretty hard to warm to Ian - and those long fingernails were quite the turn off. He was very childish and immature at the beginning of the book, and while he did become a better man, I just couldn't see what it was that made Shannon, our heroine, fall in love with him other than the fact he reminded he of a man she knew in her own time.

Shannon herself was a fairly sad and depressing character - and something of a spoilt brat "I miss my life as a rich girl" and that got old relatively quickly.

However, the author obviously has an interest in Ireland/Erie and has done a lot of research about life in old Ireland. One minor sticking point (and this involves a spoiler) when Shannon and Ian go back to her time at the end of the book there is no mention of Shannon needing to teach him english, especially as such a big deal was made of her speaking Gaelic in Eire.

In any case, the book was okay - but nothing special.

I`m sorry i really didn`t like this book at all. it was boring and i coudn`t stand the way ' Lasarian/Ian' acted or how Shannon was acting like such an airhead. give me a break. i don`t really reccomend this book but if you have nothing better to do then hey whatever floats your boat.