PROPHETESS ( Talisman 2.5) by Tam DeRudder Jackson-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 20, 2020

Happily ever after is for other people.

Though she traveled extensively in warrior circles throughout the community, both at home in America and abroad in Scotland, Shanley Conlan never discovered her warrior. When the war goddesses killed her sister and brother-in-law, she assumed guardianship of her orphaned niece and walked away from her dreams of life with her fated warrior. In private, she grieved the man who no doubt lost his life when he didn’t find her, a victim of the goddess’s curse.

Resigned to her destiny…

Called back to Scotland to participate in the Samhain rituals sealing the Conlan heir to their ancestral home, Shanley is shocked to find the family harboring a rogue warrior. How else can a man nearing forty still be alive without being mated to his talisman? Worse, she can’t seem to help the lightning-fast attraction she feels for Alaisdair Graham.

Can detours lead to second chances?

Alaisdair is desperate. Gone into hiding thirteen years earlier when he didn’t find his talisman in time, he knows the reprieve from the goddess’s curse is short. If he doesn’t find his mate in the next two weeks, he won’t live long enough to celebrate another Samhain. Thinking he was spared to marry the much-younger Conlan heir, his hopes are dashed when her true warrior arrives. Yet into his life walks Shanley, and he thinks the cosmos have taken his side at last. All he has to do is convince her–before the goddess strikes and takes them all.

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REVIEW: PROPHETESS is instalment 2.5 and novella in Tam DeRudder’s contemporary, adult TALISMAN paranormal/fantasy Celtic mythology series. This is forty-two year old, Celtic warrior Alaisdair Graham, and prophetess Shanley Conlan’s storyline. PROPHETESS runs parallel to and crosses over with the events of book two Warrior. We are first introduced to Shanley and Alaisdair in Warrior.

NOTE: For a complete history of the events leading up to Shanley and Alaisdair’s meeting and relationship, I recommend reading the series in order especially book two Warrior.

SOME BACKGROUND: Centuries earlier, the Morrigan cursed the descendants of the Sheridan family, a curse that has the potential to be broken with the mating of a warrior and his fated mate. Desperate to prevent the breaking of the curse, Morgan sets into motion a series of battles that will pull the Sheridan family into a war where family and friendships will be tested. Morrigan is part of Celtic mythology representing the cycle of birth and death, but is also the patron of magic and revenge, prophecy and night.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Shanley and Alaisdair) PROPHETESS follows the quick building romance and relationship between forty-two year old, Celtic warrior Alaisdair Graham, and prophetess Shanley Conlan. By the age of twenty-eight, Alaisdair Graham had never found his fated mate; his Talisman; the woman that called to his heart. Fast forward fourteen years, following an eternity on the fringes of warrior society, Alaisdair would come face to face with Shanley Conlan, his fated Talisman, and the woman with whom Alaisdair will fall in love. As the Samhaim approaches, and the war with the Morrigan on the rise, Alaisdair must prepare for battle, as his new-found mate discovers she has the ability to prophesize about the future.

PROPHETESS is a quick read; a fast paced story that overlaps with the events of book two Warrior but focuses on the relationship between two people who thought love and fate had left them behind. The premise is entertaining but I was hoping for a little bit more; the romance is passionate; the characters are colorful and charismatic.

Reading order and Previous Reviews
Talisman
Warrior

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy