Celebrate with a Review: Weathering Rock by Mae Clair

Hey Everyone!  I’m excited to be back and reading some awesome books.  I took a bit of a break just to get refreshed and catch up on some personal and professional things.  Coincidentally, this week also celebrates my two year anniversary of this blog.  It’s been a wonderful two years.  I have met some great authors and read some incredible books.  You all have been so supportive and I am very grateful.  So, today I am celebrating by reviewing Weathering Rock by Mae Clair.  It’s a wonderfully enchanting story that throws a bit of romance, history, paranormal and action in a blender to create a unique story. The characters, setting and premise all promise a roller coaster ride that keeps you in the dark until all finally becomes clear.  For my full review be sure you keep reading after the book blurb.  I really have enjoyed my last two years of writing this blog.  I hope you all have enjoyed them too and I look forward to even more exciting books, author interviews, spotlights and lots more.

Book Blurb:

Colonel Caleb DeCardian was fighting America’s Civil War on the side of the Union when a freak shower of ball lightning transported him to the present, along with rival and former friend, Seth Reilly. Adapting to the 21st century is hard enough for the colonel, but he also has to find Seth, who cursed him to life as a werewolf. The last thing on Caleb’s mind is romance. Then fetching Arianna Hart nearly runs him down with her car. He can’t deny his attraction to the outspoken schoolteacher, but knows he should forget her.

Arianna finds Caleb bewildering, yet intriguing: courtly manners, smoldering sensuality and eyes that glow silver at night? When she sees Civil War photographs featuring a Union officer who looks exactly like Caleb, she begins to understand the man she is falling in love with harbors multiple secrets–some of which threaten the possibility of their happiness.

Finding a decent guy who’ll commit is hard enough. How can she expect Caleb to forsake his own century to be with her.

Review:

We first meet Arianna when she literally runs into Caleb with her car.  Well, she doesn’t run him over but its a close call.  Ari tries to help Caleb who is muttering about meeting with Meade.  When Caleb is finally coherent Ari finds out that he lives in the big plantation house of Weathering Rock.  Ari drives Caleb home and meets his brother who helps Caleb in the house.  When she tries to leave Arianna finds that she has a flat tire and must spend the night.  This is the beginning of Ari and Caleb’s rocky romance.

Caleb pursues Arianna in a way that he knows he shouldn’t.  He is after all a Colonel in the Union Army during the civil war and to spice things up more than that he is also a werewolf.  Caleb knows that his life is currently unpredictable and terribly complicated.  He is being threatened by his Alpha werewolf and former best friend, Seth Reilly.  Though Ari begins to see some of the dangers that circle around Caleb she can’t help herself when his old-fashioned charms sneak passed her barriers.  Soon Ari’s love of history collides with her present and she discovers at least part of Caleb’s secret.  Even after her discoveries, Arianna still feels for Caleb and can’t resist him.  It is then that their feelings for one another, their grasp on reality and the dangers around them collide in a tempest of Shakespearean proportions.  Can Caleb and Ari keep their love together or will Caleb go back to the Civil War or worse will his rival werewolf find him and kill all he loves dear?

This was a wonderfully unique story.  I’ve never read a story that has so many facets and fit so well together.  It was quite an interesting mixture of history, romance and paranormal. The way Mae Clair wrote this story allowed for these pieces to fit together like a well made puzzle.  But, it wasn’t just the elements that made this story unique.  I think the layers that were built upon this unique foundations kept the story going.  At first its Caleb’s secrets from Ari but just as those are solved then comes another aspect of Caleb’s past to come to both Ari and Caleb’s present time.  This really was a fun read and you definitely fell in love with the handsome Colonel.  How could you not with his looks and old-fashioned mannerisms that women don’t see today.  I know most women like to read about the bad boy but in this story every women will fall for the wholesome good guy.  Overall, this was a fantastic story and I can’t wait for Wyn’s story next.  I hope it’s just as well written and multifaceted as this was.