Review: Haunting Warrior by Erin Quinn

May 3, 2010 By Amy 7 Comments

Haunting Warrior by Erin Quinn
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Available: May 4, 2010
Book received from: Publisher

A past he couldn’t forget.

Rory McGrath’s life changed the night his father mysteriously vanished after uncovering the secrets of the ancient Book of Fennore. The trauma turned Rory from an innocent boy into a troubled, cynical man. Leaving Ireland, he shunned his family, his heritage—and the very magic that has defined his people for centuries.

A dream he couldn’t ignore.

Then the dreams begin…dreams of an ethereal beauty whose touch is more real that any he’s known. And in these dreams, she has a message—a calling for Rory to return home to a destiny that will take him beyond the realm of anything he imagined.

A woman he couldn’t resist.

Lured to the castle ruins where his father disappeared, Rory is plunged back in time, and into the body of another man—a man betrothed to the very woman of Rory’s dreams. In possession of the secrets of his past, his family, and his identity, her hold on Rory is inescapable. For she is his doom. His salvation. And his destiny.

Reviewer: Amy

To start off, the cover is what drew me in - if there’s hunky warrior on the front, I am hooked! This was my first read of Erin Quinn’s and while it did not blow me away, it did pique my curiosity enough to follow the outcome. Haunting Warrior blends a story of time travel, magic, war against families, romance and suspense.

Rory is a man who left his birthplace of Ballyfionuir, Ireland, some 25 years ago after his father vanished from earth while uncovering the ancient Book of Fennore. He began a new life in the Pacific but has continued to dream of a beautiful woman who appears to be real, but is out of his touch. She is beckoning Rory in the dream to return home to his Irish homeland. One evening, after closing the club he works at, Rory’s dead grandmother comes to him in a vision and tells him that he will return to the land of his birth to fulfill his destiny. She tells Rory that he will find the Book of Fennore and the woman in his dreams. When Rory returns to Ireland and to the very castle ruins from which his father disappeared, he is thrown back in time into a war between families. He takes form of the body of Ruairi, The Bloodletter, betrothed to Saraid, who just happens to be the woman in Rory’s dreams. What is intended to be a marriage union of families to end a war becomes a full on battle with Ruairi and Saraid on the run to find the Book of Fennore.

I found that Saraid’s character was well developed. She was a strong, courageous heroine who would do anything to protect her family of brothers no matter what the cost to herself. And Rory who started out as a cynical, lost man, at odds with everything he was became a changed man who found his purpose of life in a woman who had called to him over barriers of time.

I have never really cared for stories with a time travel element but what I did like about Haunting Warrior is the author did not have you going back and forth, as it was set mostly in Ireland. I felt like it did drag some through the middle and at times was a chore to continue but not to the extent to turn me completely off. The plot was developed enough to keep me intrigued to see how the relationship of Rory and Saraid would end. Anyone who enjoys a mixed undertone of Chronicles of Narnia and Laura Croft Tomb Rader will appreciate the journey Haunting Warrior takes.

Favorite Quote:

“That he was a man who could accept her failings and still look at her the way he did…like she was a woman worth fighting for…like she was a woman he desired more than air and water and life itself…it was inconceivable.”