Binding Vows (MacCoinnich Time Travels Book 1) Kindle Edition

Rated 4.5/5Summary: Tara McAllister has been dragged on another crazy adventure by her best friend. This time, Cassy has convinced her to participate in a weekend Renaissance Faire. They are expected to dress in costume the whole weekend, while experiencing life without technology or modern conveniences.Unfortunately, the festival is not what it seems. The host of the event, Grainna (aka Madame Gwen), is using the faire as a ruse to locate young girls with Druid blood. Gwen is actually a former Druid who has been banished to the future as a powerless old woman, as punishment for practicing black magic. The only way she can break the spell is by obtaining virgin blood from a girl of Druid descent. Grainna knows immediately that Tara qualifies, and she puts her guard around the young woman in order to keep her chaste until the solstice.In the mean time, Duncan and Finlay MacCoinnich, brothers from Scotland, make their appearance at the faire. They have used Druid magic to travel through time 500 years to stop Grainna's plans. Duncan falls for Tara almost immediately, and visa versa, but Tara is not willing to give up her virginity to someone she may never see again. Duncan knows that there are only two ways to save Tara's life; he must either take her virginity, or take her back to his home in ancient Scotland. He takes her home.Tara isn't very happy about leaving her friends and family behind, but she eventually comes to understand that Duncan saved her life. Slowly, she begins to love her life in Scotland, largely due to the relationship that has developed with Duncan. But just when they think they have found their happily ever after, Grainna comes back into the picture.Review: I'm definitely a sucker for a good Highlander romance, and this one fit the bill for me. It included the time-travel, Druid Magic, love story, fantastic characters, and elements of danger that culminate into an absolutely engaging romance novel.I really enjoyed that there was such a strong storyline for WHY Tara was traveling back in time. I've read a lot of Highlander romances in which the heroine travels back in time by accident, but I think the strongest stories occur when the time travel has meaning. This book was a great example.I also really liked that the evil character in this book was in the form of a straight-up scary old witch. I've read plenty of stories where evil came in the form of a beautiful seductress or a powerful man, and these types of characters almost always lead to misunderstanding between the primary couple in the story (distrust, accusations, doubt, etc.) It was really refreshing to read a book that didn't have that element of presumed temptation or ridiculous misunderstandings.I highly recommend this book to fans of Highlander or historical romances. I really enjoyed this story and am very much looking forward to the next book in the series

6190526The BookChick 's review Feb 07, 16 · editreally liked itbookshelves: highland-romance, time-travel-romance, 00-2016-read, historical-romance, smexy, swoon-worthy-alpha, 4-star-readRead on February 07, 2016When I started reading romance fiction a few years ago, Highland romance came second only to romantic suspense. I gobbled up every Highland romance I could find and fell in love with the likes of Karen Marie Moning's Highland series because it had a perfect mixture of magic and intrigue and the past meeting the present. Sadly, I don't read many books in this genre anymore but I still enjoy them a great deal. Today I decided I wanted such a read. Scouring Amazon yielded LOTS of Highland romances but none of them caught my attention until I saw the description of Catherine Bybee's Binding Vows. The description hooked me right off the bat and being a fan of some of Bybee's other work completely sold me on it. I downloaded the ebook and the audio and set about to listen.From the very beginning I just knew that I would enjoy it because Bybee's storytelling quickly drew me into it. The story begins set at a time in the present (in the female protagonist's time) but the machinations of a dark witch cause the couple to be thrust back into the 16th century's (to the male protagonist's time). The couple begin a magical (really) journey of discovery of Tara's Druid heritage. Duncan is quite the Druid warrior in his own right so he tutors his lady love on how to harness her gifts. All this is done AFTER she forgives him for trapping her in his time. At first, Tara reluctantly embraces her new life in the 16th century but gentle coaxing by Duncan's family breaks her out of her self imposed isolation. Then Duncan steps in and begins to woo the only woman who was able to capture his heart.This story is not overly sey; however, EVERYTHING else balanced so well and the chemistry between the characters was so well written that you didn't even miss it. The immersion of the evil witch, Grainna, kept the intrigue high because you never knew at what point she would pop up to create devilment. Although Tara's novice Druid magic (bolstered by the help of the Druid ancients) was enough to banish Grainna, she was not destroyed and will most definitely pop up again to haunt the family.I enjoyed how Bybee introduced Dunca's siblings into the story and provided teasers about their future. I am absolutely adding the rest of this series to my TBR and will get back to it soon. I loved it.

Tara is a 21st century virgin with Druid blood. Not good when an ancient witch is looking for just that combination to restore her powers, return to her own time, and wreck havoc. Duncan and his brother Finlay are sent into the future from the 16th century to make sure the witch can’t get her hands on a virgin of Druid blood. The obvious way is to make sure they aren’t virgins. Tara is very strong in her desire to remain chaste and Duncan must find an alternative way to thwart Grainna the witch. His solution, bring Tara back in time with he and Finlay.I like the premise of purposeful time travel and the way Tara still had no idea what was happening, thus the shock of finding herself in a different time. The relationship between her and Duncan starts very rocky from this point despite their obvious attraction. Danger follows them back and has to be faced.I enjoy reading Catherine Bybee and was thrilled there were books of hers I haven’t read yet. The characters are thrust into awkward situations and yet rise to meet them head on. This story captivated me from the beginning and held my attention to the end. I enjoyed the audio version of this book and have to say David Monteath did a spectacular job with different voices both male and female. I’m really looking forward to reading the next book in the series. This is my voluntary review.

It was a very well written story!Cant wsit for book two. There was everything in the tale which one would exspect...bravo!

I could read Catherine Bybee's books forever.

I've not written a lot of reviews (this may be my first on Amazon) however, having just devoured all four in this series, (in a week) I turned off my Kindle long enough to log into Amazon to say Kudos to Ms Bybee for the phenominal read. I'm off sick from work at the moment and all four books in the series kept me gripped from beginning to end, to the point where twice I took pain killers late! Often sequels leave me dissapointed, none of the following three did. Excellent work, when's the next coming out?! More than gutted that there isn't another one to follow and download.

I like Catherine Bybee books. This one was predictable. But what bothered me more were historical references that were incorrect - the book is set in the Middle Ages and they drank tea and grew tomatoes. It just seemed odd.

Great plot well written, definitely worth the effort to read.Plenty of action and intrigue laced with magic and romance.A strong foundation for the series, a taste of what's to come?The characters are so engaging, I was enthralled by them. They are believable, charismatic and hot, hot, hot! Full of passion, love with lots of joy for life, humorous, principled and protective of each other and those they are responsible for. The magic they have is used to defeat the dark arts only.Really enjoyed escaping into the world of this book, the author has my attention, can't wait to read the rest of the series.