A Hundred Kisses (The Hundred Trilogy)

By: Jean M. Grant

Narrated by: Rosalind Ashford

1296

Two wedding nights. Two dead husbands. Deirdre MacCoinneach wishes to understand her unusual ability to sense others' lifeblood energies…and vows to discover if her gift killed the men she married. Her father's search for a new and unsuspecting suitor for Deirdre becomes complicated when rumors of witchcraft abound.

Under the façade of a trader, Alasdair Montgomerie travels to Uist with pivotal information for a Claimant seeking the Scottish throne. A ruthless baron hunts him and a dark past haunts him, leaving little room for alliances with a Highland laird or his tempting daughter.

Awestruck when she realizes that her unlikely travel companion is the man from her visions, a man whose thickly veiled emotions are buried beneath his burning lifeblood, Deirdre wonders if he, too, will die in her bed if she follows her father's orders. Amidst magic, superstition, and ghosts of the past, Alasdair and Deirdre find themselves falling together in a web of secrets and the curse of a hundred kisses…

©2017 Jean M. Grant (P)2018 Jean M. Grant

Engaging story!

I started reading this book and struggled with reading the dialect though enjoyed it immensely on audio. Great story, hated to have to pause it when I got out of the car and loved the narrator. Can't wait to listen to book number 2!

Great read

A great story full of adventure. Loved the characters and the narration was perfect. Adventure, love, danger. Its a fun ride. I received a copy in return for a review.

Romance, magic and adventure.

Deidre has an ability that she doesn't understand. Is it what killed not just one, but two husbands? Some whisper that she may be a witch. When she finds herself traveling with a man she's seen in visions, a man her father wants her to seduce, she wonders if he will die, too. Or will he be the one to break the curse?
Jean M. Grant is really making me rethink my opinion of the romance genre. She's well on the way to making me a fan.
I absolutely love the narrator. I could listen to her for hours. Oh, wait, I already did that.

Gift or curse

Sensing lifeblood curse or gift. Secrets will be unraveled. Is her new travel companion part of future or is she his downfall.

A Highland Tale

A Highland Tale (an audio review)

I want to start my review discussing the narrator, Rosalind Ashford. Finding the perfect narrator for any book is a challenge and Ashford is brilliant. The story takes place in Scotland and her accent is flawless. Perfect.

The story is interesting. Deidre MacCoinneach has a unique gift – she can see people’s lifeblood energies. She can sense deception, cruelty, kindness, and all other emotions. This is helpful when she wakes up next to not one but two dead husbands. She might also be cursed…or the deaths are a terrible coincidence.

Interestingly, there is one lifeblood she cannot sense – Alasdair Montgomerie. He is pretending to be a trader when in truth he’s working for Bruce, a claimant seeking the Scottish throne. Going by Alec, he meets Deidre and their lives take an interesting turn. They travel together, Alec to deliver intelligence and Deidre to meet her mother’s people in the hopes of discovering why she has this ‘talent’.

Now, I enjoyed the audio but topping out at over 10 hours made it a commitment. I’m glad I embarked upon it, to be sure, but there were a few times when I felt it dragged. Then the pace would pick up and things would bring me along for the ride. So I can recommend the book and I’m looking forward to more books by Ms. Grant narrated by Ms. Ashford.

Enchanting

A highland fairytale with a beautiful maiden under a magical curse, a hero in disguise, and a happily ever after. This is a charming book. I received a free review copy of the audio version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Great book, great narrator.

Loved it! Jean M. Grant sucked me in right from the beginning. Captivating characters and scenery.

Amazing narrator transports you to 1296 Scotland

If you like historical fiction coupled with romance, you may enjoy A Hundred Kisses. It takes place in 1296 Scotland when the English king wants to take over Scotland and various Scottish landlords want a Scot to rise to power instead. The land is divided, and friends have become enemies.

The story follows Diedre MacCoinneach who is cursed in marriage. (Her first two husbands died on their wedding nights, and a fiancé died before their marriage marriage.) When Alasdair Montgomerie comes upon their keep, her father wants Diedre to seduce him and make him believe the baby is his, thus having to marry his daughter. Diedre does run off with him, but for her own purposes—to meet her unknown aunt, who can potentially tell Dierdre about the mother she never knew and to learn if there is any truth to the curse and Dierdre’s strange visions. On their journey, they slowly begin to fall for each other, but it becomes clear both Dierdre and Alec (as he is known to her) are keeping significant secrets from one another. Add in a dangerous baron, rumors of witchcraft, and you have a suspenseful love story.

I highly recommend the audio version of A Hundred Kisses. The narrator did an amazing job of transporting the listener to 1296 Scotland. Her accents were amazing, and she effortlessly switched between characters and even her male characters sounded authentic. I plan to listen to the prequel next.

My new favorite Scottish romance

This exquisite audiobook swept me away to an adventurous romance set in the Highlands of Scotland in 1296. It is a compelling slow burn between an ndependent-minded psychic heroine and an honorable warrior. The book is tense and exciting without being depressing. The two main characters are very lovable. I plan on re-listening to this masterpiece and buying more audiobooks by this author. The sexual tension, the mystical elements, and the realistically detailed historical setting combine to make something unique and addictive. There is some violence but it is not pervasive or graphic. The chapters alternate between the third person perspective of the two main characters.

King John of Scotland has been imprisoned by the English, and rumors swirl that the English will invade soon. The Scottish nobleman Alistair, going by the name of Sir Alec Sterrit, is on a secret mission for Robert the Bruce to get a message to the northern isles. However, as he passes through a glen in the Highlands, he pulls a mysterious beauty from the loch who insists that she didn’t need rescuing. Dierdre, the laird’s daughter, hides a secret psychic power for fear that she might get burned at the stake. She wishes to visit and learn from her mother’s family in the Isles, and Alistair is happy to travel with her. Danger and secrets swirl around this marvelous pair of characters.

The narrator Rosalind Ashford gives a superb performance with really good Scottish accents and distinctive voices. She is expressive and has excellent pacing. I just wish that she could have made Alistair's voice a tiny bit deeper and sexier, but she still wonderfully transformed the words on the page into an exciting adventure for my ears.

I requested and received a free audiobook copy via #AudiobookObsession, and I voluntarily wrote this honest review.
#AudiobookObsession Reviewer

Love Alasdair and Deirdre!

Alasdair Montgomerie is on a mission in the Highlands. Several claimants are vying for the Scottish throne, but the English King Edward has sent an evil baron north to kill everyone who’s loyal to one of the claimants. Alasdair has to deliver his sensitive information to a waiting party, but his plans are derailed after he rescues a drowning woman from a lake.
Deirdre MacCoinneach has lost two husbands and a fiancé in a short time span, but her laird father is determined to marry her off again—to Alasdair (who’s going by Aleck Stirick). She has a magical gift in which she can feel heat, energy, and emotions from other people, which she calls Lifeblood. She recognizes Alasdair from her visions and sets off on an adventure with him to find her deceased mother’s people.
Deirdre and Alasdair (Aleck) were strong, stubborn, intelligent characters. I liked them a lot. They kept a lot of secrets from each other, however, which became tiresome after a while.
I enjoyed the side characters of Kate and Christal (spelling?) and would love to see more of them. I wasn’t crazy about Deirdre’s father, Simon, but I hope I’ll like him better in his book, which is the prequel.
The story pacing was quick in the beginning, slowed some in the middle, and picked back up at the end. I normally read ebooks or print books, but I received a copy of this story in audio. It’s 10 hours and 49 minutes long, which I listened to in two days. The narrator, Rosalind Ashford, did a wonderful job speaking with multiple Scottish accents, but it took me a little while to get use to it.
About the reading order…it’s confusing. I believe A Hundred Kisses is book 1, and A Hundred Breaths is book 2 and a full-length prequel. These books are standalones, but I recommend reading or listening to the prequel first. I wish I had done that. I learned a big spoiler in book 1 about the H/h from the prequel.
Anyway, I enjoyed this story, and I’m still going to give the prequel a chance.
4 Stars