Dear Reader;

The Last Highlander is a time travel romance and romantic comedy which was originally published under my pseudonym Claire Cross, by Berkley in 1998. I wrote four books for Berkley – two for the Time Passages imprint and two for the Magical Love imprint. The titles were Once Upon a Kiss, The Last Highlander, The Moonstone and Love Potion #9. When I look at them now, I can see that writing these books gave me the opportunity to play with humor more, and to work on balancing comedy and tragedy. I had a lot of fun writing these books. For years, I heard from readers who wanted copies of these books but had no more print copies myself.

Currently, all four of these titles are available in new digital editions as well as new trade paperback print editions.

My original title for The Last Highlander was The Briar and the Rose. It’s still a title I really like, as well as the title of a song by Tom Waits with quite evocative lyrics. Holly Cole recorded a beautiful version of this song, which appears on her album Temptation. To avoid confusion, however, this re-release has the same title as the original printed edition.

As with all of my re-releases, I’ve chosen not to revise this book, but to republish it pretty much the way it was published in the first place. Although I’ve learned a few things about storytelling and writing since writing this story, I like the work as it stands. There may be a few typos or exclamation marks missing, but otherwise this edition is very similar to the original mass market edition.  

In other news, I’ve returned to Scotland in my books and am happily writing medieval romance again. The Renegade’s Heart, the first book in a new four-book series called The True Love Brides, will be published in May 2012. This new series picks up the story from my Jewels of Kinfairlie series, following four more of the siblings at Kinfairlie as they meet their romantic matches and find their happily-ever-afters. The Renegade’s Heart is Isabella’s story and I’m very excited to have the chance to finally tell her tale. Visit my website for more information about this series and other upcoming releases.

I’ve enjoyed revisiting The Last Highlander, and hope you enjoy reading Alasdair and Morgan’s story, as well.

Until next time, I hope you are well and have plenty of good books to read.

All my best,
Claire

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