The son of a Celtic witch, Laird Callum, Chieftain of the Roberts clan, sometimes wishes his powers would have kicked in at birth as his sister’s had.  But waiting for his powers to arrive is the least of Callum’s problems now.  With his father’s disappearance at the hands of an evil sorceress, Callum is a man possessed.  Determined to find the evil sorceress, Torella, Callum follows a lead to a sacrificial alter, where he finds a lovely lass instead of Torella. 

Exiled by her clan and blinded by Torella, Lady Alayne Duncan lives in darkness and fear.  When Torella gives her an ultimatum, her sister’s safety for Alayne delivering Torella’s grandchild to her, Alayne believes she has no choice.  What Alayne does not expect is her instant attraction to the child’s uncle.  Callum is everything she ever could have wanted, but as they grow closer, Alayne’s treachery hangs over her like a dark cloud.  But how can she sacrifice her sister for the chance to keep the heart of a warlock? 

As a fan of the first two books in the Celtic Series, The Last Celtic Witch and The Celtic Witch and the Sorcerer, I was eager to read Heart of a Warlock.  Though I loved being able to revisit characters I adored, Heart of a Warlock failed to enchant me.  In general, Callum is a fierce, handsome warrior.  However, his multiples avowals of women’s untrustworthiness made him seem uncharacteristically pigheaded at times.  Alayne is a protective soul, but she did not come alive to me as previous heroines in this series have.  As for Torella, she continues to be a rotten, manipulative sorceress, as befitting the series’ ongoing villain. 

What bothered me most about Heart of a Warlock is the overabundance of sexual molestation Alayne is subjected to.  At times, I wanted to cry “enough!”  Still, even though Heart of a Warlock did not captivate me, I enjoyed the first two books in the series enough, and also am impatient enough for Callum’s father to be rescued that I will likely continue on with Lyn Armstrong’s intriguing series.