Series: Scottish Escapes #7 (Standalone)
Publication Date: 15th August 2024
Purchase Link (UK): A
Scottish Highland Hideaway: Fall in love with the brand new autumnal Scottish
escapist romance (Scottish Escapes, Book 7) eBook: Shackman, Julie:
Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
Purchase Link (USA): Amazon.com:
A Scottish Highland Hideaway: Fall in love with the brand new autumnal Scottish
escapist romance (Scottish Escapes, Book 7) eBook: Shackman, Julie: Kindle
Store
Goodreads Book Page: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205593451-a-scottish-highland-hideaway
Genre: Drama, Small Town Romance
3 Stars
One Liner: Read it as a drama
Book Blurb:
A brand new
autumnal story of love, believing in yourself and starting over set in the
Scottish Highlands
For Bailey
McArthur, her family and job mean everything. She runs her own floristry
shop and loves spending time in nature in the pretty town of Heather Moore,
whilst desperately trying to forget about being jilted on her wedding day.
When
journalist Zach Stern arrives in town asking questions about a
famous actor, Bailey decides to throw him off the trail of the superstar hiding
out in the Scottish Highlands.
But despite
Bailey’s efforts to thwart Zach's investigation, she finds herself falling for
him. It’s just a shame she can’t be honest with him. But then, Bailey might not
be the only one with a secret to hide…
***
My Thoughts:
The story comes in Bailey’s first-person POV.
Firstly, this is not romance. It has a lot of drama too, so we’ll call it contemporary fiction.
The start is quite good. I enjoyed the descriptions
of the flower shop and the picturesque small town in winter.
As the story progressed, I realized this would not
be romance. There isn’t enough connection between the main characters.
Insta-love trope but sadly it’s not well done. I was still wondering how they
could develop such deep feelings for each other.
There’s a lot of side drama involving Bailey’s
family. The celebrity, Eric, is also hit with drama and scandals from all
sides. Naturally, Bailey, with her helpful attitude, is at the center of it.
Things spiral out of control in the second half.
Fortunately, I liked the bond between Bailey and
Marcus (her brother). His arc was quite believable. In fact, I empathized more
with him than the main characters.
Bailey’s character is decent if a bit silly over
Zach. I like she made some great points about starting over, the role of media
in sharing gossip at the cost of privacy, the right to become a better person
after making mistakes, etc.
Zach’s character is so surface level, he was hardly
anything more than great eyes and hair with commendable ethics. If the side
drama was limited to one topic, there would have been enough space for the MMC
to grow and the romance to feel like something.
As expected of the genre, everything gets sorted at
the end. There’s an epilogue too. The saving grace for me was the pacing. I
could read this in a couple of days.
To summarize, A Scottish Highland Hideaway has a
solid premise but messes it up by bringing too much drama and turning it into a
soap opera. It might work better if you go with the right expectations. (It is
a proper standalone.)
Thank you, Rachel's Random Resources and
One More Chapter (Harper Collins), for eARC. This review is voluntary and
contains my honest opinion about the book.
#NetGalley
***
About the Author – Julie Shackman
As well as being an author, Julie also writes verses
and captions for greetings card companies. Julie admits to having an obsession
with stationery and handbags.
She is married, has two sons and adopted a Romanian
rescue puppy, Cooper.
A Scottish Highland Hideaway is Julie's eleventh
novel.
Follow the Author:
Julie Shackman (@G13Julie) / Twitter
Julie Georgina Shackman
(@juliegeorginashackman) • Instagram photos and videos
(2) Julie Georgina Shackman |
Facebook
***
This has been a stop on the #AScottishHighlandHideaway
blog tour by Rachel's Random Resources. (@rararesources)
Thanks for stopping by!
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