I wasn't a fan of this book... surprisingly. I love libraries, librarians, and Scotsmen, but the combination didn't work in this story. The writing was dull and it was very difficult to hold my attention. I came close to classifying it as DNF many times, but I powered through.

Thank you to NetGalley and 8N Publishing for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Scotsman in the Stacks is the story of Paige, a librarian who has just gotten out of a long-term relationship and is anxious to find someone with whom she can settle down. Enter James who is only in town for a short amount of time. They start a fling. While there is nothing wrong with this clean romance, there is also nothing particularly remarkable. The characters do not seem to have much chemistry and the story is slow moving (unusually so for this genre).

Thanks NetGalley and 8N Publishing for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

The story follows Paige, who’s working a part time job in a Michigan library. After her recent breakup, she becomes truly set on finding the right guy (THE ONE with whom she will spend the rest of her days with) and also get her dream job as a full time Librarian. Enter James, a very cute Scotsman who’s in town for only 8 weeks. Even though the attraction is undeniable between the two, Paige is definitely not looking for a summer fling, so they might as well try to be friends.

I’m usually a big enemies to lovers trope reader so I was a little unsure about this book at first. It is pretty much love at first sight for the two characters, but I did enjoy it a lot! The characters were nice and I did enjoy their interactions and complicity. Paige’s best friends are so similar to mine, so I did relate a lot to the parts they were together, like a second family (which is the best friends you can hope for in life!). For me it was one of those books that just kept making me smile throughout my whole read.

I also have to admit that I DO have a soft spot for Scottish man… I see any word closely related to Scotland in a book title and I am suddenly finding myself buying the book (talk about good self control). So James MacKinnon didn’t have to do much to win my heart. He said "caird" and I knew I loved the man. But he’s seriously dreamy!

Definitely would recommend reading this book if you are looking for something easy to read, very light, sweet and comforting.

** ARC **

I just want to start off by saying that, as someone who dreams of a gorgeous Scottish man sweeping me off my feet every night, this did not disappoint. This book follows Paige, a local librarian, and James, a visiting artist from Glasgow. When Paige ends her relationship with her anti-commitment boyfriend, she decides that maybe it is best to focus on herself. One day James walks into the library and Paige is immediately taken with the gorgeous ginger Scottish artist and their story begins.

This book was cute and sweet. A very lighthearted, yet also touching read. I would say that if you are looking for something to get you out of a reading slump or maybe even something to cleanse the palate after a heavy read, go ahead and pick this up.

I will say that I wish this book was spicy. It is a lot of fade to black, to the point where I do not know if they actually had sex sometimes. I am a person who loves the spice so I wish this was spicier. I also think that towards the middle, the book felt a little tedious. It felt like the story was dragging a little and like I was just waiting for something to happen.

I loved Paige and James, I thought their relationship was super adorable and I loved all of the rest of the characters. Everyone in that town just seemed so nice, minus a few creeps at the library. All in all, it was a clean and refreshing read. .

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy of Scotsman in the Stacks! This is the first book I’ve read from Alana Oxford.
Paige is a 29 year old woman who wants to settle down and get married. Dylan, her boyfriend of 6 years, is afraid of commitment. So she goes through a breakup. I immediately related to Paige. She’s very likable. She wants marriage and children. She sees her best friend Kayla who is married and having her first baby, and she wants to have the same happiness that comes from a family of her own.
I love that she’s a librarian and it’s her dream job. She works to get a promotion at the library. I’m all for the heroine following her dreams.
James MacKinnon might as well be Jamie from Outlander because that’s who I pictured the entire time, haha. He’s Scottish. He’s from Glasgow. He had red hair and striking blue eyes. He has a hot Celtic tat and he loves books. I’ve been to Glasgow. The accent is legit swoon-worthy. 😋 He’s literally perfect. I mean what bookish girl doesn’t want to be a librarian and show a hot Scottish guy around? The downside is James is only in town for eight weeks. Is that enough time to start a romance?
I did really enjoy their road trip to Frankenmuth and the island. I’m not familiar with Michigan, but I am from the Midwest, so it’s nice to see some representation.
The dialogue at times was slightly cringey when it came to the flirting. For example, James said something like I have another birthday kiss for you. I couldn’t quite trust that James was obsessed with her at the beginning. Some of the lines seemed unreal and a little over the top. It was that feeling of “you just met each other; do you really think that?” However, they did spend a lot of time together, so it’s possible they bonded. The other dialogue when they were getting to know each other was fun. I enjoyed their conversations about Scotland and what they wanted for the future.
I think I spent half of the book waiting for something bad to happen because things just seemed a little too perfect. I thought maybe Dylan would show up again to ruin things, but he didn’t. I think the romance was very innocent and clean. There wasn’t anything too graphic for those readers who avoid those types of scenes.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book. It was a fun read. The conflict was a bit lacking. I had a feeling things would work out. However, I don’t believe every book needs a ton of high stakes to be amazing.
I’d recommend this book to anyone who loves American contemporary romance with a Scottish flair.

This was a sweet, closed door romance. It took me a while to get into the book but the last third drew me in. As a book lover myself, I also enjoyed books that are in some way about books as the FMC is a librarian.

I didn't like the plot, I didn't like the characters, I didn't like the writing, it was so boring. I only liked Kayla and that was mostly before she gave birth. I honestly thought this book would never end.

3.5/5 stars

First of all, let me thank NetGalley, Xpresso Book Tours and the author – Alana Oxford, for giving me the opportunity to read this book before the release date. I’m very grateful for the opportunity!

“Scotsman in the stacks” brings us the story of 29-year-old Paige, who has recently finished a long-term relationship with her boyfriend. Paige was ready to settle down – marry and have kids, but Dylan (her ex) was not on the same page. Paige is a librarian, and, during her work, she will meet James, who is in town for only 8 weeks. They immediately start flirting but she is looking for something long-term.

This was such a sweet sweet story! For starters, I really appreciate books that are, somehow, related to books. I loved the fact that Paige was a librarian, it was one of the things that first draw me to the story and made me request it. I felt the author made an effort to bring us more than just the fact that Paige is a librarian – she brings us problems with customers (and make us appreciate all of those working in public service) and the dynamization of a book club.

I really appreciated some small details in this book that, I felt, make an effort for gender equality: I mean, we get men setting the table for dinner and doing the dishes after and we get a female character constantly driving a male character around. It’s the little things people! We hardly ever see this reverse of typical roles in books (and other forms of fiction).

During the first half of the book, Paige was really focused on finding a long-term relationship. I do understand the difficulty, especially since it’s not a matter we can take only in our hands. It takes two to tango, so Paige wanting a family was not something she could just solve all by herself. Not considering the format of family she wanted, at least. I liked the topic, as we, women, actually can’t have babies whenever, so I thought it was a valid concern. However, and this is what made me lower my ranking, I felt this was the main aspect of the first half of the book, making it somehow repetitive and lacking character development in other areas of life (and development of secondary characters). Additionally, I felt the female main character was too perfect, therefore not so much credible as I would have liked to see.

The story was slow at first, which made sense, as the main characters were getting to know one another, but made me feel something was missing. The second part just put me a smile on my face the whole time. It’s very sweet, more fast paced and I laugh at some parts, which I always appreciate as reading is my relaxation time.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and wound recommend it to anyone looking for a cute read to get some rest in the weekend – it did wonders for me, as I was really needing to invest in a book and escape real life for a minute or two.

This review will also be available at my Gooreads profile ( https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/65805218-catarina-cat-literary-world) and later during this month, at my Instagram profile (@cat.literary.world), probably in a shorter version due to Instagram’s characters limit.

Meh. Paige was alright? she didn`t interest me too much, but was alright. James was boring and bland, so naturally their chemistry did not feel like anything. It was just boring... i did not care for them or the story.

Huge thanks to NetGalley & 8N Publishing for an early ebook of Scotsman in the Stacks in exchange for my honest review.

Paige, a recently single librarian, helps a hot Scot named James check out a book. It’s instant attraction between the two! James is only in Ann Arbor for the summer, Paige wants something serious & long term so it could never work with James .. at least that what she keeps telling herself.

It was definitely cute & made me smile a few times. Reading in a Scottish accent in my head was fun 😂 I could only think of a modern day Jamie from Outlander when picturing James.
The main character, Paige, may be 30 but I feel like this cutesy closed door romance is for a much younger audience. Or those who may be new to the romance genre & aren’t ready for anything steamy yet.
It took me a few days to really get into it. The dialogue in the first few chapters were a little cringe in my opinion, it didn’t read very conversational but it did get better.
I would definitely recommend this to young adults.

*Thank you to the author and Netgalley for providing me with a E-ARC of "Scotsman in the Stacks" in exchange for an honest review *

I thought that this was super cute! (I do have a weakness for library romances though).

An adorable, cute, funny romance that I read in one whole sitting! I’m a sucker for books about book lovers so what’s better than read about a librarian and a book loving Scotsman maybe falling in love! The library meet cute was soooo funny and just perfect for these main characters! If you love a strong Scottish accent, friends-to-lovers, and falling fast and hard you’ll love this adorable romance!

I hated this so much. The characters had no chemistry. Also how was she living normally with her only job being a part time librarian? The guy was obviously scottish but the way it was written made me want to cut my eyes out. Almost every sentence he spoke was written weirdly to show his accent, but it was very uneccessary.

I received an arc through netgalley.

Refreshing, sweet, clean, and relatively drama-free. That is how I would describe this book. Is it going to break any new ground in literature? Probably not. But it does function as a palate-cleanser for anyone who just wants to escape and slow down a bit. Thank you to NetGalley and 8N Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Ooof, finally done. Unfortunately I didn't have a great time reading this book. It was beyond boring, the relationships (Paige+James, Paige+her bff) were so bland and I didn't see any connection (platonic or not) between them at all. The pregnancy stuff was ugh. The road trip was agh. The quirky 'didnae', 'havenae' of James' got old real soon and like, we get it! he's Irish, but it was just ugh in the end. The overboard Hallmark sweetness was just too much, it was often cringy and awkward. Also surviving on a half-paid librarian's salary was a little unreal but whatever.
I just couldn't get into it from the beginning, you know? Being in a relationship for how many years? Six/seven?! And not living together or having any concrete plans for the future? Being in a long-term relationship and being unable to communicate their needs irked me a lot (like okay, she "hinted" that she wants to get married soon but why would you not say anything if it's that important to you? you are not a year into the relationship but over half a decade!).
Overall, I think it is quite a mediocre book for someone who doesn't read a lot of romance. For me, who has become quite picky after having read an abundance of romances, it would have been a dnf after the first chapter if it wasn't an ARC.

This was just what I needed tonight. It’s a slow burn, sweet romance, without any crazy ex-girlfriends getting in the way or horrible misunderstandings that cause issues. It was just a nice, happy romance, and I feel like we don’t get those very often anymore.

It was also a pretty “clean” romance for those that are looking for them.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Paige is a librarian who's single and she doesn't want just a fling. She wants to settle down and that's why she broke up with her last boyfriend, but then one day in the library she meets James and although they are attracted to each other immediately, she doesn't want to get involved since he'll be staying for only eight weeks and then he has to return to Scotland.

Well, that was a disappointment. When I saw the cute cover and the premise (a librarian + a scotsman), I really thought I'd like it but this one was just plain boring.

There was absolutely no chemistry between them (at least I didn't feel any) and the whole development between them (it was a bit like friends to lovers except they weren't really friends) was so dull. Personally I didn't like any of the main characters since they were so generic and one dimensional.

Also, I was not a fan of the writing. It was not bad, but I got tired really fast of James' lines. There was a lot of wouldnae, dinnae, no', couldnae, o' course, havenae, etc. I get that he is Scottish and it is how they talk, but it annoyed me after a while (but maybe that's just me).

There was nothing specifically wrong with it, I just didn't connect at all. Maybe people who haven't read many romance novels might enjoy it more than I did.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to Netgalley & Xpresso Book Tours!

After a shocking break up, all Paige wants is to gain the full-time librarian job that’s soon to open in her Michigan home town. A handsome newcomer catches her eye but she has no plans to date. Glasgow native James is taken by Paige as soon as they meet at the library. The only problem is that he’s only in Michigan for eight weeks as part of an artist residency.

Scotsman in the Stacks is a sweet friends to lovers romance. Paige and James have chemistry from their very first meeting. This is a “closed door” romance so if you're looking for something spicy this may not be for you. The plot is charming and predictable making it the perfect read for a cozy rainy day or a warm beach trip.

This is the first book that I have read from author Alana Oxford but I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.

You want to read something and have a big, goofy smile on your face the whole time? Look no further, so sweet and enjoyable