I was really excited about the characters and premise of Scotsman in the Stacks, but this one was way too fluffy for me to enjoy. Paige started out great, but her desperation and flat character development was disappointing to me. Super light read, recommended for those who enjoy romance without any complicated characters that you'll really care about.

What a disappointment. I was originally drawn in by the title and cover, thinking that this would be an adorable romance novel. Instead I got a boring read with one dimensional characters and very little chemistry between the two main love interests. Nothing really happened throughout the book, even when there was a small road trip. All the characters, and I mean literally all of them, were so flat. None of them had any depth. How am I suppose to care about characters who give me next to nothing?

Also, the writing was infuriating. It could have used more editing to make the story flow better. I felt like many of the words/sentences were there as a filler in order to make the book longer. And for me, the Scottish accent written on paper was a bit over the top, especially when it wasn't even consistent when he spoke.

There was so much potential here, but it failed to come to life unfortunately.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4. This was a cute and enjoyably light-hearted read. I usually have a hard time with characters who are supposed to have accents because my brain won't let me read with an accent. However, Oxford did a great job writing in James' Scottish accent and I really loved that. It really helped me picture his full character. I did find James and Paige's relationship sweet, but it felt a little unbelievable to me, unfortunately. I wanted to be on board with them so bad, but it was very fast-paced, and the whirlwind, insta-love just isn't really my thing. It felt a little forced to me. I hate saying that, but just being honest! Overall, it was a cute read, but I wasn't swooning.

I really enjoyed this one! The setting felt fresh and the chemistry between Paige and James was great. I loved the sweet, soulmate story between them. I also loved Kayla, the best friend, who reminded me of my own best friends! Will definitely be recommending this book.

"Scotsman in the Stacks" started out so, so good and then it went downhill fast.

I really liked our main character Paige at first. She knows what she wants and really enjoyed her job. However, it quickly started to sound like she was so desperate to get married that it didn't matter to whom. Yet she also had super high expectations? Nothing wrong with that at all, but she seemed desperate and picky at the same time. As the book went on, she just got more annoying to me. Then there was James. The love interest who doesn't have much more to him than being a hot Scotsman who loves to carve wood and is too-good-to-be-true-perfect. Anything and everything Paige does he just adores her and has googly eyed. It gets cringey with how he is toward Paige. . When he interacts with anyone else (and even the other main characters most of the time) the only thing he seems to bring to the table is being Scottish. (Sorry but there is no way he isn't at the very least inspired by Jamie from Outlander) It gets sort of weird and as if everyone around him treats him somewhat like a spectacle. His big conflict is just that he doesn't want to work for his Uncle's business when his residency is up. This was even built up like there was going to be some big dark secret he was hiding, but felt anti climactic. Lastly let's talk about Paige's best friend in the entire world Kayla. Other than her being Paige's best friend, pretty much the only other thing we know about her is that she is pregnant and her husband is perfectly perfect. Oh and when she and Paige were in high school they did a dance to an Elvis song? In general, all of the characters feel poorly developed and 2 dimensional.

Next let's talk about the story itself just a little bit. They meet, become best friends, have one kiss, then pretty much become instantly attached at the hip and spend all of their free time together. I am all for an insta-love troupe but I was not about whatever this 0 to 100 was. The progression didn't feel even a little natural or believable. It also felt like it was sponsored by Visit Michigan. We get it. That's where it takes place and boy does she love every little thing there is to do in the state. It did nothing to advice to story and I found myself skipping through most of these scenes. When we weren't getting narrative on how every detail of MI is amazing, we get he same inner monologue from Paige. James says/does something sweet -> Paige daydreams about their future -> Then she mopes that it is so impossible -> Decides she isn't going to think about it and ruin the moment -> back to the moment as if nothing happened -> Rinse & Repeat. It also feels weird when they actually don't say "I Love You." They literally get tattoos for each other after knowing each other maybe 3 weeks.

Okay, okay. I think you get it. I will finish by saying that I am honestly glad there weren't any spicy scenes because I already know they would have been painful to read though. It could have been such a good read but fell flat.

Thank you NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the book and overall story but found the author's written use of the Scottish accent very distracting. There were some points where it was cute, introducing new phrases, but the constant use of dinnae just got to be too much. Overall enjoyed her storytelling and will definitely try another one of her books - just without a Scottish accent :)

Cute contemporary romance with a very comfortable vibe because of the library setting! Both MC are also very lovable characters. It‘s a fun light read for imbetween.

Scotsman in the Stack by Alana Oxford was a cute novel, but read more like an advertisement on vacationing in Michigan than on a love story.

Paige is a librarian who wants to find "the one" after the breakup of a long term relationship. James is an artist from Scotland, in town for eight weeks working on his sculpture. They meet at the library and it's adoration at first sight. As the book progresses and they become closer, Paige knows there's a time limit on the relationship and tries to stop it, but can't. Yadda, yadda, happy ending. It was trite and expected, but nothing earth shattering. Comfortable. Cute. Kind of boring.

Thank you to the author,8N Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This is a slow burn, insta-love romance, and overall, I enjoyed it. After a recent breakup, Paige is determined to find “the one.” She’s a librarian in Michigan when she meets James, a sexy Scotsman who’s in town for eight weeks. The attraction is immediate and sparks fly, but Paige doesn’t want to risk her heart for a short fling.

James reminded me of Jamie from Outlander, so I loved that. This story was light, sweet, and entertaining. I enjoyed the progression of Paige and James’s relationship and how genuine their emotions felt. If you’re looking for a quick and easy read with MCs who fall fast, you might like this one!

Thank you NetGalley for this eARC

Scotsman in the stacks in a beautiful romance book that centres around finding one’s self and learning about the ups and downs of life.

Paige works in a library and wants to land the job of her dreams and find someone to spend the rest of her life with. Although this story idea has been in countless of books and is pretty much one of the top cliches tropes of romance stories, it was a story I never wanted to put down. When Paige finds herself alone in her apartment and realises how lonely life can be, Alana Oxford hit the nail on the head when it comes to focusing on reality. Although majority of us want what Paige and James have, a happy ever after, there is a long winded process of loneliness a lot of us have to enjoy in order to get to that which Oxford demonstrates perfectly.

When James is introduced, his charming, soft nature is instantly demonstrated through his interactions with other characters and his affection to Paige. As much as I swooned other the romance and cute interactions the couple shown through the book, I was quite shocked to how quickly we got to the romance part. I couldn’t quite understand what trope was being shown. At first I thought it may have been a friends to lovers trope but with hardly a friendship developed, it is difficult to tell.

Overall, Alana Oxford has produced a romance novel that is one of our guilty pleasures and what we all want in our fantasy world. Although the romance part does tend to stray away from reality, the additions of financial struggles and loneliness truly portray what life is about. Arguably, the balance provides an escapism without being too far fetched.

3.5 stars!

If you are looking for a wholesome, drama free, feel-good book --- this is the one for you. Just two genuinely good people who meet by chance and happen to fall in love. Almost sickeningly cute.

Not a lot of steam or conflict in this book but genuinely warm and fuzzy.

I’m not a huge fan of discouraging authors or writers so I’m going to keep it super brief! This particular book just wasn’t for me. I have been reading a fair bit of romance, lots written by American’s and I think I have a bit of fatigue with it.

All the best to the author, I’m sure this will still be a perfect read for many other readers!

Book: Scotsman in the Stacks
Author: Alana Oxford
Pub Date: 6/14/22
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5


Review~

Scotsman in the Stacks is about a women who works as a librarian named Paige who has a love for books. Paige is looks to settle down with someone but the person she was with for years did not.

Paige was now thinking she could never find live again. James is a new person who appears in the library and little did she know he was foreign. But he was an exchange student for 8 weeks only.

Overall this book was very cute and fun to read. This was a quick read. I loved all of the characters in the book. I definitely would recommend reading this book!!

I had a very hard time getting through this. I really thought I’d love the book based on the premise but there were a few things that I couldn’t get past. One being the way James’ dialogue was written. He’s Scottish, so naturally he has an accent. The constant inclusion of phrasing like “didnae” or “wouldnae” was annoying. But I may just not be a fan or writing out accents.
Some things I did like about the book was the background characters, from her bff, Kayla, to the regulars at the library. As someone who works in a library, the eccentricities were spot on!
I liked Paige and James as characters, as well. The pacing was really well done and the problems the two encounter is very realistic. Currently being in long distance relationship with someone from another country, I could relate to them and the struggles.
Overall, this was an ok read. I liked the premise and that I could relate to the main character. But my annoyances were just enough that made it difficult.

Okay so for context I’m a huge outlander fan and have a large group of friends who have been reading the books together for the past six months. Over the course of the six months so far anytime any of us comes across books that give us “outlander “ vibes we share with each other and gush. One of my friends saw this and recommended we try it out so I was thrilled when I was approved on here. I know the expectations were really high going into this but I was frankly disappointed, the characters chemistry was really lacking and unbelievable at times. Had high hopes but was disappointed

Suddenly single Paige, part-time librarian, and somewhat burnt in love woman on the cusp of thirty, has almost given up on her dreams of a full-time job, marriage, and children - all because her long time boyfriend could not commit. When a handsome Scottish artist, James, wanders into her library, will it be sparks and happily ever after, or will his temporary stay in Michigan make this just a summer fling?

The premise of the novel held a lot of promise, and I was initially excited to read it. Unfortunately, the book had a very slow and boring start, with too much repetition of Paige's anxieties and a "he is so hot and his accent is so hot and his blue eyes!" sighing every few pages. Luckily that settled down and it seemed that the novel would finally pick up.

Alas, the latter half of the novel turned into an uncompelling tourist ad for Michigan. As the novel progressed, it was clear it was neither character nor plot based. It was, however, a staccato assembly of short scenes that lacked cohesiveness. It felt like a quick sketch of what could be an interesting TV episode, but lacked emotional depth and character growth. I did not feel like Paige and James were really in love, nor did their chemistry feel compelling. The novel needed longer scenes where more feelings and emotions were explored and developed, instead of hopping and leaping like a frog across lily pads to the next scene. What we received was mostly a lot of platitudes.

In addition, the novel had some serious grammatical errors and logical inconsistencies. For example, Europeans tend to be a little more travelled than James, though this is somewhat plausible if he came from a poorer background (which wasn't explored in the novel). For someone involved with ships and boats, he did not seem acquainted with that scene - for example, he could have gone to a tall ships festival that often takes place in Bremerhaven - which could have been a nice tie-in with their Michigan-mini Germany stop. There was also another very Eurocentric moment where Paige laments there is no real, long history in Michigan, when she meant that there was no long-term European settler/colonial history. The casual wiping out of 10,000 years of Native American history in Michigan was incredibly jarring for me as a reader. Another thing that seemed strange was that Paige was fairly financially okay with a part-time librarian salary, this does not seem plausible to me at all, and Paige never acted as if she were short on money.

All that said, while I was going to give this a one star rating, the mostly sweet and cute ending raised it up a little.

Thank you to NetGalley and 8N Publishing for this free ebook in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This book was a little up and down for me. Some parts were super sweet, and then it’d kind of slow the pace a bit. Then it’d be angsty, and then it’d be closed door. Was a sweet Insta-love where not much really happened to make you laugh or swoon….

Scotsman in the Stacks sounded it would be right up my alley, but sadly was not for me!

Thank you Netgalley and 8N for the ability to read this!

I loved this book! It was such a cute romance story! I enjoyed getting to know the characters! It was fun to see paige and james fall in love. I enjoyed the friendships in this book as well. Overall it was a fun read!

Thanks to @netgalley & Alana for the opportunity to read this e-Advanced Reader Copy 🙏

This book centres around Paige, a woman who knows what she wants: (1) to obtain a full time librarian job, (2) to find the man of her dreams. Sounds simple enough?

Meanwhile James has just arrived in town from Glasgow on a summer artist residency to pursue his dream and escape the pressure of running the family business...
What to do in a new town with no books to read... go to the library of course!

What I liked 👍
● I found Paige to be really likeable from the off & definitely relatable!
● I loved the setting of the library 😍
● Kayla & Paige's friendship was really fun and sweet!
● I loved James almost immediately, he's really sweet and his love of books helps too!

Rating ~ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

💭 Overall I'd recommend this to any romance fans!