Cute quick read, perfect for st Patricks day or a trip to Ireland 💚

A little slow in my opinion but cute <3

The star of this book is the lush, storied Scottish landscape. I was ready to book a ticket to Edinburgh as I read.

Addie Macrae is a consultant who works with tour companies abroad. As her firm is new, there's a lot of pressure riding on this new project that is taking her to Edinburgh. We find her already shoving down some nervous energy and other emotions at the beginning of the book as Scotland is a place that holds a family connection for her particularly with her late mother. We see the theme of Addie running from her emotions throughout the book.

Addie meets Logan on the tour she sneaks onto the first day she arrive to get a little intel into this tour company she's working with. However, Addie doesn't realize that Logan is the son of the tour company's owner, and Logan doesn't realize she's a consultant that his father has hired behind his back. Logan takes the trouble the tour company is going through very personally and resists any change Addie suggests.

I had a hard time really connecting with the two main characters until about halfway through the book. I wish we could've spent more time with Logan's family and really got to see Addie connect with them as found family/ home is really what she was seeking out. I also had a hard time sometimes following the character's thoughts or memories because they would allude to some interaction or something that happened, but that never happened in the book. I feel like I was supposed to make a lot of assumptions. For instance, when Addie leaves Logan's brother gives her a book that's the last in some series. Had Addie been reading a certain series of books while she stays with him? Have they been bonding over books? I don't know; I guess so. Like I said, I really wanted to see more of Addie's interactions with the other characters and not just have to guess.

Overall, an enjoyable read especially thanks to the setting and Logan's storytelling ability. I think it is a really good debut, and I would check out more by the author.

Highlights:
-Amazing Scottish background and stories
- Very earnest MMC
- Some found family (but I wanted more!)

Thank you to NetGalley and Canary Street Press for the ARC.

A little bit Hallmark movie, a lot of Scotland.

Addie spends most of her time on the road for her job as a travel industry consultant. However, this is her first time in Scotland, the land her late mother fell in love with on her honeymoon. She carries a few polaroids of her mom in locations all over Scotland and has always wanted to visit them. Once she meets Logan and his family who run the business she has been hired to help, the personal and the professional start to get mixed up.

I loved the tour of Scotland in this book, however it's not totally geographically accurate. And someone being able to drive a tour van in a foreign country on the wrong side of the road to a remote location seem pretty far fetched. There was charm in the landscape and the story of a family trying to share their heritage were touching. That was the reason I picked this one up and the things I liked about it. On the other side, the romance seemed forced and there was no chemistry implied, just said hey these two are hot for each other. Neither main character was particularly likable. I prefer cozy mysteries set in Scotland, but if open door romance is more your thing, this one is not bad.

An overall beautifully written and sweet romance! The author took great care to capturing the beauty and marvel of Scotland, especially its Highlands, while keeping it grounded in the characters' conflicts and struggles. The story bipassed miscommunication as an easy out for conflict, instead forcing the characters to come to terms with their thoughts and emotions and work to compromise and find a future together.
I definitely look forward to other works by this author in the future!

This was pretty good! It was emotional and really made me want to visit Scotland. I liked how Addie was forming relationships with other people besides Logan, especially his mom and Elyse, which helped add to the sense of home she ends up feeling there. All the connections she ends up feeling to her mom got me really. 🥹 The conflict and back and forth between the main couple was pretty frustrating at times, but at least not in a way where I didn’t want them to end up together.

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

Oh my goodness this book is SO SWEET. The main characters Addie & Logan, and the plot line that brings them together, are so well fleshed out that you’ll find yourself drawn to them immediately and rooting for them all the way through.

Also, I loved the detailed tour through parts of Scotland that the author took us on along the way. It made me immediately want to visit and take my own heritage tour!

Truly enjoyable love story that had me kicking my feet with glee by the end.

This was exactly what I was expecting in the best way possible. It's predictable, but a super fast read I thought. Reading this definitely made me want to go visit Scotland! As much as I liked this, I didn't love it. I found as fast and easy the read felt, this took me a while to read. I feel like in some parts it felt a bit easy to put down for a bit. All this to say, if you're looking for a travel based contemporary romance, you'll definitely find this one super cute!

Wow! Kilt Trip is a tantalizing novel that will have you searching flights to Edinburgh. Alexandra Kiley writes likeable characters and locations.

I found myself rooting for Addie and Logan as they navigated their relationship. Scotland is written so beautifully that it becomes a secondary characters.

Did I look up tickets to Scotland after just a few chapters? Sure did. This was such a heartwarming story. I loved the characters and all of their background and baggage that they came with. Addie and Logan felt very real. I look forward to reading more by this author in the future!

I truly love anything romantic with Scots. They are so swoonworthy and this one hit all the spots! It was super funny, whimsy, serious when it needed to be but just very cute!

I enjoy reading romances that have settings that are in different areas and customs. This couple 'battling' over the tours service that she came to help make changes were fun to see them change. The back and forth between the two were funny and gave me a couple of ideas in case I need them! ;-) I now have an urge to travel overseas! I received a free copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for my personal honest thoughts on the read.

Addie thinks she has her life together. She has a job she loves, co-workers she calls friends, and she gets to travel the world as a consultant. If the downfall is having many acquaintances and few meaningful relationships, well that’s just par for the course. Addie doesn’t realize how much losing her mother at a young age and her father to grief has impacted her choices.
 
Addie arrives in Scotland ready to tackle her next assignment and move on until she meets the Sutherland family. Their tour company is in trouble. They need to make changes to keep their business afloat, but Logan is afraid of making those changes.
 
 Logan is in many ways her exact opposite. He has a deep connection with his family and homeland. Logan tries to help her connection with her mother through her Scottish heritage. Addie tries to help Logan by pushing him to take chances with his struggling family business, while still holding on to what he loves about being a tour guide.  Both characters find themselves at a crossroad.
 
The inclusion of folklore and the Scottish history throughout the book added to the atmospheric feel of this beautiful country, which I have been lucky enough to visit a few times. While some of the descriptions of locations didn’t exactly line up with how I remembered them being that just means I have an excuse to travel back to Scotland to double check.
 
The characters showed growth throughout this book. They each had struggles to deal with and overcome. It delves into sorrow, family roots and the ability to adapt to life’s circumstances.  In the end, “[h]e hadn’t just given her pieces of her family back; he’d given her his as well.”

Kilt Trip by Alexandra Kiley is a charming romp through Scotland. Addie is a travel consultant sent to a family-owned and operated Scottish tour company. Logan is the son hoping to take over the running of the tour company. He is frustrated by his father's decision to hire outside help and immediately resists Addie's work often through immature means. Addie usually breezes in and out of her tourist destinations, enjoying seeing the world without really connecting. This time, however, is special. Her late mother was of Scottish ancestry and Addie has photos from her parents' trip to Scotland. When her mother died, her father closed himself off, and Addie effectively lost all her family leaving her with scars. Kilt Trip explores the attraction between Logan and Addie as well as Addie's grief.

I would have enjoyed a bit more of Logan's background as he didn't feel quite as flushed out.

Thank you NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and Canary Street Press for the digital ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Loved this book! I am a sucker for books set in Scotland and this one really delivered. The grumpy/sunshine/enemies to lovers was great. It was a little different twist on the genre with the consultant angle and I can’t wait to read more by this author.

I have read many romance novels lately, but this one was particularly special. I’m not sure if my heart has been touched so quickly while reading before. My heart broke for Addie over the loss of her mother. I can’t imagine my life without mine, but the author truly made me FEEL Addie’s pain. I cried multiple times with my heart aching alongside the main characters. As someone with Scottish heritage, it also awakened a desire in me to reconnect with ancestral ties. I cannot recommend this book enough and am so thankful to have received an arc from netgalley in order to devour it as fast as I possibly could. I eagerly await this author’s next book!

Posted on: @kjbookreview on instagram
Post date: 2/10/24

Kilt Trip 4.5⭐️

Book blurb:
Addie travels to different countries to consult for companies to create tours for visitors. But she’s always a visitor herself. She has always avoided Scotland because of the connection to her mother. She is always moving and it’s what she wants, or is it?

Logan is a kilt wearing tour guide who knows everything there is to know about Scotland. He doesn’t want to be any regular tour. He wants to help people connect to Scotland and their own heritage.

Review:
Addie and Logan come together in teasing and banter. I loved that Logan always seemed to be able to sense what kind of support Addie needed and gave it. He is definitely swoon worthy, especially in his kilt as Addie would say. Addie was able to find her home and as a reader it brought me so much joy. There is nothing better than having a main character find not only love, but a family. And Alexandra did an excellent job with that for Addie. I would definitely recommend this one!
#kilttrip #contemporaryromance #bookreview #netgalley #bookstagram

I LOVE a story set in Scotland, and Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities in the world, so to say I was excited about this is an understatement.

The chemistry between Logan and Addie was top notch right from the start. This is a bit of a slow burn, and I love the tension between them and all of the witty banter and prank playing.

I enjoyed the actual story, however the writing style wasn't for me. Alexandra is super descriptive, in a very poetic way, and it was just a bit much. I found myself skimming quite a few times, and it took me ages to slog through this when normally I'm a book-a-day kind of gal. I wish the pace was a bit faster, as it moved a bit too slow to keep my focus.

🔥🔥
⭐⭐⭐

4.5⭐️
I might just come back and change this to a 5 star rating because I truly did love it. Only reason I didn’t give it a full 5 stars was because it just didn’t quite give me *that* 5 star feeling, you know?

However, I absolutely adored this book. I will 100% be buying it once it’s released. I feel like I’ve been searching for a long time for this specific type of book based in Scotland. As someone of Scottish descent and with a deep love for the country, Alexandria Kiley really allowed me to feel immersed into the story. I adored the history she wrote into the story and I could really just picture the hills of the highlands and the waters of Loch Ness. Also as someone who has braved driving the roads of the highlands, I was really able to connect with Addie on how stressful it is!

I also loved the chemistry between Addie and Logan. From their first meeting I could tell this was a couple I was going to be rooting for. I highly recommend this novel - especially if you have a thing for Scottish, kilt-wearing men!

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for allowing me to read an ARC of this novel!

Overall, this was a lovely book! Besides for the romance, it touched on themes of losing a parent, guilt, resentment, and grief. This is the first romance book I’ve read that is set in Scotland so it was VERY fun imagining all the banter in a sexy Scottish accent.

The plot overall was super fun and I liked the idea of them meeting initially on a tour before figuring out who the other is. The simultaneous growing sense of competition and attraction led to lots of funny banter but also some spice! The office scene had me SQUEALING and KICKING MY FEET 🤭. The MMC was giving sexy, self-confident, kind, gentle, caring, supportive, KING!!!!! The FMC was giving HBIC, world traveler, QUEEN but also trying to heal and figure out what she needs from the people in her life.

I felt like the writing was way more detailed with describing the different castles and locations than it needed to be, so much so that it took my attention away from the underlying romantic feeling between the main characters and left me confused trying to piece together a mental image of where I was. Also, I felt like some characters were super flat and sprinkled in with no other reason than to explain plot holes that couldn’t be filled otherwise (Reid being the reason behind Logan wanting to start the whisky tour but only being physically in two chapters; Marc being this omnipresent character that was described in a likable manner but took a villainous turn; Damien (Marc’s husband) again brought up in passing but served no real purpose, in my opinion and never physically showed up; Gemma was relevant until New Years and then is basically never seen or heard from again).

I think there was a pretty good opportunity to turn this into a trilogy, a book for each brother, and possibly tying in Elyse as a love interest would have been fun since she was such an enjoyable character.

I had positive and negative feelings to this book but I would 100% read another Alexandra Kiley book! Before I was approved for an ARC, I requested my local library to buy some copies so I could read it when it came out so I was OVER THE MOON when I got approved AND when I saw my library has 4 copies on order so other people in my area can read it too!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this opportunity!

Addie heads to Scotland for work and finds a deep connection with her deceased mom and an unexpected sense of belonging. Oh, and a handsome Scotsman too, of course. 😂 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

3.5 ⭐️ It took me a solid 50% to really get into this one and feel the chemistry between our main characters, Addie and Logan, but as a debut, I can overlook that. I liked that Addie’s mom passed away years ago and the book focused on the impact of that on her life, even though it happened so long ago. I loved the old photos Addie had of her mom and the subplot of trying to find the locations they were taken at. Doing something like this just to feel a small connection to someone you’ve loved and lost really resonated with me. The Scottish setting was a lot of fun too, and it seemed obvious that the author has a connection to the country based on all the tiny details included throughout the book. A solid debut and I’d definitely read more by this author in the future!

My thanks to NetGalley and Canary Street Press for a complimentary advance copy of this eBook, out 3/5/2024.