This Scottish paranormal (monster lite? °-) romance is a delight! Packed with hilarious banter, steamy tension, and a fun magical mystery, I flew through this audiobook in a couple of listens. And YES, you've got to tune in to hear narrators Flint Park and Samantha Summers perform (duet style!) this fun rom-com with perfect accent work and emotive energy.
Despite the fun rom-com vibes and steamy on-page scenes, Ferguson delivers a real emotional connection between main characters Keyana and Lachlan, exploring childhood losses, complicated families, and vulnerable intimacy that had me tearing up and cheering for their HEA.
If you've been wanting to dip your toes in paranormal or monster romance, Ferguson is absolutely the author to try first! You'll be adding a forked tongue 2, Loch Ness monster to your Christmas wish list in no time.

Thank you to @berkleyromance and @prhaudio for my #gifted e-ARC and ALC of Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson which releases everywhere today!

3🌟
Okayyy this was my first monster romance and... it was okay! I personally am not a big fan of solving riddles and mysteries within romance books, but I was definitely intrigued in the beginning. However, I think it dragged on too much and I overall lost all interest in solving the lore of it all.
I was hoping that the romance would make up for it, but I didn't connect to either character at all! There were so many points throughout the book where I straight-up cringed. I just couldn't get with all of the Scottish phrases either lol!!! Also, don't even get me started with the smut. I hated it. I never want to hear a man refer to himself as a beast or a monster in the bedroom ever again (I know it's a Lochness monster romance but still).
I really enjoyed The Fake Mate but sadly this was just not it for me.
Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Romance for the eARC. All thoughts are my own!

In three words: heartwarming, hot and addictive! This book starts off with a really heartfelt scene about a girl who recently lost her father and is trying to connect with family. This is a spicy paranormal romance with a beautiful story about reconnecting to family and your roots. The story is set in Scotland and Lana does such an amazing job and describing the scenes it’s like you’re being transported there! The legend of the Loch Ness monster was such a fun element. The enemies to lovers trope, banter and spicy scenes were done so well. I mean geez 🥵 I listened to a lot of the book on audio and Lachlan’s voice is so hot. I loved hearing all of the accents. I was happy with the ending! Definitely need to read more of Lana’s books.

📣 I want more PNR by this author!

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

📖 what’s one of your Tuesday numbers? Mine are: 1 kid home sick, roughly 4% of a book read, 1 mouth guard impression I just made 😅

Imagine that Nessie is actually a cursed, grumpy Scot who can’t stop thinking about the woman who’s supposedly fated to be his ruination.

Lana Ferguson’s Under Loch & Key is another sizzlin’ story featuring cryptids. In this one, Keyanna travels to Scotland to release her father’s ashes & meet her remaining estranged family. There, she meets said grumpy Scot.

The sparks between Keyanna & Lachlan come across loud & clear, friends. Lana Ferguson doesn’t mess around when it comes to steam & building attraction between the leads. Their love story is adorable—quiet details like Key’s “wee bunny teeth” really got to me. Though the plot kind of gets into the weeds at the end, this story is hope- & sensuality-filled.

4.33 ⭐️, out now!

CWs: curse, imprisonment, betrayal, attempted murder.

[ID: Jess wears a red blazer & multi-colored scarf & holds the ebook.]

4.5 ⭐️ I could not put this one down!!!

I want to thank Berkley Romance for this ARC! I was so excited and honored to get to read it.

This is my first Lana Ferguson book and I can’t believe I’ve waited so long to dive in! As soon as I finished this I was ready to read all of Lana’s other novels. I can’t wait!

This story is sexy, magical, and a lot of fun. The writing is fast paced and it felt easy to put myself into the story. I loved the side characters so much, they were so fun! I adore the grandpa, he is so sweet.

The main couple are so much fun, I really loved reading their dynamic. Key is such a strong woman, I love how bold she is and how she isn’t afraid to speak her mind and get what she wants. Lachlan is so cute and grumpy and easy to love. His povs were so much fun to read!

Seriously such a good read, I am definitely wanting to read more in this genre and more from Lana after this.

Read if you like:
• Paranormal romance
• Grumpy MMC
• Castles
• The Lochness Monster

We have a monster romance with the Loch Ness monster, y’all. From the Queen of Spice herself!

Keyanna packs up her life in the US and moves to Scotland to be connected with her estranged family, who her father left before she was born.

Immediately, she runs into Lachlan, who calls her stupid for going to a dangerous area of Loch Ness.

There’s more to his animosity, though. Their families are old enemies, and Lachlan has Nessie-shaped secrets to keep.

We have a Scottish Highlands-set romance filled with magic, family feuds, monsters, spice, and a slow-burn romance that heats up enough for the pages to burn your hands! (In the best way possible)

I love how well developed the enemies to lovers romance is here, as well as the mystery elements.

Keyanna is so brave - this is 100% a touch him and die!

Grumpy Lachlan is just a big softie, and seeing him fall so hard for Keyanna was so romantic. I love them together!

The story builds so well, and I couldn’t be happier with what it grew into. Is this a reread? Absolutely!

I see so many readers loving this- anyone who likes romance, mystery, or highland magic… pick this up or add this to your holiday wishlist!! Trust me.

Think shirtless Scotsmen in a modern Highland Games…

I give this my highest recommendation, and am so glad I also ordered a signed copy!

Review: UNDER LOCH AND KEY by Lana Ferguson https://bit.ly/4ijTXTq
Publication Date: 12/03/2024
Genre: Contemporary Romance/ Romantic Comedy
Reviewed by: Reading in Pajamas/ Donna
Rated: 3.5 Stars

This book was a lighthearted paranormal romance set in Scotland. Full of legends, curses, and mysteries. I enjoyed the different take on the normal paranormal genre. (If you’ve read my reviews, you know I don’t like to give away anything that isn’t on the author’s blurb. So, I may sound vague.) Key is searching for information on her father’s life and why he left Scotland. That coincides with Lachlan searching for clues on his family’s curse. This story is about their collision course. I like how they came to bolster each other’s confidence – once the distrust was rectified.

I didn’t feel the connection between Key and Lachlan. Lust, yes…love? Not until the very end. I liked them but was never truly invested. Perhaps because the book dragged in some areas. More talking about looking for clues rather than fully searching. A large part of the book was also about Key finding her grandparents and forging a relationship. It wasn’t exactly easy, but it was real. The romance part was pretty hot, so not lighthearted like other parts of the book. All in all, it was an interesting story and makes me curious about Lana Ferguson’s other books.

*Review copy provided by Pengiun in exchange for an honest review.

Kindle https://amzn.to/4f5IUdr

Wow, what a hot monster romcom! I never thought I would be reading about a Loch Ness monster romance but anything that Lana Ferguson writes I will devour it.

This slow burn enemies to lovers was such a page turner and kept me reading late into the night. The story line was great and I honestly just love Lana’s non-traditional love stories.

****Many thanks to Berkley Publishing Group, Lana Ferguson, and NetGalley for my gifted copy!

I can always count on Lana Ferguson for a fun time, especially with monster romances! I loved the background setting of Scotland and these characters. The banter between Loch and Key was cute, funny, and loving. I loved that Lana managed to add depth and emotional moments to their relationship while still maintaining the fun! If you love paranormal romances, definitely give this one a read!! Overall, a really spicy fun read!

Tropes:
Grumpy x Sunshine
Forced Proximity
Dislike to Love

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝
Lana has Done. It. Again! On a journey to fulfill her fathers last wishes, Keyanna brings his ashes back to his home in Scotland. Only to stumble into a world of estranged family, magic, mystery, and a broody Scotsman named Lochlan. 🤤

Lana writing such entertaining and easy to read romances, but she always takes the time to build the world around her characters. This isn’t just a contemporary romance, it’s a paranormal romance, and such a cozy mystery too. It’s the perfect little package.

The banter and the tension between Key and Lochlan was SO freaking good y’all. It was sassy, funny, and truthfully endearing. Lochlan is all mush underneath his rough exterior…and his exterior can get very rough 🦎 😜

I also need to say I love Key’s grandpa with ALL of my heart. He is seriously the sweetest man, and I loved when he meddled. Seeing Key grow a relationship with her grandma and grandpa whom she’d never met, was bittersweet and heartwarming. Lana giving me all the FEELS!

If you’re new to paranormal/monster romance, this is a great book to start with. There is enough monster in the spice, but it’s not too much for someone who is new to the genre. All I can say ladies….IT grows and omg his TONGUE!

♡︎ Monster Romance
♡︎ Family Mystery
♡︎ Found Family

Also, a huge thanks to @berkleyromance and @netgalley for the gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 5/5 stars

Key travels to Scotland to reconnect with her family…and finds more than she bargains for when the hot farmhand turns out to be the Loch Ness Monster.

I unequivocally adored this one. Lana Ferguson is usually a hit for me, but I think this is her best yet! The concept is SO unique, and the Scottishness (I’ve decided that’s a word) was so on point. Lachlan and Key were both fantastic characters, and there was so much depth to their relationship and their connections with secondary characters throughout the plot.

I love when a broadly lighthearted romance also offers a lot of depth and emotion, and this one had that in spades. The ending was super poignant and the epilogue absolutely made me cry. HIGHLY recommend this to all fans of paranormal romance or those interested in giving monster romance a try!

CW: Death of parent; dementia; abandonment

This one was giving my some 00’s/10’s Nora Robert’s paranormal romance vibes and I am HERE FOR IT. So excited to get a snippet in the acknowledgements that more paranormal romance is headed our way from Lana in the future.

What if the Loch Ness monster was actually a cursed hot man? Like could not be more in love either this plot. Lachlan is so great once we get past his broody exterior and I just love Key and her ability to keep pushing even when things aren’t so easy. I really felt for her at the beginning, feeling so lost and alone without her dad. They definitely fall under the enemies to lovers category and I loved when they put all that aside to join forces to try and break the curse.

Thank you to @berkley for the eARC! Thank you to@libro.fm for the ALC!
4.75 stars! This was so much fun and with such an interesting plot. I loooooved the dynamic between Key and Lochlan and the narration was excellent and brought these characters and those scenes
J to life! I appreciated the family ties and the
larger plot of this so much, it added a lot and made this story richer. I identified with Key as I also lost my father, and understand that feeling of wanting to be closer to a loved one through other family.
This is a great romance with the perfect combination of fantastical elements and spice. I was a little intimidated to read this initially, but it's nothing too outlandish and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Lana sprinkled a bit of magic into this story and I am here for it. 😍

Keyanna "Key" MacKay is in Scotland to meet the grandparents she never knew. After her dad passed away, she wanted to fulfill his last wish, to visit the local loch where he grew up. After being saved by... something monster like, she discovers there is more to the stories her dad told her growing up. And every bit of them center around the grump Lachlan Greer, who was living on her grandparent's farm.

This book brings monster romance into the contemporary world in a fun and exciting way. I loved being able to be on the journey with Lachlan and Key, discovering the truths and history of their families along the way. Key was such an emotionally deep character. She was looking for any sort of connection she could find to her dad and my heart broke for her as her first interactions with her grandmother not what she expected. Her power and strength to keep pushing is what made her so enduring to me.

Lachlan is a grump and I love it. He was prepared to accept his fate for all of time, but the Key to the mysteries was closer than he thought. I loved seeing his walls come down and the mistrust slowly turn into admiration, faith and trust. Seeing them find that they have more in common than they thought was a treat and I loved every moment of it!

This was such a fun read for me! Absolutely loved Loch and Keyanna! The banter between these two had me laughing out loud and was some of my favorite ever! Lana is quickly becoming one of my favorites for paranormal romance and I can’t wait for more from her!

2.5 stars!
Special thanks to Netgalley and Berkley for early access to Under Loch and Key!
This book had everything:
- He's a shape shifting cryptid
- There is a curse they have to figure out and avenge
- Sweetie side characters in a grandma and grandpa
- monster sex that was kinda hot!!??

Heres what I enjoyed:
- I love a cryptid, especially one who is bound to shift by a curse that can't be unbroken. The plot line was such fun to read about.
- I loved the side characters, especially Key's grandma and grandpa. They were a wonderful addition to the story, as was Loch's dad.
- The curse!
- The smut! okaaaaayyyy giant monster!

Here's what I did not enjoy:
- the length! 400 pages for what! This could have been pared down to a 280 page romance, had we skipped the farming talk that in no way added to the story.
- The pacing. Again, 400 pages for what! I really enjoyed each little journey they went on, but had this been better paced, it would have been a much better book.
- The curse (Didn't you just say you loved it, Eliza?) I did - but I think it would have been much better had they been solving lines of a riddle at each journey, for it all to culminate at the end, solving the curse. I thought each piece in the puzzle was good, but it took too much time to get there!
- There was a lloott of inside thoughts that I didn't need. It did not make me feel connected to Key or Loch. This would be 800 times better as a quick little smutty romance about a shape shifting cryptid and a curse that needed to be broken.

Overall, it had so much promise, but took me too long to be invested, and much too long to get to the point. I fear that I am likely not a Lana Ferguson fan.

4.5 stars - I really loved Key’s character and her background navigating grief and searching for family connections. Key, and her family line having magic, was a very pleasant surprise and it made the story much more interesting for me! I loved the background between the Mackay and Greer lines and feel it added so much to the story! This was my first Lana Ferguson book and I loved her writing so I will be reading the Fake Mate by her next! The ending of this book was also perfect and wrapped up everything I needed it to.

One of the reasons this wasn’t a 5 star for me was due to where the spicy scenes were at within the book. I was more interested in the story and found myself skipping those scenes to get back to what was going on with the plot, which I’ve never done before. Maybe the plot just had me that hooked?🤣 Overall, I really enjoyed this read!

Keyanna "Key" MacKay is thrust into a world of secrets and magic after the death of her father, leading her to Scotland and an unexpected encounter with the brooding Lachlan Greer. Their chemistry is undeniable, even as they try to keep their secrets from each other—and themselves. The twists and turns of their journey, paired with the backdrop of a centuries-old curse, make for an enchanting story filled with heart, humor, and just the right amount of suspense. Key’s determination and Lachlan’s hidden depth create a swoon-worthy dynamic, while the book’s exploration of family, legacy, and unexpected magic will leave you eagerly turning the pages.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Book Review 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
When I saw the announcement for this book and found out that Lana was writing a Loch Ness monster romance, I knew it would be an immediate 5⭐️ read. Just like everything else Lana writes, this was witty, funny, charming, and sexy. Lachlan and Key had insane chemistry, and the perfect enemies to reluctant friends to lovers plotline. They had the best banter and one liners, and the angsty, tension filled, snarky back and forth was top tier. I loved their relationship! This book also had a heartwarming side plot that deals with family and forgiveness, and a delightful amount of Scottish mythology, history, and kilts. The only thing that would have made this experience better would be if I had listened to the audio and gotten to hear Lachlan’s Scottish brogue. I absolutely adored it and highly recommend it!
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Read if you like:
▫️Scotland
▫️the Loch Ness monster
▫️enemies to lovers
▫️grumpy x sunshine
▫️great banter
▫️dual POV
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Thank you to Berkley Romance, Berkley Publishing, NetGalley, and Lana Ferguson for the ARC. I received an advanced copy for free, and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Under Loch and Key is perfect for bookworms interested in dipping their toes into the monster love sub-genre. This is a rom-com monster love story. The monster elements are there, and they are also lightly sprinkled into the spicy scenes. But this book isn't overly batshit weird, bonkers crazy. What I mean is that it doesn't dive into the deep end of this subgenre. This story lives in the shallow end of the monster-love pool, making it a great read for those keen on reading a book from this sub-genre.

I adore this book. It was everything that I had hoped it would be. It's fun, flirty, and spicy. It's a quintessential Lana Ferguson book with a Scottish monster twist. Lana's writing is so wonderful. She creates these stories that are so easy to sink into and are bursting with great characters, witty banter, and lots of drama. I was instantly hooked on this book. I fell in love with Key and Lachlan's characters and quickly became invested in their love story. I also was incredibly curious about the folklore, curse, and rivalry that existed between the Greer and MacKay families. Lana did a great job at taking those traditional Scottish myths, aka the Loch Ness Monster, and making it her own. She weaves those monster/myth elements into this contemporary rom-com and creates something that is super entertaining and enjoyable to read.

I loved all the characters in this book. The secondary characters were quirky and sweet, adding charm to the story. Lana did a great job at capturing that small-town Scottish vibe. Key and Lachlan are great MCs. Key's relationship with her father and family is going to tug at those heartstrings at times. Her journey at learning more about the place that her father grew up in and connecting with her grandparents was beautifully done. I really liked her as a character. She is fierce, spunky, and, at times, very vulnerable. Lachlan is that typical broody Highlander who tries to be gruff with the heroine to hide the growing lusty feelings he is experiencing. Lachlan is an interesting character. He has a lot of those typical alpha male characteristics, but underneath that prickly exterior is a man who is alone and terrified of what the future may hold for him. He has demons that he needs to learn to deal with before he can really move on in his life.

The romance in this book is typical Lana Ferguson romance; I mean by that, it's witty and very spicy. Key and Lachlan have this dislike-to-lovers trope vibe to their love story, which is right up my alley. I love the sharp, witty banter that often exists in a dislike/enemies-to-lovers romance. In the beginning, Key and Lachlan go out of their way to aggravate each other while trying to ignore those lusty feelings that pop up whenever they are around each other. The relationship between Key and Lachlan was so delicious. I enjoyed the chemistry and sparks between these two. The spice is pretty spicy, and there are a few sex scenes when that monster element gets thrown in. The main hurdle between these two is Lachlan's lack of trust. He has grown up thinking that the MacKay family are the enemies, and even though deep down inside he knows Key is trustworthy, he has a hard time giving up his secrets.

Under Loch and Key is a spicy Scottish romance with a monster twist.