I loved the premise of Work in Progress. I think the cover is absolutely stunning. I liked the idea of a woman reclaiming her life after a messy breakup and job loss. I loved the tie ins between famous literature and this book. It could be fun to create a reading list from the references. I absolutely adored the senior citizen cast of characters and the explorations of their backstories and the reflection on living life even at an advanced age. I also really appreciated the reflection on how to make travel more accessible for those who may have a harder time.

Unfortunately, I was not a huge fan of either of the main characters and the way each chapter started. I really struggled with how Robbie was portrayed when we first saw him. I understand he comes into the story when he's really concerned about one of his tour guests, but it just didn't feel like a good excuse for his rude behavior and it set a poor tone for him in my mind. Additionally, while Alice sees great growth over the course of the book, in the middle there I just wanted her to have a little more self respect. She came across more like a moony teenager and not a 30 year old woman. Finally, I thought the Bridget Jones style lists at the start of each chapter were a little superfluous. It felt like they may have been a holdover from an earlier version of the book that maybe made more comparisons to that store.

In the end, I think the premise of the book is cute and I didn't dislike it. I think people who would hold less of a grudge towards Robbie might like it even more and I think it easily has a market. It's a light rom-com with some good representation and some fun nods to literature and history. I would absolutely read a second book by Ms. Mackenzie because I think there's a lot of potential in her writing.

Thank you to Avon & Harper Voyager and Netgalley for the chance to read this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

4.5 stars
Outstanding debut novel. So much more than a romance! I loved the growth of the characters and the friendships that were created among the group of women travelers. There were a lot of side characters yet it was easy to keep track of who's who. The settings felt like you were there. The chemistry between Alice and Robbie jumped off the page. Only two reasons why this doesn't get 5 stars from me: the grudge Alice held against Robbie at the beginning, and the misconception regarding Isla, both seemed to go on way too long. Otherwise, I loved the writing style, and many parts were hilariously laugh out loud funny. I had to put the book down for a few minutes to catch my breath at the part with the spotted dick - that in itself was funny enough, but I had no idea what it was, and when I looked i up, one of the first things that came up on google was: What is spotted dick and why in the world would anyone call it that? Well, that just set me off laughing again before I even read the answer. I also really enjoyed the Bridget Jones tally at the beginning of each chapter. Looking forward to Kat Mackenzie's next book.

Readers wanting romance and travel will find a lot to enjoy here. Alice starts off as a bit of a hot mess and the story is filled with humorous mishaps.

This story was sweet, fun, and absolutely hilarious! From a disaster meetings to being forced to spend time together, our two main characters are true enemies to lovers. I loved the entire cast of characters and the adventure we got to go on! I actually learned alot, too!

4.5 stars. This book is hilarious! I laughed so much. I loved this enemies to lovers travel romance. Alice is completely out of her element on a geriatric tour bus with a hottie host. There are so many things that can go wrong when you travel to another country. So many nuances. Who knew they could all be so disastrous and funny? Robbie is dreamy and perfectly matched for Alice. Spoilers ahead. What I didn't like was the ending. The very end was good but the part when Alice goes back home was a major downer. It really bumped this down from a 5-star read for me. Still, definitely recommend this. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC

I received a free copy of, Work In Progress, by Kat Mackenzie, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Alice is in a rut, she decides to book a literary bus tour across Britain. Alice is quite a character, I found her to be a bit like Bridget Jones,. This was a nice read.

You are about to go on a journey with Alice Cooper. Recovering from a cheating fiancée, Alice books a 3 week literary bus tour of Women Only to visit favorite writing spots of English and Scottish authors. What awaits her is a fantastic humorous, warm-hearted novel . Work in Progress offers the reader a bit of everything. Friendship, Love, Smiles and a beautifully fun book that tests all the types of relationships that one could encounter between this charming engaging group she is about to meet.. This is a must read to put a smile on your face, and even learn a bit of literary history. I loved it!

Top 10 fave book of the year. I knew I was going to love it as soon as I saw “road trip”. But then! it’s in Scotland AND we have a group of Octogenarian hilarious women as the co-passengers?! It was the perfect combination of sweet emotional and clutch-my-chest hilarious.

Combine that, with the competitive roasting between the 2 main characters and quite literally this book had the perfect recipe. Alice and Robbie have a disaster meet cute and they hateeeee each other. Their teasing hate filled banter is life giving.

This book felt like a warm hug and a love letter to “you’re never too old to change”.

Read if you like:
🔥Hot caretaking scene
💃KILTS!
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Scotland/England
👵Your grandma
☝️Single POV
📋Lists (but make them petty)
🙊Banter to the nth degree
🐶Pesky animal sidekick
✈️International travel disasters

Such a fun book! I loved the banter and tension between the characters, and the tour companions were great!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️
😂🤣😂
Do you ever watch a cringey movie and feel second hand embarrassment? Well I read this book and felt second hand anger for Alice in the beginning part of this book! That anger quickly faded as Alice embarked on a journey of finding herself as she opened up to new friendships, experiences, and love.

Lists made - lots
Snarky comments - so many
Emotions felt - all of them
Characters - diverse
Laugh out loud moments - a handful!
Lessons learned - 44

I wish I could read this one all over again!

This book is everything you want and more in a rom com! Make sure to add this to your TBR! You will be missing out if you don’t pick this one up!

Publish Date: January 14th

This book is the perfect little rom-com with some heart and sentimental moments.

Alice's life is falling apart at the seams. She lost her job, her fiancé (good riddance), and her sense of self. She spontaneously books a trip to Scotland to join on a literary bus tour through the UK. From the moment her plane lands, nothing goes to plan. Things only get worse when she realizes that not only is she the youngest woman on the trip but that the tour guide a surly brutish Scotsman named Robbie. Stuck with nowhere else to go she decides to go on the trip and hopefully make the best of it. What Alice doesn't know though; is this trip can be the one thing she needs to find herself again.

The chemistry between Alice and Robbie was toe-curling good! Their witty banter and the romantic tension could be felt through the pages. You sometimes just wanted to bang their heads together so they could just realize each other! I also loved the relationships that Alice formed with each lady on the bus. Each one gave Alice a piece of advice or some sage wisdom, some without even knowing it. It really is a romance but also about the relationships that women can create with each other and support.

I would highly recommend this book!

This book was such a blast! Alice is a total planner, but her careful life goes off the rails when she loses her job and fiancé all at once. With her dreaded 30th birthday around the corner, she makes her first truly wild decision—booking a three-week literary tour in the UK. But instead of the cool, adventurous women she was expecting, she ends up with a crew of sweet but quirky grandmas on a clunky old bus. To top it off, the tour guide has this infuriating grin that makes her want to scream…and somehow laugh at the same time.

Honestly, I had so much fun reading this! I’m a sucker for the “enemies to lovers” vibe, and this book delivered with hilarious banter and some serious “will-they-won’t-they” tension. It’s wild to think this is a debut because it’s so well done! The whole journey had me laughing out loud and cheering for Alice as she found herself along the way.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon books for this gifted copy!

This was such a sweet, fun book and I can't believe it's a debut! I love the "enemies to lovers" trope and while the "enemies" part went on for longer than I usually like, it worked for me. The humor was fun with the witty banter and Bridget Jones style journal entries opening each chapter. The descriptions of the various stops on the tour were fantastic and I felt like I was right there. I really am inspired now to go on a literary tour in Scotland. I loved the secondary characters. The miscommunication between Alice and Robbie about Isla seemed to go on for much longer than I found believable which was probably the only negative for me with this book. I appreciated all the life lessons Alice learned from the ladies on the tour and the friendships she formed with each one of them. Overall, a fun, feel-good read that also had depth and heart. Highly recommend to rom-com fans and anyone who enjoys travel stories.

3.5 *’s… snort laugh funny with great side characters. Special mention for the funniest and most heinous luggage accidents I have ever read in a romance

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book, this is my objective review. Alice is an American on a literary bus tour through Scotland, which was hastily booked after breaking up with her boyfriend and questioning her life choices. Robbie is the antagonistic tour guide and requisite handsome Scottish hunk. The tour group itself is delightfully full of older ladies, who are quite lively and are great supporting characters that mesh well. The book is 1st-person POV from Alice's perspective, she's written with enough of a sense of humor to have an enjoyable inner dialogue even if she is overly sarcastic at times. There's a lot of antagonism in the beginning between Robbie and Alice, just petty stuff from both of them. There's plenty of back-and-forth sharp-edged banter, it reminds me of dialogue from 1940s movies. It's witty most of the time, but the sniping at each other started to wear a little thin. It took awhile before things heated up on the page between Alice and Robbie, which also prolonged the antagonism a bit too much for me. It's obvious that the author has done her homework and loves England and history. This book is half romance and half a loving homage to British travel. Sweet and fulfilling, perfect for when you're doubting your life choices and need a pick-me-up (or a few hours spent fantasizing about running away to Scotland). 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars. Publishes January 14, 2025.

This was a very enjoyable read and was laugh out loud funny in spots. I felt like I was on the bus tour around England and Scotland with Alice (the main character), the ladies in the tour group and Robbie their hot but sweet, Scottish driver. The author did a great job differentiating each of the characters. And it was easy to keep them straight early on. The relationships that develop along the way between Alice and the others on the tour was a nice part of the story. And of course there was the romance that developed along the way.

I wasn’t sure I was going to like Alice, as she seemed quick to anger but slow to let go of a grudge. I liked her as the story developed and the author revealed more of her character. The romance between Alice and Robbie took longer to develop than I had expected.

This was a nice rom-com. It was fun to pick up and read each day. But think it might have been a stronger story with a little editing, as it felt a bit too long.
#netgalley #WorkInProgress

I was able to read this because NetGalley provided with an arc. I loved this romance. Great Read. I would read more by this author.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I have to admit that I didn't have the highest expectations for this novel -- I have read many poorly executed Scottish Eat, Pray, Love type of books. This was a funny, well written novel, with decent character arcs. The cast of secondary characters were funny, endearing, and had purpose. The chemistry between the MC's was fantastic and the tension was wonderfully frustrating. I was worried that Alice was going to be an annoying character, i the beginning, but she quickly became a leading heroine I could root for.

Spoilers: My only real criticism is that the ending seemed slightly abrupt and out of character with the rest of the book. It was little flat and the tone was very different. Also, it seems very weird to me that Alice and Robbie wouldn't have been texting (they sent each other weekly emails??? That's... weird). It felt a little too contrived in order to create the grand gesture ending.

Otherwise I really did love the novel and I look forward to reading more from Kat Mackenzie.

Work in progress. If you lose your fiance and your job. Fly to Scotland/englNd for a woman’s tour with a hot Scottish tour guide/ bus driver

3.75 stars

A stellar debut with lots of humor, great characters, and an interesting setting. Alice Cooper has had a bad year -- so she spontaneously books herself on an all-female Scottish/English literary tour. She is dismayed to arrive and find out that the other participants appear to be fairly elderly. And the male tour guide/driver is a snarky Scot who locked horns with her at the airport.

Alice and Robbie battle daily and their repartee is quite entertaining. Several things soon become obvious: there is definite chemistry between the two, and also the old ladies that Alice was doubtful about soon show themselves to be terrific travel companions. They are smart and funny and uninhibited. They have a lot of life experience and non-judgmental wisdom and soon Alice is appreciating her fellow tour members.

This was a fun read. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.