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.

What an amazing debut for Kat Mackenzie. I laughed often and at times very loudly (just ask my sleeping dogs how often they were disturbed). There is so much magic in the banter between these enemies to lovers characters. You genuinely have doubts that there will be a love connection with as much venom and the strength of the vitriol that is thrown around. However, you just know there's this snarky flirt that is simmering under the surface.
I won't recap the synopsis for you but trust me when I say the focus isn't entirely on the romance in this one and it's a genuinely joyride to get to know the group of ladies (plus one dog) and their stories. The backdrop is the tour around the countryside of Europe starting in England and ending in Scotland.
There is a misunderstanding and our FMC does seem to overreact a bit to it but I forgave her when it led to a glorious moment of clarity for the couple. They fight the inevitable but I also don't fault the author for needing our main character the chance to forge her own path forward by choosing herself above all else so that she was free to make choices based on what she wanted versus what she thought were the best ones for her.
If you love enemies to lovers AND picturesque settings for the romance to blossom.. grab this one! Also.... I have to say each opening chapter had lists and Bridget Jones tongue in cheek mentions.... you gotta love the British humor weaved throughout! 4.5 stars

Alice Coopers life is in shambles, so naturally the usually type-A woman books a last minute international trip. Her bookish-themed all women bus tour of the UK starts off with a terrible, and part of the terrible is due to the broody-but handsome-Scot who happens to be their driver and tour guide.

What I loved…
- ageless female friendship
- book and travel centric destinations and locations
- forced proximity
- side characters that try to steal the show
- banter between the FMC and MMC was great

What I didn’t love…
- I didn’t get the bridget jones and checklist things at the beginning of the chapters. I always find when books rely to heavily on the assumption that you’ve read another book/seen the movie/know the pop culture reference, its nearly impossible for me to connect.
- while the setting, history, and book references were fun I found myself a bit bored at the long descriptions and skimming these sections quite a bit.
- there are an exorbitant amount of references to bodily functions. I don’t ever want to read the words “poop tornado” in my romcoms.

While this wasn’t quite the right book for me I do think this will be a great read for someone who appreciates the bookish related book tour and getting to “travel” the UK through this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for sending this book (eARC) for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

The premise of this story is a fun one, following the Bridget Jones blueprint of a younger woman, who encounters all sorts of frustrations and calamities in her travels.

The chapters are set up in a journal fashion, one that allows the reader to connect easily with Alice. I found this easy to read and enjoy.

I appreciate receiving a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley, and I voluntarily leave my review.

Brilliant premise, even more brilliant execution.

I love a messy female character. I love a journey to find herself and finding confidence and romance along the way (but mostly confidence). I love meddling septuagenarians and a recognition of the wisdom that comes with age, even when that wisdom comes out in the battiest way possible. I love lush descriptions of the English countryside and a road trip for the ages (and rooted in literature? Score). I especially love a well-done meet disaster where it leads to realistic depictions of growth in a relationship. I love the humor, and I can't tell you how many lines I highlighted just because they made me giggle.

Can you tell I love this book?

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.