This was a fun, second chance romance on a hiking trail through the Scottish Highlands.

Brooke and Jack fell for each other while he was a TA (not hers as there were 2) and she was a student. Then things happened that made them have to walk away from each other. Now Brooke is ghostwriting Mhairi's memoir and needs to hike the trail Mhairi made to make it even more authentic.... The problem is Jack is the photographer going with her.

This hike was full of rain, a little bit of fog to get lost in, and memories too strong to ignore for long. I felt the pain and she that Brooke held into. I also felt that it kept her from pursuing her actual dream. But at the same time, I'm so happy she was able to gift Mhairi in one small way.

I love the rekindling of Brooke and Jack. The heat between them is super charged even when they are on the outs. They just felt that they were a perfect fit for each other and they just needed to find that perfect time for their relationship to really bloom.

I feel like it's 1-2 edits away from being a 5 star book for me.

I didn’t even really mind the reason for their breakup, I minded the timing of it. I think if the author revealed it to us at the start of the hike and gave us a few more chapters from Jack's POV it would've worked a lot better. The “why” happened so late and then the additional conflict happened, it felt like a piling on instead of resolutions. I left this feeling like the story wasn’t truly settled.

firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc and an alc!

3.5 stars

as i get closer to my upcoming trip, i find that i keep stumbling upon romances taking place in scotland… definitely not complaining, especially with dual narrators with accents 😉

despite guessing where this was going, i still enjoyed the read! as for the alc, i always love a dual narration

Read this if you like:
•only one tent
•second chance
•Scotland

This is dual POV and also past/present timelines. I enjoyed learning what happened years ago as well as seeing the current day play out. The descriptions of the island and their hikes were beautiful. This book WILL make you want to go to Scotland asap. Thank you Harlequin for ARC

okay this book hit all the feels and then some. I felt like I was in the fmc’s shoes and going thru everything she was as I read along. Loved the dual pov and time jumps…very necessary and made the story feel so whole. Some of my favorite tropes make an appearance: second chance, one-bed, secret relationship mixed with Scottish landscapes and sexy ass accents.

ARC BOOK REVIEW

Scot and Bothered by Alexandra Kiley

Thank you, @HTPbooks @thehive @canarystreetbooks and Harlequin Audio, for the #free eARC and audiobook of this one! I’m so grateful to be a member of The Hive! #hiveinfluencer #HTPpartner #htpbooks #htphive #canarystreetpress #ScotandBothered

SYNOPSIS: “Brooke Sinclair’s dream of being a published author derailed when she was expelled from the University of Edinburgh seven years ago. Now a ghostwriter, she sticks to other people’s stories. But when her college mentor Mhairi McCallister needs a co-writer for her memoir about Scotland’s most challenging trek, Brooke would do anything for the opportunity—including agreeing to hike the rugged Skye Trail for authenticity’s sake... not knowing the nature photographer who’ll join her is Jack Sutherland, the man who shattered Brooke’s writing career—and her heart.

Between getting sacked from the University and walking away from his family’s tour-guiding business to follow his photography dreams, Jack is desperate to prove he didn’t disappoint his family for nothing. And he can’t ignore his Aunt Mhairi’s final wishes for her memoir. Even if it means acting as guide and storyteller for the one who got away. Even if it means keeping secrets about Mhairi’s health.

As Jack and Brooke head into the solitude of the sweeping Scottish landscape, they’re forced to confront old feelings that haven’t disappeared with time. But can two weeks and eighty miles heal years of unspoken hurt and offer a second chance at the end of the trail?”

REVIEW: Romantic tension. Second chances. Idyllic locations. Long hikes with your ex. I’m here for every single romance set in the Scottish Highlands!

Brooke and Jack have had an ELECTRIC connection from the beginning, and that is no different when they see each other again. However, Brooke cannot stand Jack and never imagined seeing him again. But now that they two are forced into a week-long hike together, tensions get super high. One bed? Try ONE TENT!

I really loved these characters! They are so very tender together, and I loved watching their journey…from the beginning to seven years later.

I was lucky enough to get the audiobook of this one, and it was such a delight to listen to. Angus King as Jack and Savannah Davies as Brooke do such an amazing job bringing the characters (and their accents) to life!

Publisher: Canary Street Press
Pub date: 3/4/25

This book was so cute!! You knowwww I love a second chance romance! But a SCOTTISH second chance romance????
😍🥰❤️😍☺️😊🥳🤩🥰

I loved the dual timelines and POVs. It really helped build the tension! The audio is well done and Angus King’s Scottish accent 😮‍💨 I LIVEEEDDD for the pain they felt for their original breakup. AK always throws in a couple funny one-liners too, huge fan of those.

“Jack in a kilt? Damn, who knew that was on my bucket list.” 🤣

This was a beautiful 4⭐️ for me!!

Read if you loved: You, With a View, PS: I Hate You, Wanderlust, and/or A Thousand Miles.


Thank you to Alexandra Kiley and Canary Street Press for the ARC!

I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out what to say about Scott and Bothered and truthfully remain unsure as to how I feel. There were moments that felt profound, that made me think and re-evaluate things in my own life, and I loved that aspect. And there were others that made me want to take a break from reading or to skim a paragraph or two, and those aspects are the ones I’m struggling to articulate. My two theories are that my dissatisfaction boiled down to repetition and my lack of faith in the relationship. Repetition: most learned life lessons mentioned in the book were repeated many times, which led to the story feeling unnecessarily long and redundant. Lack of faith in characters: when I was about 75% through, I started to get frustrated that the characters seemed to flip toward and away from each other on a whim. I understand that betrayal can lead to issues with trust, but I’m of the belief that trust is integral to true love, making it difficult for me to reconcile the idea that the characters were somehow in love and also so very…changeable. They never truly dug into what led to their falling out in the first place and although I believe that second chance love is possible, I don’t believe it can last unless the past is fully addressed. So. This is all to say, Scot and Bothered was well written (I have a feeling I would love to sit down and chat with Alexandra Kiley about life and philosophy and general beliefs and perspectives) but the story itself ultimately fell flat for me.

Brooke agrees to hike the sky trail in Scotland with her mentor Mhairi and nature photographer Jack.. she wants to help write a book on Mhairi 's life and he wants to hike the trail to make it more authentic. good story.

I enjoyed this book! I felt like the ending was a bit rushed after all of the build up through the rest of the story - but overall I enjoyed! The relationship building, the banter - it was well done!

I genuinely enjoyed this book overall with the second chance trope being an absolute favorite. It’s so amazing to get to see people fall in love all over again. Brooke is such a relatable female main character with her fears of being stuck and unsure of where she sees herself going in the future and Jack is most certainly relatable in terms of coming from a smaller community where it’s normally expected to carry on in a family business. Getting to read and watch them find not just each other but also themselves again during this journey was an amazing thing to read and I definitely look forward to reading more books from this author!

Brooke has always wanted to be a writer. When she achieves this dream as a ghost writer, she figures, it's better than not writing. She is given the opportunity to write her mentors memoir but told it doesn't have heart.

Brooke proposes a hike to the home land the made her mentor who she is. However, her mentor can't go with her. Instead she proposes her nephew Jack, to which Brooke adamantly says no. With history between them, Brooke doesn't have a choice.

Can they survive spending time together again? Will they rekindle their relationship?

Honestly, the story moved very slow and was difficult to get into. Abandoned after about 25%

I finished this book at 11:54 PM and immediately had to get up out of bed and write this review. This book is that good. I first saw Jessica Joyce recommend this book on her social media. I went straight to NetGalley and requested it for myself. I'm so glad I did.

Alexandra Kiley's writing is like a mix of B.K. Borison and Jessica Joyce. Beautiful imagery, soft and tender relationships. I couldn't get enough. I adored Jack and loved the growth each of the MCs had. Especially Brooke's growth, being able to forgive Jack and realize he was trying to protect her and wasn't out for himself.

I didn't realize that this was an interconnected book. I *really* appreciated that. So many times, one reads an interconnected stand alone and you feel like you're on the outside of a friend group. You don't understand the inside jokes and you realize the side characters are being spoken of intimately, but you barely know them. It wasn't until 90% of the way through Scot and Bothered and Logan and Jack were discussing Addie that I realized there MIGHT be another book. I am so grateful for that. It was a small blip and at no point did I feel like I was missing a deep part of the story.

The celebration of life had me in my feels and my eyes were profusely watering. So beautifully written.

I also really loved the ending and epilogue. So often we're given the happily ever after of engagements and babies. But what we got was even better, dreams that came true.

4.5/5 When I saw that there was going to be a story for Logan’s brother, Jack, I knew I wanted to check this one out.

I really enjoyed this second chance romance between Jack, a photographer, and Brooke, a writer. They’re both stuck in their careers, not really getting to do what they’d envisioned.

Written in a dual timeline to watch Jack and Brooke fall in love during university in a forbidden situation and seven years later when they are to accompany one another on a hike that his aunt and her mentor established. I couldn’t put this book down, flying through the pages to see if they can reconcile their past while on the hiking trip and what caused the breakup years ago. I loved the tension in the then and now.

Their hiking trip was filled with adventure through companions met on the trail, rain storms, one tent, and both feeling inspired again.

Jack’s aunt and Brooke’s mentor, Mhairi health is declining and plays a role throughout. While this brought tension and upped the stakes on their story, I wanted a bit more of the romance towards the end.

Overall, it was inspiring and heartwarming and wonderful if there could be another story down the line for the youngest brother, Reid?

Scot and Bothered is the follow up novel to Kilt Trip. I enjoyed Kilt Trip and would recommend reading it first as the importance of Jack’s family business is the main focus in the first book and provides context for this one.

There are two encounters and lots of built up tension.

I received an advance reader copy from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This book was just ok in my opinion. I wish there had been more descriptive details about Scotland. I listened to the audiobook and read the book and both were entertaining -- especially together. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc/alc.

Scot and Bothered by Alexandra Kiley is a captivating second chance story filled with humor, passion, and redemption. I was completely engrossed in the soul-stirring yearning of the characters, feeling as though I could almost sense the chill of the Scottish breeze on my cheeks with each turn of the page.

📗Scot and Bothered by Alexandra Kiley

⭐️ One Tent
⭐️ Then & Now
⭐️ Second Chance
⭐️ Spicy

This book blew me away! I had the preconceived idea that it was going to be a fluffy and fun spicy romance in Scotland and I was very wrong. This book had so much heart, deep love, adventure and some of my favorite tropes!

Brooke and Jack have a past relationship that ended badly. They get thrown together on a hiking adventure in Scotland that will either bring them back together or tear them apart for good.

I love the back and forth timeline explaining how things unfolded! And I’m always a sucker for a second chance romance. I would put this in the Emily Henry/Carley Fortune/Jessica Joyce category of good! I can not wait to go back and read Kilt Trip and literally anything else Alexandra Kiley writes!

Thank you to HTP Books, Alexandra Kiley and Net Galley for this ARC! 💚

While this ended up not being for me, if you really second chance romances you may feel differently. I felt the story got bogged down a little to much with the backstory and reminders of the career pressures of these two characters. I would have liked to see this story unfold in a different, more organic way. I would recommend this one to anyone that's been to or has deep ties to Scotland and the history of the country.

3.5 ⭐️
2 🌶️

Brooke and Jack take us on the journey of their past vs present relationship. It’s a story full of emotion, misunderstandings/communications, and longing. They both choose to hike the Skye Trail to assist Mhairi in her memoir. As they find their way back to each other, they uncover what they each want most out of life and develop the courage to go for it.

The writing in Scot and Bothered is so picturesque and visceral. I felt like I was booking a trip to walk the Skye Trail and visit places throughout Scotland. I was meeting Cat and Nat, hugging Mhairi, and reliving the past with Brooke and Jack.

There’s only two aspects of the book that I didn’t completely love. The third-act conflict seemed very short lived and essentially unnecessary. It read as more of an afterthought to me as opposed to an integral part of the story. The chapters flipping back and forth between then and now took me out of the moment more often than not. This is my first book with time jumps being such a prevalent part, that maybe it’s just not a style that’s for me but I like the idea of it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the eARC copy of Scot and Bothered in exchange for my honest review.

SCOT AND BOTHERED – Alexandra Kiley
Canary Street Press
ISBN: 978-1-335-58008-5
March 4, 2025
Contemporary Romance

Scotland – Present Day

Brooke Sinclair’s dream of being a published author derailed when she was expelled from the University of Edinburgh seven years ago after her romantic relationship with Jack Sutherland was revealed to the school chancellor. Brooke was a student, and Jack was a teaching assistant, though he wasn’t working with her. It was a bitter pill for her to swallow, though she is now a ghostwriter and dreams of being published for herself someday if she can get over the hump. Jack’s aunt, Mhairi, mentored her and she greatly respects the woman. Brooke is offered the chance to ghostwrite Mhairi’s memoir but there is a catch. She has to hike the rugged Skye Trail for authenticity’s sake—and Jack must accompany her as her guide and videographer.

Jack never let on what happened during his meeting with the chancellor at the University of Edinburgh and has let Brooke believe that he ratted out (and destroyed) their relationship and her schooling. Brooke accepts the assignment to work with Jack, and they start the hike. Things are awkward at first with her ignoring him at times. But the harder the hike is, the more they begin to open up to each other. Will Brooke soon see Jack in a new light? Will the trip be successful? Will Jack tell her a secret about Mhairi that could devastate Brooke?

SCOT AND BOTHERED is a thoughtful tale as Brooke and Jack get the chance to reconnect after their brief romance ended acrimoniously when she was booted from the university. They both knew when it started the rules frowned upon romances between students and faculty, but they felt because he didn’t work with her that it would be okay. They kept it a secret anyway—but unfortunately, Mhairi found out. After university, Brooke sort of floated around trying to find her footing in the writing world. Her writing is good, though she hasn’t yet submitted and published anything on her own. Ghostwriting is her job, and that is why Mhairi asks her to do her memoir.

Each day of the hike is hard and treacherous, but it seems to build confidence and trust between Brooke and Jack. It also rekindles the sparks of their long-ago romance. Readers suspect that in SCOT AND BOTHERED they will soon find the time to make love. It’s clear they have a connection, though their breakup still causes a wedge between them. Can they make up? Will Jack finally reveal what happened during his meeting with the chancellor? The hike seems to bring out the creativity in Brooke as she is soon writing away in her notebook after they stop for the night. Meanwhile, Jack is videotaping memories of their trip. But is it just for his aunt, or is it also for memories of this time with Brooke?

SCOT AND BOTHERED is an emotional tale and one you won’t want to miss.

Patti Fischer
Romance Reviews Today