I wanted to love this book as it's set in the highlands of Scotland, but seriously a girl meets a boy, he doesn't tell her who he is and then suddenly he's a laird. Yep already read that book. I hoped this be something new and fresh but it feels like a reharsh of a old story.

I absolutely loved this book! When a super fast romance turns into surmounting responsibilities. Can Bella and Adam find their places at Lowbridge? Will they be able to save the crumbling estate? This book is filled with quirky characters and was well worth the read!

It's the winter, and I fancied reading about cake, so I grabbed an ARC of this book when offered the chance. (Who am I kidding, I always fancy cake ... but I digress). The book definitely delivered.

The book is, as the title suggests, set in rural Scotland. There's a real castle (which the laird and family insist on calling 'the house') and everything. Bella gets engaged to lovely Adam after a whirlwind romance in Spain and comes back to Scotland expecting to settle down in Edinburgh, but due to the sudden death of Adam's father, ends up being whisked up to the highlands with him instead.

I loved Bella's pragmatic and practical attitude. She took stock of what was happening and made things happen - which was in direct contrast to Adam who was basically handstrung by grief. There are times when you want to shake him, but at the same time, you can see that he's grieving and everyone else getting behind Bella's plans and getting on with life is making him feel more and more alone.

The other thing I liked about this story is that Bella and Adam clearly love each other. Yes, their relationship has it's ups and downs, but when they're good, they're really good.

The secondary characters are brilliant (especially Netty, who APPARENTLY doesn't shut up, but Bella can't hear a word she says) and the sheep are hilarious.

Snack warning - have cake or at least shortbread biscuits to hand when reading, because there are some lovely cake descriptions. I completely agree with Bella's ire at mass produced brownies.

This book is warm and welcoming - a delicious Scottish holiday of book.

The cover was whimsical and I was expecting a princess vibe, and it just felt short for me. I wasn't swept away into a fantasy romance like i was expecting.

I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to read this ARC through NetGalley, and all opinions are my own.

I loved the Scottish Highlands, the whirlwind romance right from the start, but the third person limited made it feel more distant. Such a great cast of characters and history with the “house” aka castle, but I wanted more development and internal conflict. It is a cozy, warm read, and while it discusses grief and loss, it is balanced with humor, accidental sheep incidents, and even a broken bridge. I loved the connections between plants and cooking, and how important it is that we have an outlet to relieve our stress!

I really wanted to love this book. I was persuaded to read it partly by the castle on the cover but mostly by the idea of the Highland Cookery school.

I found the description of the book to be very misleading. There was no mention of the "Cookery school" until halfway through the book and even then the idea wasn't as developed as I was hoping it would be. Most of the book was about a mopey laird and Bella just trying to fit in. It could have been 2 separate books. One with the plot about a girl falling in love with a guy who turns out to be a Laird and then another book about saving a castle in the Highlands by opening a Cookery school. Having one foot in each idea made for an underdeveloped plot and unlikable characters.

I think if this were a movie on Netflix it would be ok to watch. But overall it missed the mark for me as a novel.

A fun story about two very different people who find themselves falling in love and then see a dramatic family event changing the future they saw for themselves. I enjoyed Thai story and the people of this small village. A cozy read.

Bella es una nómada y no cree que alguna vez se asentará, hasta que conoce a Adam, con quien no puede mantenerse lejos, y lo mismo le ocurre a él. Su romance es vertiginoso; ninguno de los dos quiere separarse, pero él debe regresar a su país, así que deciden comprometerse. Parecía que todo sería felicidad, hasta que, al aterrizar, se enteran de que el padre de Adam ha muerto y que él ha heredado el empobrecido estado de Lowbridge Loch.

De repente, Bella se encuentra inmersa en un mundo completamente diferente y no sabe si podrá sobrellevar todo lo que ahora se espera de ella, los planes que tenían parecen cada vez más lejanos y comienza a ver un lado diferente de Adam. Mientras tanto, él se ve lleno de responsabilidades y duda si podrá tomar el lugar de su padre. Pero lo que ambos tienen claro es su amor, o eso creían, hasta que su relación es puesta a prueba.



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Me gustó, aunque hubo momentos en los que me despertaron algunas de sus actitudes. Sin embargo, al entender cómo habían vivido tanto Bella como Adam, sus reacciones me parecieron de lo mas natural y a esto se le suman las expectativas de todos.






Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.