A review by lisaluvsliterature
Skies Over Caledonia by Samantha Young

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I was hooked right away as I totally understood Allegra’s love of the country of Scotland and I’ve only been there once! The last two series by Samantha Young are more romantic suspense than I usually read, but I really did enjoy the characters and story in this one. 
I loved that the author had to assure us this quick of a marriage of convenience wouldn’t actually be realistic legally in Scotland, but it made for a good story to do it this way. What I remembered of Jared from the other stories in both this series as well as the Adair Family series, I knew I was going to have to be won over for him. Allegra was another character I barely remembered other than what had happened to her, when Sloane had saved her, in the first book in this series, Beyond the Thistles. But her back story was intense and even more so once we got her POV. Knowing more about her and her sister Aria’s family made it even more emotional. So many people really didn’t know Allegra and that made her stand out for me.
I did soon fall in love with Jared, getting his POV especially. Both Jared and Allegra had people in their past as well as even some just show up for seemingly no reason to cause problems. And some of them were family members meaning to do them harm or get something from them. And while one of their families was just not going to be redeemed, the other did, and I felt it was realistic in how it was done. I also liked how the author made their exes, more friends with benefits, actually were not bad for the most part. They were mostly understanding. 
Because I don’t do romantic suspense as much, there were a lot of characters that the author brings in from all of the series and occasionally it took me a minute to remember their stories and how they related, but overall the author does a great job of weaving all the characters together. I especially adored seeing the romance developing between young Callie and Lewis as we got a glimpse of the beginning in Sloane’s book and I love these two kids!