lisaluvsliterature's reviews
4131 reviews

I really wanted to read the first one in the series, but wasn’t able to fit it into my review schedule at the time. But when I saw this one pop up, I immediately signed up and fit it into my schedule. And I will now have to go back and read the first one since I really enjoyed this. 

Of course my Outlander obsessed self loved that this took place in Scotland for a lot of the story. I mean, yes, I definitely want my own Scottish Earl with a castle, lol. However my brain/tongue kept stumbling over how to pronounce Strathrannoch every time it came up in the story. I enjoyed both characters, Arthur’s grumpy, not shy – but not a perfect flirty smooth gentleman, and Lydia’s shyness/social awkwardness, yet wanting to be able to make her own way. I loved seeing the two of them fall in love, and how her family took him in almost straightaway. Being around her big, boisterous family was so much fun, and it was heartwarming to see how they accepted him. 

There was a lot of intrigue along the way to figuring out exactly why Arthur’s brother Davis had been writing to Lydia. Was he really a bad guy, stealing Arthur’s invention for nefarious purposes? And then there was Lydia’s brother’s appearance at a gathering, but he was calling himself by a different name. What was he up to? Was he in cahoots with Arthur’s brother? And could it all be culminating in a plan to assassinate someone? I also am wondering if Lydia’s friend Georgiana snuck off to find her brother Jasper, and if that might be a future story in this series. 

The story was really fun, totally what my brain pictures as a historical romance type of story, including all the very steamy scenes with our couple. A few times I was a bit irritated with both Lydia and Arthur doubting the other one for very minor things. That’s what kept it as a 4 star read for me. But still this is worth a read for anyone who enjoys a good spicy historical romance with some funny bits along the way!

This book started steamy and kept on going! But not just steamy, so much laughing and banter and it kept me turning pages because I had to know how they’d get past all the things between them. There was a ton of fun and hilarious banter, some really clever innuendos, and so much drama with the big obstacle between the two main characters. While it wasn’t a “short” story, it did really only take place over what seemed like a few days/weeks. And honestly, there didn’t really seem to be a way that either of them could win with what they were trying to do without the other one getting hurt. So I do really like the way the author had that all happen and how things were handled in the end. I don’t want to say more, because it will spoil the story for you. There were also a lot of almost epilogues at the end, even if they weren’t epilogues, just the story suddenly moved past those quick few days or weeks into more of how things were being solved and the two of them getting to really know each other past their one night stand which turned into more than one night before it all blew up.

At the end, in her note, the author mentions that while this was meant to be a standalone, Case’s brother-in-law Jared kind of spoke up and gave her ideas for his own book, and I am all there for that! 

This book has such a beautiful cover. And I love reading books with mythology from cultures I don’t know a lot about. There was a lot of mythology and characters from those myths spread throughout the story. The descriptions of the alternate world, the yaksha’s realm, were beautiful and created such vivid and colorful scenes in my head as I read. Unfortunately, I was actually a bit bored and had to push myself through the story. There were a lot of twists and turns, but not in a good way. In a way that I didn’t quite understand exactly what was happening or why something was happening. It was hard to believe that Nilesh would go so willingly into this other world with the way his character had been described, even with the horrible things he was dealing with as his family imploded. And then how Ridhi’s brother was so upset because she forgot to make cookies for his team? Once? Wow. I think it was a younger brother, but still, that was a little over the top for me.

As I said the mythology was interesting and led to some unique scenes, but overall I was unfortunately bored and had to push myself to finish, basically skimming towards the end almost just to get finished.

For something that has such a scary cover and synopsis, I was pretty bored unfortunately.

I do love this author’s books, and this one was another winner! The small town was so cute, and I loved so much about it. Lots of fun characters to get to know, plus a villain that was so easy to hate, because he had no reason to continue being such a butthead! The names, well at least Noel, messed me up at first, because Noel has just always been a female name for me. But once I realized Noel was our male love interest I was good. I loved how his nickname for Parker, also a male name usually for me, was Peter. These two definitely had chemistry, and the. history the more we learned about it was so sweet and so perfect!

Both characters had sad parent stories, but both also had a wonderful support with either Parker’s mom or Noel’s grandmother. Those two ladies were a whole part of the story that I adored as well! Then there was Axel, Parker’s business partner and best friend at the start. He was a wonderful part of the story too.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not the biggest fan of movie star romances, but Noel wasn’t like the type of character that is all about whining about how terrible his life is. No, he was doing what he loved. So coming home was definitely a big deal for him, but he learned a lot once he got there. What I loved about this story was that there was the fact that neither wanted to pressure the other again about staying or going, so in a way it could be considered a miscommunication. However, the way this was done was so realistic for me, and I could totally see it happening, and it wasn’t just drama for drama’s sake. I loved how in the end the two of them kind of came to the same conclusions separately, well with some help from family, friends, etc. So getting back together in the end was a fun and sweet scene. There was the usual steamy bits I expect and enjoy from the author. All in all I loved it. I did feel at times the story was a little slow for me, but overall it was a great small town, second chance romance!

Really hard to understand that the main character would do some of the things she did.  And she wasn't likable in how she acted in some cases, like with someone who really was a friend.

I’ve wanted to read this author for a while, and with my own very first cruise planned for this summer, I thought what a fun book to get started with! There was a lot of fun in this story. I enjoyed the characters relationships with each other. Ruby has some great friends, and her family members were fun to spend time with as well. The whole going to church to meet a guy for her friend Sam was hilarious! Besides knowing from the blurb that Ruby was being tricked into a singles cruise by her friend, it was obvious something was up when her friend was asking her how she would describe herself in a dating app bio. Although honestly I think her friend did a good job with what she said.

So many of the activities the singles group had going were ones that made me cringe and are part of the reason my introverted self would not want to be a part of those things. It was so realistic though for me, to see how her friend Sam kind of left her behind in finding her own perfect guy. That’s happened to me most of my life. My friends find a guy, then I get left behind, not even included as a third wheel. Cameron was a pretty nice guy and while we knew that Ruby had reasons and didn’t want to date anyone, we didn’t know the specifics, so I got a little irritated with her as she kept pushing him away. When we finally did get her reasoning, I could see how it made sense. However I was glad to see that she could see how much she was hurting him and it made her look at her reasons after finally sharing them with Sam. And honestly, as great as Cameron was, there wasn’t a ton of romance involved on his end either, other than doing lots of things to help her out. This is an instance where I think if we’d gotten half the book from his POV it could have made up for that.

Even though I’m a dog person, I do adore the stories with cats that are such a big part of someone’s life, just like my dogs are for me. So I loved their cat, and how it went to the bookstore for work with her! And the nude beach scene was funny, I did appreciate that! However, the part where she didn’t know about morning wood? That was a little unbelievable if she’d been in a serious relationship or had sex before. Especially at her age, and her talk about how a vibrator was a good enough stand-in for a man. I have no problem with that, just doesn’t sync up with not knowing that. Her jokes about “little Cameron” were funny though, and Frou Frou, those parts did keep me giggling.

I’m not saying that I haven’t enjoyed the romantic suspense series that Samantha Young has been writing the last few years. But, this book, this is the type of story that made me fall in love with her writing and become an auto-buy/reader. The sports romance aspect is a little different, but the large family of actual relatives, friends, and found family all coming together to rally around the characters was perfection. The main characters are a whole new world, not at all cookie cutters of their parents from the original series, but we also get to see how those characters molded and shaped them, and how those original characters fit into the world when it isn’t their personal story anymore.

Beth is someone that I could totally connect with. Her fear of failure, how one thing going wrong or being unknown could send her spiraling into how then everything was going to fail and it was all her fault, boy do I know those moments. While I pretty much always had those moments when I was alone, I could put on the “I’m okay” face and keep the spiraling from happening around other people, Beth had some moments where it hit her when other people were around. She did her best to get somewhere alone to handle it though.

Callan was a grumpy almost enemy. Because of how the budding relationship between the two of them had ended abruptly, it fed into the way other people had made him feel inferior due to his background, and the fact that Beth came from a wealthy well-known family didn’t help. Even if she didn’t think that way, and it wasn’t why exactly she stepped away from him, it totally came across that way. Both of them thought they knew the other one well, but when the meet up again as adults they realize that they never did really know the other one.

Their enemies to lovers/second chance romance storyline was wonderful. I loved how Callan’s teammates were instantly in love with her, friend-love that is. I loved how Beth made friends with the women she ran into in the mornings coming out with Callan after one night stands. I mean except one, the one Callan knew he probably shouldn’t have taken home in the first place.

All the steaminess that Young knows how to write was in the book. But so much emotion, again as she knows how to write, fit in seamlessly and filled the story out. There was such wonderful handling of Beth’s panic attacks and how she handled them, or started to finally work to get them figured out and shared with those who cared about her the most so they could be there for her and understand. Yes, there was even a couple moments when both Beth and Callan had that thought that normally adds unnecessary and in my opinion unrealistic drams, maybe the other would be better off without them because of the issues that came from being together. But in this case, both of them had those thoughts and then worked through them. Either with family or even just taking the time to think it over and then come out and talk about it with each other.

A wonderful return to one of my all time favorite fictional worlds, the one that first got me intrigued with all things Scottish. And after reading the author’s notes, I guess I have another author, Catherine Cowles, to thank for convincing her to jump back and bring us these stories.