A Scottish Highland Hideaway by Julie Shackman - Book Review - Blog Tour
Series: Scottish Escapes #7 (Standalone)
Publication Date: 15th August 2024
Purchase Link (UK): AScottish Highland Hideaway: Fall in love with the brand new autumnal Scottishescapist romance (Scottish Escapes, Book 7) eBook: Shackman, Julie:Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
Purchase Link (USA): Amazon.com:A Scottish Highland Hideaway: Fall in love with the brand new autumnal Scottishescapist romance (Scottish Escapes, Book 7) eBook: Shackman, Julie: KindleStore
Goodreads Book Page: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205593451-a-scottish-highland-hideaway
Genre: Drama, Small Town Romance
3 Stars
One Liner: Read it as a drama
Book Blurb:
A brand newautumnal story of love, believing in yourself and starting over set in theScottish Highlands
For BaileyMcArthur, her family and job mean everything. She runs her own floristryshop and loves spending time in nature in the pretty town of Heather Moore,whilst desperately trying to forget about being jilted on her wedding day.
Whenjournalist Zach Stern arrives in town asking questions about afamous actor, Bailey decides to throw him off the trail of the superstar hidingout in the Scottish Highlands.
But despiteBailey’s efforts to thwart Zach's investigation, she finds herself falling forhim. It’s just a shame she can’t be honest with him. But then, Bailey might notbe the only one with a secret to hide…
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My Thoughts:
The story comes in Bailey’s first-person POV.
Firstly, this is not romance. It has a lot of dramatoo, so we’ll call it contemporary fiction.
The start is quite good. I enjoyed the descriptionsof the flower shop and the picturesque small town in winter.
As the story progressed, I realized this would notbe romance. There isn’t enough connection between the main characters.Insta-love trope but sadly it’s not well done. I was still wondering how theycould develop such deep feelings for each other.
There’s a lot of side drama involving Bailey’sfamily. The celebrity, Eric, is also hit with drama and scandals from allsides. Naturally, Bailey, with her helpful attitude, is at the center of it.Things spiral out of control in the second half.
Fortunately, I liked the bond between Bailey andMarcus (her brother). His arc was quite believable. In fact, I empathized morewith him than the main characters.
Bailey’s character is decent if a bit silly overZach. I like she made some great points about starting over, the role of mediain sharing gossip at the cost of privacy, the right to become a better personafter making mistakes, etc.
Zach’s character is so surface level, he was hardlyanything more than great eyes and hair with commendable ethics. If the sidedrama was limited to one topic, there would have been enough space for the MMCto grow and the romance to feel like something.
As expected of the genre, everything gets sorted atthe end. There’s an epilogue too. The saving grace for me was the pacing. Icould read this in a couple of days.
To summarize, A Scottish Highland Hideaway has asolid premise but messes it up by bringing too much drama and turning it into asoap opera. It might work better if you go with the right expectations. (It isa proper standalone.)
Thank you, Rachel's Random Resources andOne More Chapter (Harper Collins), for eARC. This review is voluntary andcontains my honest opinion about the book.
#NetGalley
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About the Author – Julie Shackman
Julie Shackman is a former journalist from Scotland,who has always wanted to write feel-good romance.As well as being an author, Julie also writes versesand captions for greetings card companies. Julie admits to having an obsessionwith stationery and handbags.
She is married, has two sons and adopted a Romanianrescue puppy, Cooper.
A Scottish Highland Hideaway is Julie's eleventhnovel.
Follow the Author:
Julie Shackman (@G13Julie) / Twitter
Julie Georgina Shackman(@juliegeorginashackman) • Instagram photos and videos
(2) Julie Georgina Shackman |Facebook
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This has been a stop on the #AScottishHighlandHideawayblog tour by Rachel's Random Resources. (@rararesources)Thanks for stopping by!
