Audiobook Review: The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Secret Christmas Library
Author: Jenny Colgan
Narrator: Eilidh Beaton
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: October 14, 2025
Print length: 320 pages
Audio length: 10 hours 16 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased (audiobook); E-book ARC from the publisher/NetGalley
Rating:

A new holiday story set in the Scottish Highlands to warm booklovers’ hearts by Jenny Colgan, New York Times bestselling author of Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop.

Mirren Sutherland stumbled into a career as an antiquarian book hunter after finding a priceless antique book in her great aunt’s attic. Now, as Christmas approaches, she’s been hired by Jamie McKinnon, the surprisingly young and handsome laird of a Highland clan whose ancestral holdings include a vast crumbling castle. Family lore suggests that the McKinnon family’s collection includes a rare book so valuable that it could save the entire estate—if they only knew where it was. Jamie needs Mirren to help him track down this treasure, which he believes is hidden in his own home.

But on the train to the Highlands, Mirren runs into rival book hunter Theo Palliser, and instantly knows that it’s not a chance meeting. She’s all too familiar with Theo’s good looks and smooth talk, and his uncanny ability to appear whenever there’s a treasure that needs locating.

Almost as soon as Mirren and Theo arrive at the castle, a deep snow blankets the Highlands, cutting off the outside world. Stuck inside, the three of them plot their search as the wind whistles outside. Mirren knows that Jamie’s grandfather, the castle’s most recent laird, had been a book collector, a hoarder, and a great lover of treasure hunts. Now they must unpuzzle his clues, discovering the secrets of the house—forming and breaking alliances in a race against time.

A treat for booklovers and treasure hunters alike, The Secret Christmas Library serves up a delicious mystery with a hint of romance, and plenty of holiday spirit!

Jenny Colgan’s books can be counted on for sweet romance, lovely settings, clever people, and simple pleasures, and The Secret Christmas Library delivers all of these… although the stakes in this particular book are mainly on the low end of the scale.

Last year, the author published a fun novella, The Christmas Book Hunt, in which a young woman named Mirren ends up on a search to find a rare book that her great-aunt remembers from her childhood. Seeing the book again is her dying wish, so Mirren turns book detective, chasing leads and sorting through dusty old shelves to make her beloved aunt’s wishes come true.

Surprise! In The Secret Christmas Library, Mirren is back! The rare book that Mirren found is proudly displayed in the British Museum, along with a plaque giving Mirren credit for finding it. Mirren is not (as the blurb might imply) a professional book finder; she’s kept her less-than-exciting day job as a surveyor, but dreams of spending more time with the books she loves. When she bumps into a stranger while visiting “her” book at the museum, and admits that she’s the person on the plaque, it’s the start of an adventure she could not have anticipated.

The stranger is Jamie McKinnon, who has just inherited the family estate in the Scottish Highlands. Estate? It’s more like a castle… although it’s on the verge of falling apart, deeply in debt, after years of family neglect and mismanagement. But Jamie’s grandfather always implied that there was a secret treasure to be found there — a book worth more than anyone could imagine. Jamie is desperate to save the estate, and hires Mirren to come look for the book.

To Mirren’s surprise, he’s also hired Theo, her competitor/partner on her previous book hunt — someone she thought might be a romantic partner too, until he ghosted her after their last adventure. She’s not thrilled to be reunited with him, but is determined to put feelings aside to pursue this new quest.

The castle is indeed a disaster, and Jamie’s grandfather appears to have been a hoarder, at least when it comes to books. There are miles and miles of overflowing shelves throughout the corridors, and even the cupboards are stuffed with books. Their only clue is a poem the grandfather has left behind, full of cryptic clues and strange references. With only a few days until Christmas and a heavy snowstorm leaving the group stranded, they devote themselves to trying to decipher the clues and locate the book… assuming it even exists.

Meanwhile, as Mirren gets to know Jamie, she realizes that this handsome laird has an inner sweetness that she feels drawn to. And the more she comes to care for Jamie, the more important finding that book and saving Jamie’s home feels to her.

The Secret Christmas Library really takes a while to get going. There’s lots of loveliness — an old-timey train, scenes of exploring the castle, fancy dinners (with men in kilts!), a sweet nostalgic feel once the power cuts out and they dance by candlelight to an old Victrola. The book hunt is cute, but not particularly engaging… at least for this reader. Personally, I find I don’t have much patience for this sort of plot — finding hidden objects, discovering clues in old pictures, following a word puzzle to a particular location. (Maybe that explains why I have no interest in escape rooms either…)

In any case, these type of scenes make up a good portion of the book. It’s nice, but not terribly exciting. Things get a little more dramatic when the weather and some other elements combine to put the people — and the castle itself — in grave danger. A dramatic escape as well as the escalation of various personal connections and relationships make the last 25% or so much more engaging — finally, some stakes to truly care about!

The audiobook is narrated by Eilidh Beaton, narrator of many Jenny Colgan books. Her delivery is warm, with an engaging cadence, and she excels at the various characters’ accents and speaking styles. I found it easy to get into the story, and the narration never let my interest wander.

Overall, this is a fun, sweet book, but not quite as wonderful as some of the author’s other books. I’d still recommend this book for Jenny Colgan fans who’ve read all her books and gobble up her new releases as soon as they’re available (guilty!!). For those newer to her works, I do think this is a fine choice, but there are others I’d probably recommend more highly to get a true taste of how lovely her books can be.

Purchase links: Amazon – Audible audiobook – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

15May2025

Book Review: Death at a Highland Wedding (A Rip Through Time, #4) by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Death at a Highland Wedding
Series: A Rip Through Time, #4
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication date: May 20, 2025
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Historical fiction/mystery
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley
Rating:

Death at a Highland Wedding is the fourth installment in New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s gripping Rip Through Time Novels.

After slipping 150 years into the past, modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson has embraced her new life in Victorian Scotland as housemaid Catriona Mitchel. Although it isn’t what she expected, she’s developed real, meaningful relationships with the people around her and has come to love her role as assistant to undertaker Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie.

Mallory, Gray, and McCreadie are on their way to the Scottish Highlands for McCreadie’s younger sister’s wedding. The McCreadies and the groom’s family, the Cranstons, have a complicated history which has made the weekend quite uncomfortable. But the Cranston estate is beautiful so Gray and Mallory decide to escape the stifling company and set off to explore the castle and surrounding wilderness. They discover that the groom, Archie Cranston, a slightly pompous and prickly man, has set up deadly traps in the woods for the endangered Scottish wildcats, and they soon come across a cat who’s been caught and severely injured. Oddly, Mallory notices the cat’s injuries don’t match up with the intricacies of the trap. These strange irregularities, combined with the secretive and erratic behavior of the groom, put Mallory and Duncan on edge. And then when one of the guests is murdered, they must work fast to uncover the murderer before another life is lost.

New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s unique time travel mystery series continues to entertain as Mallory adjusts to life in the 1870s.

How to talk about the 4th book in a series? I’m tempted to simply say: Read this. It’s good! But no, I’ll attempt to explain why its so good, and why this is a must-read series.

Death at a Highland Wedding is the 4th full-length novel in Kelley Armstrong’s excellent A Rip Through Time series. (There are also a few novellas that serve as little side treats in between the main books).

In this series, Mallory Atkinson, 21st century homicide detective, accidentally crosses through a time anomaly and finds herself in Victorian Era Edinburgh, inhabiting the body of a beautiful but deceitful young housemaid. Four books into the series, the housemaid’s employer has accepted the weird-but-true fact that the person who looks like his maid is actually a highly trained, highly independent detective from 150 years in the future. Mallory has been “promoted” to assistant to her employer, Duncan Grey, an undertaker, trained physician, and lover of science and scientific inquiry. Because Duncan assists his best friend Hugh McCreadie with police investigations, Mallory is able to be of service — and introduces them to all sorts of 21st century forensic procedures not even dreamed of in Victorian times.

As Death at a Highland Wedding opens, Mallory has been living in this time period for about a year, and the household, along with Hugh, is taking a vacation of sorts. An old friend of Duncan and Hugh’s is getting married at his Highlands estate, and this is an opportunity for Mallory to experience yet another aspect of her new life.

At the estate, however, things quickly go off the rails. First, there’s an unpleasant groundskeeper who sets wickedly dangerous traps all over the property. There’s also some tension amongst the party attending the wedding, as former lovers and friends and connections intertwine in uncomfortable ways. The entire wedding is on the verge of cancellation once a dead body is discovered — it’s the best man, killed while out at night wearing the groom’s coat. Who was the true intended victim, what was the motive, and who could have carried out the violent act?

Hugh, Duncan, and Mallory seem like the obvious team to solve the mystery, but the young, inexperienced local constable has jurisdiction, and doesn’t want outside interference. When he bungles the process — badly — our trio undertake their own investigation on the down-low, trying to solve the murder while not letting the constable know what they’re up to.

In a house full of potential suspects and plenty of motives, Mallory et al have almost too many trails to follow. There are red herrings galore, and plenty of scandals to unearth — and naturally, the closer they get to the truth, the more they themselves are in danger.

Ah, this book is such delicious fun! First, the mystery itself is surprisingly twisted. What at first seems like a classic country house murder mystery is revealed to be that, but dialed up to eleven. I loved the fact that my guesses continually turned out to be wrong! Every time I was sure I knew who was particularly shady or dishonest or underhanded, something else popped up to steer me in a different direction. It’s a treat to read a mystery and not see the big reveals coming.

Second, and for me, the absolute best, is the ongoing delight of seeing Mallory navigate her new world. In previous books, it seemed that she’d have an option to return to her own time, but here, she’s fully convinced that she’s where she needs to be. There’s a slow-burn romance with Duncan, which is complicated for many reasons, and they’re both thoughtful enough to avoid bad decisions or letting their emotions cloud their judgment.

Then there’s the fun of Mallory using her 21st century police tactics in this setting — for example, explaining how (and why) to cordon off a crime scene or doing a rudimentary version of taking fingerprints. Seeing the cultures collide and the sharing of tactics and knowledge keeps the storytelling funny in dark moments, and gives Mallory a chance to shine and be appreciated for who she is.

As you can see, I love this series! As I’ve said in all of my reviews so far, you really must start at the beginning! Yes, this one might work as a stand-alone if you’re only interested in the murder mystery itself, but I honestly don’t think the book as a whole would make a ton of sense. The series is just so good — so dive into book #1, and keep going!

Now that I’ve finished Death at a Highland Wedding, I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series. Highly recommended!

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

For more in this series:
A Rip Through Time
The Poisoner’s Ring
Disturbing the Dead
Schemes & Scandals (novella)

8Jan2025

Book Review: The Thorns Remain by JJA Harwood

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Thorns Remain
Author: JJA Harwood
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication date: February 23, 2023
Length: 416 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

A dance with the fae will change everything

1919. In a highland village forgotten by the world, harvest season is over and the young who remain after war and flu have ravaged the village will soon head south to make something of themselves.

Moira Jean and her friends head to the forest for a last night of laughter before parting ways. Moira Jean is being left behind. She had plans to leave once – but her lover died in France and with him, her future. The friends light a fire, sing and dance. But with every twirl about the flames, strange new dancers thread between them, music streaming from the trees.

The fae are here.

Suddenly Moira Jean finds herself all alone, her friends spirited away. The iron medal of her lost love, pinned to her dress, protected her from magic.

For the Fae feel forgotten too. Lead by the darkly handsome Lord of the Fae, they are out to make themselves known once more. Moira Jean must enter into a bargain with the Lord to save her friends – and fast, for the longer one spends with the Fae, the less like themselves they are upon return. If Moira Jean cannot save her friends before Beltane, they will be lost forever…

Completely bewitching, threaded with Highland charm and sparkling with dark romance, this is a fairytale that will carry you away.

In The Thorns Remain, the boundary between a small Highlands community and the world of the Fae is breached one fateful night, with devastating consequences for all involved… and only one young woman with the ability to set things right.

It’s 1919, and the small town of Brudonnock is teetering on the brink of extinction. Too many young men have been lost to war or the flu pandemic; others of the younger population have left for new lives in Glasgow or Edinburgh or beyond. Those who remain work nonstop, sunup to sundown, to plow and harvest and keep their families fed, dreading the day when the estate owners will decide to turn them all out and force them from their cottages.

Moira Jean is our main character, a young woman mourning the loss of her true love Angus. Childhood sweethearts who grew up together and got engaged before he departed for war, they’d intended to marry as soon as he returned home, but despite surviving the war itself, he was killed by the flu before they were reunited. As the story opens, Moira Jean lives with her mother, the village healer, and works around the clock on the daily chores of village life, with Angus never far from her mind.

When the villagers learn that they’ve been given a reprieve from a feared eviction for one more year, Moira Jean and her friends decide to let loose for once and celebrate. They sneak off into the forest to drink, sing, and dance, but their dance is joined by strangers. Only Moira Jean, clutching Angus’s iron medal, can see that something is wrong and that these others aren’t actually people. When she wakes the next day, she discovers that her five friends are all gone — but no one else in Brudonnock realizes that they’re missing. For everyone but Moira Jean, false memories are firmly in place, and the missing friends are either traveling or away for work in the cities.

Moira Jean is scared and desperate, and returns to the forest to seek her friends. There, she finds the lord of the Land Under the Hill, whom she refers to as the Dreamer; a ruler of the Fae, who is both terrifying and mesmerizing. He seems fascinated by Moira Jean and her resistance to his glamours, and offers her a bargain: He’ll trade her for the return of her friends — but what he wants in exchange is difficult and costly, and there’s no guarantee that the people who come back will be in the same condition as when they left.

While the remote setting of Brudonnock gives old-timey vibes, it’s important to remember that the story is set in the years following the First World War. The village lacks electricity, running water, and other conveniences, but these do exist in the broader world. The effects of the war are evident on every page: The young men who still live in Brudonnock are all physically changed by the war or illness in some way, and too much of the village’s population has been brutally lost.

It’s no wonder, then, that the world of the Fae seems so enticing to those who have been taken.

‘It was wonderful,’ Callum said again, still breathless. ‘No one wanted for anything. Nothing hurt. There was no work. No war. There was only dancing and feasting and singing – oh, Moira Jean. It was everything I hoped the world would be.’

Even Moira Jean, who can see through the enchantments, can’t help but be tempted by a world that can be whatever she wishes — a place where she can be warm, and well-fed, free from back-breaking work and the constant fear of disease and injury.

At times, especially in the first half of the book, The Thorns Remain felt slow to me — but I think some of that is due to one of my pet peeves when it comes to book formatting. The Thorns Remain is divided into five parts, but within those parts, there are no chapters. Books without chapter breaks really frustrate me, especially because I typically read on a Kindle, and the chapter lengths help me track my progress. This isn’t an unusually long book, but the format makes it feel that way.

I will say that by the second half of the book, the storytelling pace picks up as the stakes get higher, the danger mounts, and Moira Jean’s situation becomes even more precarious. She’s forced to take risks for the sake of her community, even when the enchantment at play turns the village against her. Her strength and determination are remarkable, but she’s never made out to be some sort of superhero: She’s just a village girl who’s determined to do right by her family and friends, because they need her and she’s the only one who knows it.

I originally picked up a copy of The Thorns Remain on a whim after seeing it on a bookstore shelf. I hadn’t heard of it before, but the cover and the synopsis drew me in right away. I’ve had this book on my shelves for over a year now, and I’m so glad I took advantage of my holiday reading time to finally pick it up.

The Thorns Remain is a beautifully written blend of the fantastical and the day-to-day. Moira Jean is a terrific main character: She’s an ordinary person who’s thrust into an illogical, unreal reality, and chooses to take the difficult path of fighting for her friends rather than running away or giving into the lures of magic.

There’s an action-packed climax and an ending that’s just right. The Thorns Remain is both a fantasy story and a moving, introspective meditation on the horrors of war and its aftermath. It’s a thoughtful, descriptive, and emotional story, and it’s simply too good to miss!

15Apr2023

Book/Audiobook Review: Waypoints: My Scottish Journey by Sam Heughan

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Waypoints: My Scottish Journey
Authors: Sam Heughan
Narrator: Sam Heughan
Publisher: Voracious
Publication date: October 25, 2022
Print length: 270 pages
Audio length: 7 hours 47 minutes
Genre: Memoir/travel/adventure
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Journey deep into the Scottish Highlands in the first memoir by #1 New York Times bestselling author and star of Outlander, Sam Heughan—exploring his life and reflecting on the waypoints that define him

“I had to believe, because frankly, I had come so far there could be no turning back.”

In this intimate journey of self-discovery, Sam sets out along Scotland’s rugged ninety-six-mile West Highland Way to map out the moments that shaped his views on dreams and ambition, family, friendship, love, and life. The result is a love letter to the wild landscape that means so much to him, full of charming, funny, wise, and searching insights into the world through his eyes.

Waypoints is a deeply personal journey that reveals as much about Sam to himself as it does to his readers.

Sam Heughan, star of Outlander and portrayer of the iconic Jamie Fraser (aka, the King of Men), takes us on his journey along the West Highland Way, during which he contemplates both the trek itself and the landscapes of Scotland, as well as the path his life has taken to reach this moment in time.

Despite being a die-hard Outlander fan and having very much enjoyed his travel book Clanlands (co-authored with his costar Graham McTavish), I was a bit skeptical at first. I suspected that the book would be heavy on navel-gazing, and was afraid I’d be disappointed. I’m happy to report back that my fears were unfounded — Waypoints is a delight.

The book is framed around a rare week off for Sam, who finds himself back home in Glasgow with an entire week at his disposal. He makes a spur of the moment decision to walk the famous West Highland Way, a trail of almost 100 miles from Glasgow to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands. After an immediate trip to an outdoors outfitting store, where he buys everything the salesclerk tells him to, he sets out the next day with a plan to finish the journey in five days.

After two days of a pounding pace that is physically grueling, he’s about to pack it all in and call it quits, but has a revelation of sorts: It’s about the journey, not the speed. Not exactly shocking, but as he explains, for someone who’s always pushed himself, it’s a strange and unfamiliar approach. From that point on, he slows his pace, literally lightens his load by shedding most of the gear he carries, and begins to enjoy the sights and small moments along the way.

Interspersed with his narration of the trek are memories of his life, from childhood through school years, the initial introduction to theater and his long pursuit of a career as an actor — something he was on the verge of giving up on before landing the role of a lifetime in Outlander.

I listened to the audiobook, which really is the way to go with Waypoints. Sam is a gifted, entertaining narrator — I really did feel like I was listening to him telling friends his stories, rather than reading words from a page. He includes funny little asides that are not in the print version, and an added bonus is that each day’s section of the book concludes with voice recordings that he made on the journey — these add fun as well as appreciation for how hard the hike was. (He’s often out of breath, and we can hear the pounding rain that he’s described during the first day).

The audiobook (via Audible) comes with a PDF that includes the photos from the print book, as well as some illustrations of Scottish wild mushrooms. (Sam develops an ongoing rapport with the mushrooms he encounters while hiking solo — it’s very silly, but very amusing). I had originally bought myself a copy of the hardcover edition before deciding to listen to the audiobook, and I was glad to have it as a reference while listening. (Plus, the photos really are great — some are from his childhood and early theatrical experiences, and some are from the hike).

Waypoints is entertaining and yet feels very personal — Sam shares openly about his repeated disappointments while trying to break into acting, the dashed hopes, the sense that it might never work, barely making ends meet working odd jobs while continuing the arduous process of showing up for audition after audition that never quite works out. He does it all with humor and appreciation, and it’s clear that he’s very grateful for the opportunities that have come his way. He’s even very kind about the masses of Outlander fans, who are usually polite in their enthusiasm but can sometimes get a little extreme.

I know when the book was released, various entertainment sites took small passages from the book and tried to sensationalize them. For example, there’s a scene where a well-known actor fails to recognize Sam when he’s working as a waiter, despite them having known one another through mutual friends. Sam uses this as an example of what his experiences were while trying to make it as an actor, and presents it without bitterness or hard feelings, yet I’ve seen fluff pieces portraying this as a major snub — and that’s not how it’s conveyed at all. Likewise, he’s always respectful and appreciative when discussing his experiences on the Outlander set, but I’ve read pieces that have tried to turn his comments into major complaints — and again, that’s not how it reads in the context of the book.

In any case, I found Waypoints to be terrific entertainment, and Sam Heughan is an engaging, forthright, and often very funny narrator and author. I enjoyed learning more about his background and his earlier career experiences, and absolutely loved the vicarious thrill of going along for his journey on the West Highland Way.

This is a charming, engaging audiobook, well worth checking out!

22Nov2020

Book/Audiobook Review: Clanlands by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other
Authors: Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish
Narrator: Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date: November 3, 2020
Print length: 352 pages
Audio length: 10 hours 22 minutes
Genre: Travel/adventure/history/non-fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

From their faithful camper van to boats, kayaks, bicycles, and motorbikes, join stars of Outlander Sam and Graham on a road trip with a difference, as two Scotsmen explore a land of raw beauty, poetry, feuding, music, history, and warfare.

Unlikely friends Sam and Graham begin their journey in the heart of Scotland at Glencoe and travel from there all the way to Inverness and Culloden battlefield, where along the way they experience adventure and a cast of highland characters. In this story of friendship, finding themselves, and whisky, they discover the complexity, rich history and culture of their native country.

Take two actors, put them in a rickety camper van, and turn them loose in the Scottish Highlands. What do you get? Clanlands, the new book by Outlander stars Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish — part road trip memoir, part bromance, part history lesson, and all good fun.

Sam and Graham met thanks to their work on Outlander, and in Clanlands, they set out together to explore their native land, traveling from site to site in search of deeper meaning and connection, with the occasional adventure and crazy stunt thrown in along the way.

Reading or listening to Clanlands, we learn about the history and role of the clans in Scotland, the various wars and rebellions, and how Scotland’s history is still very much a part of the land and its people today.

We’re also treated to Sam and Graham’s ongoing banter, in which they complain, ridicule, and criticize one another (while making it clear how very much they actually do value each other’s friendship.) It’s pretty adorable.

There are also stories shared about the filming of Outlander and how the show has changed their lives, as well as stories from their earlier acting days and the various roles and opportunities that led them to where they are today.

Plus, Sam seems to delight in making Graham as uncomfortable as possible at all times, so besides hair-raising near-misses while driving, there’s also kayaking, bicycling, climbing rocks and rocking boats, a motorcycle sidecar ride that nearly ends in disaster, and so much more.

I’d originally picked up a hard copy of the book, then had to get the audiobook once I realized it was narrated by Sam and Graham. I highly recommend going the audio route! The two narrators put so much of their personalities into their narration, and listening, we’re treated to their bickering and comedic moments in a way that the printed page doesn’t capture nearly as well.

Outlander author Diana Gabaldon wrote the book’s forward, and she reads this on the Clanlands audiobook, so yet another treat for fans.

The book includes pages of terrific photos, as well as maps and various lists and glossaries, but fortunately, these are also available with the audiobook as a downloadable PDF.

I think Clanlands is especially a treat for Outlander lovers — you really do need to know who the two authors are and have a sense of what they’re like to appreciate their chemistry and how funny they are together. Still, there’s a lot of truly interesting information included about Scottish culture, history, and locations, so a non-fan could enjoy much of the book too.

The road trip that Sam and Graham describe in Clanlands was taken while filming the upcoming Starz series Men in Kilts, which I personally cannot wait to see.

If you’re looking for a holiday gift for the rabid Outlander fan in your life who already has ALL of the Outlander books and assorted memorabilia, consider getting them Clanlands. They’ll love you for it.

And if you yourself are an Outlander fan, particularly a fan of the TV series, then treat yourself to the audiobook. For me, it’s been a laugh-inducing, silly, informative, and overall delightful way to spend 10 hours!

7Jun2020

Book Review: 500 Miles From You by Jenny Colgan

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: 500 Miles From You
Author: Jenny Colgan
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: June 9, 2020
Print length: 432 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

New York Times bestselling author Jenny Colgan returns to the beloved Scottish Highland town of Kirrinfief, which readers first met in The Bookshop on the Shore, and adds a dash of London’s bustling urban landscape.
Lissie, is a nurse in a gritty, hectic London neighborhood. Always terribly competent and good at keeping it all together, she’s been suffering quietly with PTSD after helping to save the victim of a shocking crime. Her supervisor quietly arranges for Lissie to spend a few months doing a much less demanding job in the little town of Kirrinfeif in Scottish Highlands, hoping that the change of scenery will help her heal. Lissie will be swapping places with Cormack, an Army veteran who’s Kirrinfeif’s easygoing nurse/paramedic/all-purpose medical man. Lissie’s never experienced small-town life, and Cormack’s never spent more than a day in a big city, but it seems like a swap that would do them both some good.
In London, the gentle Cormack is a fish out of the water; in Kirrinfief, the dynamic Lissie finds it hard to adjust to the quiet. But these two strangers are now in constant contact, taking over each other’s patients, endlessly emailing about anything and everything. Lissie and Cormack discover a new depth of feeling…for their profession and for each other.
But what will happen when Lissie and Cormack finally meet…?

Jenny Colgan is an absolute favorite of mine, so of course I was thrilled to receive an ARC of her new book, 500 Miles From You. This author’s books always make me smile, and her books set in the Scottish Highlands give me a major case of wanderlust each and every time.

In 500 Miles From You, we start by meeting Lissa, a nurse who specializes in follow-up care, spending her days driving around London from patient to patient to make sure they’re following doctor’s orders, taking their medications, and getting the treatment they need. As the story opens, Lissa witnesses a terrible hit and run that’s a deliberate attack, leaving a 15-year-old boy dying on the street.

Side note: The synopsis above, from Goodreads, refers to Lissie and Cormack. In the book, it’s Lissa and Cormac. Just FYI — I don’t want you to think I’m getting the characters’ names wrong!

Lissa is unable to shake off the horror, and finally, her hospital’s HR team strongly urges her to participate in a professional exchange program. She’ll be sent to a rural area to use her skills in a different environment, and a nurse from that area will come take her place in London to gain experience in urban medicine.

It doesn’t seem like an offer Lissa can refuse, and between her new assignment and her required ongoing therapy sessions, the exhange may be her only opportunity to heal and recover before her PTSD completely derails her career and her life.

Meanwhile, Cormac will leave his beloved town of Kirrinfief in the Scottish Highlands — where literally everyone knows your name — to live in Lissa’s nursing quarters in London and take over her set of patients. The two never meet, but they exchange patient notes, and over time, develop an email and text rapport beyond the professional requirements.

In my opinion. Lissa gets the much better end of the deal! As always, Jenny Colgan has me falling in love all over again with her depiction of life in the Highlands — the peace and quiet, the quaint small town, the local busybodies, the sense of connection. And frankly, while Cormac eventually finds reasons to like London, the descriptions of the noise, the dirt, the unfriendliness, the bustle all make it clear why Cormac yearns for home.

Lissa’s PTSD is portrayed sensitively. As a medical professional, she intellectually understands her reactions, but that doesn’t mean that she can instantly deal with it. Her progress is slow, and we see how her London habits keep her from fitting in or being accepted when she arrives in Kirrinfief. Eventually, of course, she opens up to her surroundings and to the way of life in a small village, and finds more than she could have thought possible.

Cormac, a former army medic, carries around with him the memories of Fallujah that eventually make him seek a civilian career. While he can relate to Lissa’s trauma, his own past still remains mostly undisclosed. I finished the book wishing we’d learned a little more about Cormac’s army experiences.

The back and forth between Cormac and Lissa is quite cute, and the book ends with all sorts of mishaps that turn their intended first in-person meetings into a series of catastrophic missed chances. But yes, there’s a happy ending — how could there not be?

The texts and emails between Lissa and Cormac are funny and sweet, and the story is a nice twist on the “two strangers fall in love without ever meeting” trope. Somehow, though, I was left wanting more. I felt that their connection needed more time to grow, and wasn’t given quite enough room to develop and breathe — and I was left wanting to see more of them together once they finally connected, rather than ending with their meeting.

This is the 3rd of Jenny Colgan’s loosely connected stories set in Kirrinfief. Characters from both The Bookshop on the Corner and The Bookshop on the Shore show up here (and become friends with Lissa). It’s lovely to see them all — I just wish they’d actually had bigger roles to play, since I enjoy those characters so much.

Overall, this is another winning romantic tale from a terrific author, balancing tough situations and emotions with lighter, more joyous moments and memorable characters.

And how could I not love a book where this happens:

He was wearing an open-necked white shirt made of heavy cotton and a pale green-and-gray kilt. […]
“Stop there, ” said Lissa, smiling and taking out her phone camera. “I want a pic. You look like you’re in Outlander.”

500 Miles From You can work as a stand-alone, but I’d recommend starting with The Bookshop on the Corner, which is a wonderful introduction to Kirrinfief and its quirky characters. Either way, don’t miss these lovely stories!

1Mar2020

Audiobook Review: The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Bookshop on the Shore
Author: Jenny Colgan
Narrator: Eilidh Beaton
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: June 13, 2019
Print length: 416 pages
Audio length: 13 hours, 11 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

A grand baronial house on Loch Ness, a quirky small-town bookseller, and a single mom looking for a fresh start all come together in this witty and warm-hearted novel by New York Times bestselling author Jenny Colgan.
Desperate to escape London, single mother Zoe wants to build a new life for herself and her four-year-old son Hari. She can barely afford the crammed studio apartment on a busy street where shouting football fans keep them awake all night, and Hari’s dad, Jaz, a charismatic but perpetually broke DJ, is no help at all. But his sister, Surinder, comes to Zoe’s aid, hooking her up with a job as far away from the urban crush as possible: working at a bookshop on the banks of Loch Ness. And there’s a second job to cover housing: Zoe will be an au pair for three children at a genuine castle in the Scottish Highlands.
But while Scotland is everything Zoe dreamed of — clear skies, brisk fresh air, blessed quiet — everything else is a bit of a mess. The Urquart family castle is grand but crumbling, the children’s mother has abandoned the family, their father is a wreck, and the kids have been kicked ot of school and left to their own devices. Zoe has her work cut out for her and is determined to rise to the challenge, especially when she sees how happily Hari has taken to their new home.
With the help of Nina, the friendly local bookseller, Zoe begins to put down roots in the community. Are books, fresh air, and kindness enough to heal the Urquart family—and her own?

Love, love, love, love, love.

Jenny Colgan’s books have been reliable, sweet escapes for me, and I’ve loved so many of them — but The Bookshop on the Shore just may be my favorite yet!

Zoe is a lovely main character, who starts the book in an awful situation. She’s about to be evicted from her grotty little apartment, she works in a posh nursery that she can’t afford to send her precious boy to, she can’t find help for the fact that Hari seems to be mute by choice, and Hari’s dad is unreliable and offers no support whatsoever.

The opportunity to be an au pair in the Highlands, providing a roof over her head and a small income, and to run a mobile bookselling business during the owner’s maternity leave, is too good to pass up — and frankly, Zoe is completely out of options.

She and Hari pack up and head to the Highlands, where the dark, neglected manor is in disarray and the children are completely wild, snidely referring to Zoe as “Nanny Seven” when she shows up, since she’s likely to be just one more in a string of hopeless caregivers who the bratty kids manage to drive away.

But Zoe is determined and desperate, and simply refuses to fail. She and Hari settle in. Hari is immediately befriended by Patrick, the precocious 5-year-old of the family, although the older children, 9-year-old Mary and 12-year-old Shackleton, are much harder to win over.

Meanwhile, Zoe takes up the bookselling business when the owner Nina is unexpectedly forced into an early bed rest, and combines her love of books with her startlingly good business sense to develop an entirely new clientele — one that Nina might not entirely approve of, but hey, at least Zoe is making money!

The description may make this seem like pretty standard fare, but I promise, this book is something special! The Urquart children are troubled and troublesome, but with good reason, and their behavior isn’t sugar-coated or made cute. Mary especially has some serious issues to contend with, and it’s heartbreaking to see what she experiences.

Zoe does come off a bit like a magical Mary Poppins/Maria from The Sounds of Music combo — swooping in with her good sense and cheery disposition, steeling herself against hurtful comments and making the children eat healthy, go outdoors, clean up, and all sorts of other positive activities, entirely against their will. Still, behind the scenes, we see Zoe’s vulnerability, and this keeps her grounded as a character and keeps her from seeming too super-nanny-ish.

Gradually, the children warm up to Zoe, and her influence lets light and joy back into the lives of this sad family. Naturally, there’s a love story too, and it’s sweet without being saccharine, and feels well developed and well earned.

Zoe’s anxiety over Hari’s well-being feels very real and all too relatable. To her, her boy is perfect, but at the same time, he’s isolated himself from the world in a way that brings him all sorts of negative attention from well-meaning strangers. Seeing the boy becoming close with the adorable Patrick is just one of the pleasures of this novel.

The narration of the audiobook is delightful, keeping the story moving along crisply, giving personality to each of the characters and making them all distinct and vivid. If you can’t tell already, my favorite is little Patrick, whose use of the word “absolutely” in every sentence is just the cutest thing ever.

There’s real heart-ache in this book, and some moments that had me at the edge of my seat, but also a realistic look at the messy business of raising a family, dealing with children who aren’t perfect, and looking for small ways to make things better, even if just a bit at a time.

Just to put this book in context, it’s set in the same world as The Bookshop on the Corner, with some cross-over characters, but I wouldn’t call it a sequel, and it can absolutely (thanks, Patrick!) be read a stand-alone.

Jenny Colgan’s books tend to have certain elements in common — a lonely or sad main character needing a dramatic change, moving to a small, remote community, meeting lots of quirky characters, finding a place for herself, and falling in love. This is all true of The Bookshop on the Shore, but that doesn’t mean that it’s at all formulaic.

I loved the setting, the characters, the investment in the portrayals of the children, and the way Zoe, Hari, and the Urquarts all change one another’s lives for the better.

A bonus is how much all of these characters love to read! In this book as well as The Bookshop on the Corner, the characters talk about books all the time, and listening to the audiobook, I was often tempted to hit the pause button so I could write down the books mentioned. What a treat!

I’ll use Patrick’s favorite word one more time and say that I ABSOLUTELY recommend The Bookshop on the Shore!

12Feb2020

Shelf Control #204: The Highland Witch by Susan Fletcher

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out my introductory post, here.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: The Highland Witch (original title: Corrag)
Author: Susan Fletcher
Published: 2010
Length: 368 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

The Massacre of Glencoe happened at 5am on 13th February 1692 when thirty-eight members of the Macdonald clan were killed by soldiers who had enjoyed the clan’s hospitality for the previous ten days. Many more died from exposure in the mountains. Fifty miles to the south Corrag is condemned for her involvement in the Massacre. She is imprisoned, accused of witchcraft and murder, and awaits her death. The era of witch-hunts is coming to an end – but Charles Leslie, an Irish propagandist and Jacobite, hears of the Massacre and, keen to publicise it, comes to the tollbooth to question her on the events of that night, and the weeks preceding it. Leslie seeks any information that will condemn the Protestant King William, rumoured to be involved in the massacre, and reinstate the Catholic James. Corrag agrees to talk to him so that the truth may be known about her involvement, and so that she may be less alone, in her final days. As she tells her story, Leslie questions his own beliefs and purpose – and a friendship develops between them that alters both their lives. In Corrag, Susan Fletcher tells us the story of an epic historic event, of the difference a single heart can make – and how deep and lasting relationships that can come from the most unlikely places.

How and when I got it:

I’ve had this book on my shelf for at least five years, and I’m pretty sure I received it from a book group friend during one of our annual book swaps.

Why I want to read it:

Basically, put the word Highland in a title, and throw in the word witch as well… and I’m sold! I’m always on the lookout for good historical fiction set in Scotland, and this one sounds terrific!

What do you think? Would you read this book?

Please share your thoughts!

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Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

18Jul2019

Book Review: Finding Fraser by KC Dyer

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

“Jamie Fraser would be Deeply Gratified at having inspired such a charmingly funny, poignant story—and so am I.”—Diana Gabaldon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Outlander series

Escape to Scotland with the delightful new novel that readers have fallen in love with—inspired by Diana Gabaldon’s #1 New York Times bestselling Outlander series.

I met Jamie Fraser when I was nineteen years old. He was tall, red-headed, and at our first meeting at least, a virgin. He was, in fact, the perfect man.

That he was fictional hardly entered into it…

On the cusp of thirty, Emma Sheridan is desperately in need of a change. After a string of failed relationships, she can admit that no man has ever lived up to her idea of perfection: the Scottish fictional star of romantic fantasies the world over—James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser.

Her ideal man might be ripped from the pages of a book, but Emma hopes that by making one life-altering decision she might be able to turn fiction into fact. After selling all her worldly possessions, Emma takes off for Scotland with nothing but her burgeoning travel blog to confide in.

But as she scours the country’s rolling green hills and crumbling castles, Emma discovers that in searching for her own Jamie Fraser, she just might find herself.

For any devoted Outlander fan, Finding Fraser is sure to ring true — if only escapist fictional escapades ever really happened in real life.

Emma, at 29, is frustrated by her career (or lack thereof), her love life (or lack thereof), and her prospects in general. Why can’t she ever find a man who even comes close to the perfection of Jamie Fraser? Fed up and in need of a change, Emma sells everything and — against the sensible scolding of her younger but more practical sister — heads off across American towards the plane that will take her to Scotland.

Needless to say, all sorts of mishaps ensue, even before she leaves the country. Emma has a variety of run-ins with Outlander fans of the sane and not-so-sane variety, actually meets Herself (that would be the beloved author of the Outlander series, Diana Gabaldon) but bursts into tears when it’s finally her turn to greet her, has the unpleasant experience of seeing a stripper in a kilt and fake red wig, and meets some die-hard Braveheart fans who are willing to defend their story with knitting needles and other pointy objects.

… the very thought of meeting Herself in the flesh made my hands start to shake. She was the woman who created Jamie Fraser, who built him up from clay — or from ink and paper, at least. She has gone on to beat him, wound him, torture him in every possible way, and still nurture his unending love for Claire over the course of the entire series.

Emma doesn’t have all that much of a plan when she arrives in Scotland, other than using her Outlander paperback as a guide to follow in Claire’s footsteps and, hopefully, meet the kilted Scottish warrior of her dreams. Real life rarely follows careful plans, much less dreams, so Emma’s path is not smooth, and she encounters all sorts of challenges that could easily have sent her running back to the safety of her overbearing sister and a steady (boring) job.

Instead, she decides to stick it out, and finds a way to stay in Scotland, earn enough to pay for room and board, make friends and start to build what feels like home, and yes, fall in love. But is he the man of her dreams, or just a stand-in for what she really wants?

Finding Fraser is engaging and endearing. Of course, Emma’s plans are impractical and unlikely, but she throws herself into them, even when down to her last bit of cash and after having all her belongings stolen. She starts a blog, thinking to chronicle her journey, and develops a cheering squad of followers who encourage her not to give up hope. Readers will identify early on who the true love interest should be, but it takes Emma the entire book to catch up. Meanwhile, she ends up in a relationship with a guy who is clearly just so, so very wrong — except for the looks and the fact of being Scottish. I wanted to give Emma a good shake every time she starts to realize that maybe Hamish isn’t such a great catch after all… and then talks herself into giving him another (and another and another) chance.

It was super sweet to see her find a home for herself, make friends, and start to feel a part of the town where she rather haphazardly ends up. Her stay is ended abruptly by immigration woes that seem a bit shoe-horned in for the sake of drama, but that’s okay. The real point is Emma’s search for her own perfect Jamie… and her ultimate realization that what she really needed all along was to find her own inner Claire.

What I hadn’t really thought about — beyond tracing the journey in the front of the novel — was Claire’s part in the love story. Claire’s heart was true, but there was never any doubt that the woman had standards. Jamie literally lived through hell and more to meet those standards. Even living with uncertainty and chaos all around her, she knew what she wanted.

Finding Fraser is a delightful summer read, perfect for a chair on the beach or a cozy hammock. It’s light and fluffy, but full of heart and more than a little humor. It’ll definitely hit the sweet spot for Outlander lovers. Wouldn’t we all love to hop a plane and go find our own Jamie?

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The details:

Title: Finding Fraser
Author: KC Dyer
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: January 1, 2015
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased

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