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1943tre 's review for:
Ruby Spencer's Whisky Year
by Rochelle Bilow
4.5 stars rounded up. This was so cute and cozy!
I liked this SO much! I devoured the whole thing in like 10 hours. The premise is really quite simple––Ruby goes to Scotland to find herself, hopefully write a cookbook, and falls in love with a hot bearded Scot. There's no overused tropes here, it's just a good old-fashioned strangers-to-lovers set-up with two mid-to-late 30s people who pretty much act like adults the whole time and quietly fall in love amidst the gorgeous backdrop of this charming small Scottish town.
The writing here is a highlight. It felt very fresh to me. It's told in Ruby's POV the entire time, third person. It feels like so many protagonists these days are brash and stubborn and not-like-other-girls quirky––Ruby, in contrast, felt much more relatable to me. She's a bit neurotic and funny without trying to be, she's full of yearning, she's trying to find a home for herself, she has ambition, but not at the cost of other things in life. Bilow's writing is quiet and detailed, with a really lovely sense of setting in this book and gorgeous descriptions of food, which makes sense given her background. She does a lot of "telling" instead of showing in that tons of conversations are told about instead of shown via in-scene dialogue, and I feel like I'm "supposed" to not like that, but I think it worked great here. The whole book felt well-paced and detailed without being overwhelming.
And the romance! You can't help but root for Ruby and Brochan both as individuals and also as a couple. I usually prefer my heroes to be a bit more tortured (lol), but Brochan had a hint of grumpiness but otherwise felt like a normal adult going through some shit. He was just so, so sweet and very sexy. The spice was really good! The amount and graphicness (it's a few scenes of open door, maybe 1-3 pages each) matched the vibe of the book.
Would def recommend for anyone wanting a cozy romance, and I'll definitely be reading more of Bilow.
I liked this SO much! I devoured the whole thing in like 10 hours. The premise is really quite simple––Ruby goes to Scotland to find herself, hopefully write a cookbook, and falls in love with a hot bearded Scot. There's no overused tropes here, it's just a good old-fashioned strangers-to-lovers set-up with two mid-to-late 30s people who pretty much act like adults the whole time and quietly fall in love amidst the gorgeous backdrop of this charming small Scottish town.
The writing here is a highlight. It felt very fresh to me. It's told in Ruby's POV the entire time, third person. It feels like so many protagonists these days are brash and stubborn and not-like-other-girls quirky––Ruby, in contrast, felt much more relatable to me. She's a bit neurotic and funny without trying to be, she's full of yearning, she's trying to find a home for herself, she has ambition, but not at the cost of other things in life. Bilow's writing is quiet and detailed, with a really lovely sense of setting in this book and gorgeous descriptions of food, which makes sense given her background. She does a lot of "telling" instead of showing in that tons of conversations are told about instead of shown via in-scene dialogue, and I feel like I'm "supposed" to not like that, but I think it worked great here. The whole book felt well-paced and detailed without being overwhelming.
And the romance! You can't help but root for Ruby and Brochan both as individuals and also as a couple. I usually prefer my heroes to be a bit more tortured (lol), but Brochan had a hint of grumpiness but otherwise felt like a normal adult going through some shit. He was just so, so sweet and very sexy. The spice was really good! The amount and graphicness (it's a few scenes of open door, maybe 1-3 pages each) matched the vibe of the book.
Would def recommend for anyone wanting a cozy romance, and I'll definitely be reading more of Bilow.