liz_mackie 's review for:

Highland Hearts Holiday Bookshop by Tricia O'Malley

4.25

---

A sweet and cosy romance with slightly spooky vibes in the shape of a ghostly matchmaker as Rosie leaves her home in the US for a new life in bonnie Scotland after her aunt dies and leaves her a book shop. Sounds like living the dream to me but she soon steeped in mysteries such as a book that keeps jumping off the shelf at her, customers asking for the mysterious highland special – if this was another kind of book that could’ve taken readers down a darker path and she meets the Book Bitches, a gang of age challenged women who bulldoze over everyone they meet to the extent that within days of arriving, her shop is entered in a christmas window competition against those posh St Andrews twats ‘ye ken’. The only thing that brightens her day is Alexander McTavish, computer expert and puffin whisperer extraordinaire until she finds out she’s also inherited her aunt’s magick. 

Set in the same world as her Enchanted Highlands series and with an air of the whimsical about it, Highland Hearts Holiday Bookshop has all the quirkiness I’ve come to expect from Tricia O’Malley. Even Clyde the hielan coo gets a mention although sadly he doesn’t make appearance. I loved Rosie and Alex’s romance as it played out in front of the entire village, they were perfect for each other, but after his divorce Alex was more than a little gun shy and awkward, happy to live a quiet life with only Tattie the puffin for company, but Rosie makes him want more. The spice was low level but there was no doubting that beneath Alex’s quiet exterior, there lurked a passionate beast ready to pounce. The overall story was slowburn and gentle, with a dry humour running through and I adored the puffin puns. The secondary characters were just as quirky as the village itself and has left me looking forward to returning to Kingsbarn, lets face it Rosie’s bestie Jessica needs to find a McHottie of her own.