Shortbread in the Highlands by Robin Jones Gunn

 

What is your favorite dessert?  I love so many it’s hard to pick one.  One favorite is cherry pie.

Cousins Nora and Allie travel to Scotland to claim an inheritance for their Gran.  They meet interesting new people as they stay in a cottage in the town that their Gran grew up in.  This trip is also a time to explore Scotland in the fall and spend time together.  Besides being plagued by delays, Nora and Allie discover that their Gran had kept a secret from them.  What was the secret and why did she keep it from them?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This book really made me want to visit Scotland with the wonderful descriptions of the scenery, food and people.

·       This book is number three in the Suitcase Sister series, but I read it as a standalone novel, and it worked just fine.

·       I liked that the trip got the two both thinking about their lives and where God was leading them.

·       I loved that the inheritance was a library.  If only I could inherit a library!  Their mission was to retrieve their Gran’s diary from the library and then sell the contents of the library.

·       Scottish shortbread sounds delicious, and I would like to try some.  There is a great recipe in the back of this book that I need to try out!

·       This was a sweet romance, clean read, contemporary, and inspirational read.

·       Allie and Robin get annoyed with each other at times but work through it.  Allie owns a successful skincare company with her husband and feel like she really needs to get back and not spend time in Scotland with Robin.  This puts a strain on things at first.  There is more to this, and it slowly comes out in the story.

·       Recipes, discussion questions, and a look at the author’s next book conclude this story.

Overall, Shortbread in the Highlands by Robin Jones Gunn is a delightful, cozy story set in Scotland with a hint of mystery and romance.  I enjoyed it this summer and the fall setting also makes it a perfect fall read!

Book Source:  Thank-you to @robingunn @revellfiction @greatreadsbookpromo for the review copy as part of the Great Reads Book Promo tour.

Finding Father Christmas, Engaging Father Christmas, and Kissing Father Christmas by Robin Jones Gunn

I loved all three of these Christmas novels that I read before and over Christmas this year.  In Finding Father Christmas, Miranda Carson takes a trip to England with scant details and a picture to look for her father.  The only picture she has is Father Christmas with a squalling child on his lap and the name of the photo studio where this picture was taken.  What does this picture mean?  Miranda arrives in the small village of Carlton Heath and is immediately swept into the Christmas celebrations including the annual production of A Christmas Carol.  Will Miranda be able to find her family for Christmas?

In Engaging Father Christmas, Miranda Carson returns to Carlton Heath to spend Christmas with her new boyfriend, Ian.  Miranda hopes that an engagement will appear for Christmas and also dreams about one day owning a cottage in the village.  Things start to unravel when her old boyfriend shows up out of the blue, and when gossip about her true identity and family start to get out.  Will Miranda be able to have a happy Christmas after all?

In Kissing Father Christmas, Ian’s cousin, Anna, has arrived in Carlton Heath to spend Christmas and to hopefully get to know Peter, someone she met at a wedding, more closely.  Unfortunately her trip does not start out well when Peter tells that he thinks she may have the wrong idea about his feelings for her from their kiss at the wedding.  Will Anna be able to find true love and adventure in Carlton Heath?

I loved all three of these stories.  They are good clean stories with mystery, romance, and great English Christmas spirit.  I would love to read more books in this series or more by this author.

Book Source:  Review Copy from Hachette Book Group.  Thank-you!