3 Stars

One Liner: Read it as a drama

 

Bailey McArthur moved to Heather Moore for a fresh start. As someone who always loved flowers, she opened a florist shop, Flower Power, and was getting her life back on track. 

The arrival of Zach Stern, a journalist, threatens her newfound freedom. When Zach wouldn’t stop asking about Eric, the famous celebrity hiding in the town, Bailey was afraid that her secrets would tumble out. Her growing feelings for Zach complicated things. 

Can Bailey sort out the mess and find happiness? 

The story comes in Bailey’s first-person POV. 

Firstly, this is not romance. It has a lot of drama too, so we’ll call it contemporary fiction. 

The start is quite good. I enjoyed the descriptions of the flower shop and the picturesque small town in winter. 

As the story progressed, I realized this would not be 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 they could develop such deep feelings for each other. 

There’s a lot of side drama involving Bailey’s family. The celebrity, Eric, is also hit with drama and scandals from all sides. 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 and Marcus (her brother). His arc was quite believable. In fact, I empathized more with him than the main characters. 

Bailey’s character is decent if a bit silly over Zach. I like she made some great points about starting over, the role of media in sharing gossip at the cost of privacy, the right to become a better person after making mistakes, etc. 

Zach’s character is so surface level, he was hardly anything more than great eyes and hair with commendable ethics. If the side drama was limited to one topic, there would have been enough space for the MMC to grow and the romance to feel like something. 

As expected of the genre, everything gets sorted at the end. There’s an epilogue too. The saving grace for me was the pacing. I could read this in a couple of days. 

To summarize, A Scottish Highland Hideaway has a solid premise but messes it up by bringing too much drama and turning it into a soap opera. It might work better if you go with the right expectations. (It is a proper standalone.) 

Thank you, Rachel's Random Resources and One More Chapter (Harper Collins), for eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. 

#NetGalley