REVIEW: To Scotland With Love by Patience Griffin

In To Scotland With Love (Kilts andQuilts #2) by Patience Griffin, Cait has come back to Gandiegow, Scotland to heal and move on. Although she hasn’t lived there or even been there since she was 13, it’s where she thinks of as home and it’s where her Gran is. Cait arrives bitter, angry, and full of resentment towards not only men, but life in general. Cait is determined to get herself back on track. She gave it all up already for a man, and that did not work out very well at all! Especially when said man ended up dying in the arms of one of his mistresses. Gran is the only family she has left, and even if Cait can’t live with her, she wants to be near her again.

From the start though, nothing goes as it should…or maybe everything is going just as fate wants it to. With her new to her home burned to a crisp, her neighbor helps her find a place to stay. But Cait never expected her neighbor to be sexy, sinfully hot movie star Graham, who has been ‘missing’ and keeping private for a few months now. Cait is drawn to him as a woman, even as her journalistic side screams out at her to take action. If she takes the opportunity thrown at her to out him, she can revive her almost dead career. If she takes the moral high road, she just might have to live her life a bit differently than before. As Cait struggles with moral and ethical dilemmas, guilt and regrets, Graham and his family are have their own tragedy’s past and present. The more time Cait spends around him and his family, the closer she feels to them, the more she wants it even as she tries to push it away. Both are attracted, but neither wants love or a relationship. At least that’s what they tell themselves and each other. Slowly they do build up a wary relationship…but secrets threaten to destroy it all.

Cait’s relationship with her Gran is complicated and difficult as they struggle to reconnect. Having experienced losses that neither has moved on from, even with family trust is hard to have. Many times Cait is tempted to forget about forging a bond with her Gran…but can she look deeper than the surface and see the woman underneath? The woman, who just like Cait feels like she has no one?

In To Scotland With Love, Patience takes us through a roller coaster of emotions. Cait is who drives the story, even if she is the character most difficult to connect with. Patience does a great job with her character…taking me from not liking her at all because of the huge chip on her shoulder, to understanding and liking her and hoping with her that she can finally be Cait for Cait. And happy. Graham was a really like able, I’d want to be with him kind of guy. Even though he was a “movie star”, I felt like he was realistic and the stressors in his life brought him to life even more. Together, with all of their past baggage, will they ever be able to take another chance on love?

To Scotland With Love has romance, but it is also all about Cait and her life experiences that have brought her to where she is today and where she’s going. Patience gives us main characters who have a lot of conflict but at the same time great chemistry, and in Cait’s case especially, huge character growth. Many of the secondary character have strong, just as powerful roles in To Scotland With Love from Gran to Graham’s family.

I love the small town Scottish setting, and I love how Patience plays out the relationship not only between Cait and Graham, but Cait and her Gran. It shows that some things are worth the effort and extra work, and expectations don’t always meet up with reality.

If you are a romance reader looking for small town relationships, laughter as well as tears, you will enjoy To Scotland With Love.

Book Info:

Published June 3rd 2014 by Signet | (Kilts andQuilts #1)

Welcome to the charming Scottish seaside town of Gandiegow—where two people have returned home for different reasons, but to find the same thing.…

Caitriona Macleod gave up her career as an investigative reporter for the role of perfect wife. But after her husband is found dead in his mistress’s bed, a devastated Cait leaves Chicago for the birthplace she hasn’t seen since she was a child. She’s hoping to heal and to reconnect with her gran. The last thing she expects to find in Gandiegow is the Sexiest Man Alive! She just may have stumbled on the ticket to reigniting her career—if her heart doesn’t get in the way.

Graham Buchanan is a movie star with many secrets. A Gandiegow native, he frequently hides out in his hometown between films. He also has a son he’ll do anything to protect. But Cait Macleod is too damn appealing—even if she is a journalist.

Quilting with her gran and the other women of the village brings Cait a peace she hasn’t known in years. But if she turns in the story about Graham, Gandiegow will never forgive her for betraying one of its own. Should she suffer the consequences to resurrect her career? Or listen to her battered and bruised heart and give love another chance?