Monday, March 30, 2020

Book Review: Summer at the Highland Coral Beach by Kiley Dunbar




Summer at the Highland Coral Beach
by Kiley Dunbar




Amazon US / UK / AU / CA



Escape to the Highland Coral Beach – where broken hearts can be healed

Beatrice Halliday needs a break from life. Booking a trip to the Highlands on a whim, Beatrice hopes learning Gaelic in a beautiful Scottish village might help her heal her grief after losing her baby, her husband and her much loved job in a space of months.

But Port Willow Bay isn’t exactly as the website promised. Instead of learning a new language, she’s booked in to learn the ancient skill of willow weaving, her hotel room is Princess and the Pea themed (with a stack of mattresses for her bed!) and worse still, her tutor is Atholl Fergusson, grumpy landlord of the hotel where Beatrice is staying – and she’s the only one doing the course.

But as Beatrice finds herself falling in love with Port Willow Bay and its people, and as she discovers the kind heart beneath Atholl’s stony exterior, can she really leave?

Escape to the beautiful Scottish Highlands with this utterly romantic, feelgood book; one visit to Port Willow Bay and you’ll want to come back! Fans of Sarah Morgan, Carole Matthews and Holly Martin will be captivated.



My Rating:


Favorite Quotes:


‘He and his wife didn’t get on, and she moved to the other side of the island once their son was at the high school. And every day he’d ride his bicycle over to visit her, and on Fridays he’d take a posy of flowers to her. They got on like a house on fire once they’d separated. It was quite the love affair, apparently.’ ‘And they never moved back in together?’ ‘And risk spoiling their romance? Goodness, no.’



I have a theory that nice, available Highland blokes who aren’t out grafting twenty-four seven are like Brigadoon; one rises from the mists every one hundred years.



‘So, it’s manicure, facial, manscaping those brows and taming that chest wig that’s escaping his shirt?’ Beatrice whispered. Cheryl laughed. ‘Eee, I thought it was going to jump out and run up someone’s trouser leg when I first caught sight of that fuzz.’



Scottish tablet… A whole bag of sugar, large can o’ condensed milk, wee scrape o’ vanilla and a splash of whole milk. Then you boil it up until it looks like a raging furnace in the pan… You only know the stuff’s ready when the bubbles have risen to the top o’ the pan, your eyebrows are singed clean awf and you truly fear for your life… I’ve known folk lose fingers making the stuff. Melted, they were!



The girls at the Hub used to show me their dating profiles and the men they were matched to. They were a gruesome crop of middle managers with hairy backs, halitosis and three mobile phones and ten women on the go at once. Half of them have wives!




My Review:


Scotland is the land of my forbearers, so I do loves me a Scottish burr and this tale had lots of thick and juicy ones with an especially tasty one from a sexy redheaded knightly willow weaver. Atholl was divine!


I wasn’t sure if I was going to appreciate the main female character of Bea as at times she had been curt, critical, impatient, arrogant, and outright rude toward her Scottish hosts, and I was disappointed with her annoying and thoughtless behaviors. I didn’t seem to have that problem with the sexy Scotsman, he was a tender heart and a kind soul - and I adored him. The storylines and writing style were engaging, active, insightfully written, well-paced, and often cleverly amusing with unusual activities and misadventures by a cast of quirky and original characters.


I collected several fun new Scottish words to add to my British Isles Word List with ceilidh – a traditional Scottish social gathering usually with dancing, braw – fine, and birling – spinning around like the logs in their Highland games.


About The Author

Kiley Dunbar is the author of heart-warming, escapist, romantic fiction set in beautiful places.

JOAN HESSAYON AWARD FOR DEBUT NOVELISTS FINALIST 2019 FOR ONE SUMMER'S NIGHT.

Kiley is Scottish and lives in England with her husband, two kids, and Amos the Bedlington Terrier. She writes around her work at a University in the North of England where she lectures in English Literature and creative writing. She is proud to be a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association and a graduate of their New Writers' Scheme.

Kiley's third novel, Summer at the Highland Coral Beach (coming 27th March 2020) The first of the Port Willow Bay series is on Pre-order right now!!

One Summer's Night was Kiley's first novel (published by Hera Books) and is on sale now!
Don't forget there's also a fabulous audible audiobook narrated by Eilidh Beaton.

Kiley's cozy, sexy-swoony, very snowy festive rom-com Christmas at Frozen Falls is on sale NOW too!

Social Media Links 


https://www.facebook.com/KileyDunbarAuthor/



No comments:

Post a Comment