This is a great read set around the Edinburgh Festival which follows the story of multiple people as their paths cross in different ways during the festival. I loved how all the ways their lives crossed played out. As with many of the books with this format, it was a bit of a slow start, but many of the characters were just so likeable and there is a lot of kindness in this book, even against a backdrop of darkness at time.  It was a perfect read for my trip to Scotland.

Recommend.  
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Having also just read People of Book, I feel like I should start a category for books about kick-ass Australian professionals who travel abroad for work!  Again, while I travel, I like to read local authors and books about the locations I am visiting, but this one snuck in even though it was about an Australian-Canadian biologist who moves to rural Scotland as part of the effort to reintroduce wolves in the wild.  It is a complex and layered book with many of my favorite themes about resilience, complex families, and persistence in the face of hardship.  

The main character's relationships with her parents, sister, brother-in-law, lover, co-workers, and neighbors contain dimensions that are interrelated and make more and more sense as the story unfolds.  The domestic and sexual violence in the book are harsh, but related in such a realistic and compassionate way that those persistent "Why didn't she leave?" questions don't even have to be asked, let along answered.  

To be an outsider, to have experienced trauma, to be committed to a cause at the cost of ones own wellbeing--these themes run through this really well written story.

Highly recommend.

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A steamy fantasy romance centered around Scottish legend and lore, this was a fun, light read for my Scotland trip.  With magic and mythology, family dysfunction, and definite adult content, I wouldn't say this is high literature by any stretch of the imagination, but added to a traveling book list, it is a definite yes for romance fans. The one major bummer is that it is an American author, writing about an American woman doing a legacy trip to Scotland to find her roots after the death of her father.  But, as a fun, light, sexy plane book?  I would add it to your list.

Recommend.

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