Kilt Trip by Alexandra Kiley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
4.5 stars
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review
For someone who traveled light, Addie carried a hell of a lot of baggage.
Addie's mentor has brought her and her bestfriend on the tough ride of starting a new business. Addie's been around the world as a travel consultant but never to Scotland, where her parents honeymooned. After losing her mother in her teens thirteen years ago, Addie also emotionally lost her father as he pulled away from her in his grief. This taught Addie that she needs to protect herself from love, as losing one person can cause someone to lose everything, and why her job is so ideal for her, always moving and making no lasting connections. When she's sent to Scotland to help overhaul a family run tour business, her mom is on her mind even more, as pictures of her mom at Scottish sites from her honeymoon are some of Addie's most prized possessions. Addie can't let emotional issues ruin her business strategies, though, as her mentor is counting on her to streamline this tour business quickly and efficiently to add to their new portfolio. Which makes the chemistry she's feeling with the owner's son, even more dangerous.
It wasn’t just his family conspiring against him. The universe was in on it, too.
Logan can't help but feel betrayed when his father brings in an outsider to help overhaul their tours. He once tried new ideas to revamp their tours and failed miserably, feeling like his lost his two brothers when they then left the business. He's proud of Scotland and doesn't want to lead visitors around just to the gimmicky tourist sites and wants to keep the family and friends feeling to his tours. Which makes fighting Addie's ideas even more imperative, and more complicated as he starts to develop feelings for the trying to be emotionally walled up American.
That spark she’d been trying to smother since she’d first set foot in the office was looking for any opportunity to catch.
Kilt Trip was an immensely enjoyable contemporary romance that felt cozy, emotional, delivered on the setting, and sizzled with some heat. I went to check out this author's back-list immediately after finishing this and was shocked to see this is what looks to be a debut. You all are going to want to pick this book up and then keep this author on your radar; I'd say she's in the Kate Clayborn alike circle. The first half has a pace that I don't want to give the negative connotation of slow but the pace is slower; there's some romance lit fic feeling without the lit fic language, if that makes sense. We get povs from both Addie and Logan, which I love, and the first half has a little more of Addie trying to remain walled up from her developing emotions towards Logan and feeling, thinking about her grief from losing her mother so young, missing her and how it destroyed her relationship with her father. Addie has her mentor and bestfriend but they all three travel and she doesn't have a solid landing place to rest and feel loved, she's lacking deeper connections but also fears them.
He was a dangerous combination of sensitive and challenging, and Addie was having a hell of a time feigning disinterest.
Logan was the perfect other half that she needed, he pokes at her sparking side, they have good teasing and back-and-forth but also knows when to back off a bit to allow her to regain her equilibrium and not scare her away. Logan has his own emotional issues, since his attempt to change the family business almost ruined it and his brothers left the business, he's scared of change and dealing with some abandonment issues with his brothers. I loved Logan's character but there could have been a little more flushing out of him, more conversations with his brothers would have been great and even though I liked how he realized when Addie needed a break, I kind of wanted more gritting out pressing need from him, too.
“If you think I’m delightful when I’m mad, you should see me when I’m not.” He tugged her closer, his fingers slipping below the soft black bow.
Her soft intake of breath sent fire through his veins. She stilled in his arms, wet her lips, and looked up at him through her lashes. “Then, let’s stop fighting.”
The later second half picked up the pace, enough of a not smooth change to make the overall pacing feel a bit disjointed to me, but all of the story's previous developing heat between Addie and Logan lead to, thank-you for including open-door in contemporary romance like the good old days, scenes. These two were cute, scrappy, flirty, and had delightful chemistry that I could read all day. The danger of Addie's job and her and Logan's emotional issues does eventually come to a head, they were great with addressing, talking, and trying to deal with at first when they admit to each other deeper feelings but that third act breakup is a persistent beast and a seen as a betrayal development separates the two. This was left close enough to the end that I thought the eventual HEA development didn't get enough time to give me the depth in it I wanted (here too I wished for Logan's character to have more) but there was an epilogue that jumped a year to show more to readers.
He offered her the one thing she hadn’t been brave enough to admit she wanted: belonging.
I loved how the setting was actually utilized, you'll get some facts, legends, history, and atmosphere feelings of in and around Edinburgh to transport you away and some of that delightful smile inducing back and forth chemistry and building heat tingling that delivers on the promised steaminess. The emotional was there with Addie's grief over her mother and Logan's awareness, ability, and caution to know how to care for Addie. Logan's gone for Addie pretty quickly but was wary of causing her to run away, it was nice to see the guy fall first but Addie's walls want and start to crumble pretty quickly too, so this also delivered with romance aspects. The I love yous maybe developed a little too quickly, missing more foundation there, but like the pace issues I had, ultimately not a deal breaker. If wanting to read a cute, fun, set in Scotland, romance that deals with grief but also delivers on chemistry and heat, you need to pick this one up.
