Reviewed by Emma Crowley
When Bel Tipton catches her husband cheating on her, the devastating betrayal sends her running to her sister Sally in the beautiful village of Loch Cameron. Bel needs Sally’s warm laugh and sage advice now more than ever, and she knows curling up with her on the sofa and gossiping late into the night will make her feel whole again.
Bel did not expect her rented cottage overlooking the loch to come with handsome gardener Christian McDougal, and she’s determined to be unmoved by his flirty smile and broad shoulders. The last thing she needs is another man she can’t trust. But when Bel sees an empty storefront on the high street for rent, it’s Christian who notices how her eyes light up. He encourages her to set up a business in the village and she realises he’s everything her ex was not.
Then Bel hears a rumour in town that Christian is not all he seems. And, clearing out her store, she finds a collection of letters tied with a worn blue ribbon stashed on a high shelf in the back room. The letters reveal a devastating secret that shook the village generations ago, and Christian’s family are at the heart of it…
Book Challenge: #24in24 24 countries in 2024: Book Four - Scotland
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of A Gift from the Cottage by the Loch to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
A Gift from the Cottage by the Loch is the fourth book in the Loch Cameron series by Kennedy Kerr. All the books have been lovely, gentle, relaxing reads that are perfect to dive into when you want a break from more serious reads. By now the setting is very familiar to me and there are brief reappearances from familiar characters but always with each new book we are introduced to a new main female character and therefore it makes each book very easy to read as a standalone.
This time around we meet Bel, who when we are first introduced to her is having the day from hell, quite literally. She has been made redundant from her job as the company she worked for, Handy Phones, has gone into administration. To be honest this is not the worst that could have happened as she detested her job as a services manager. But it’s when she arrives home and finds her partner Andy at home and not at work and out walks a woman wrapped in a towel from her bedroom well that just takes the biscuit altogether and her world falls apart. What do you do when your life comes crashing down? Well, you escape to those who can offer comfort, solace and support and in this situation it’s her sister Sally who lives with her partner Bess in Loch Cameron in the Scottish Highlands.
Loch Cameron is a calm and serene place where everyone knows everybody and not much can be kept private but yet there is a strong community feel and visitors are always welcome. Bel realises that life can change on the tiniest of moments and that though she has been struck down by misfortune, upset and angst she has to try and whether the storm and emerge out the other side. Maybe the two big events that occurred in her life happened for a reason and now she has to make the most of the opportunities that may come her way. Andy continues to beg for forgiveness and I wanted Bel not to waver and go back to him as he seemed to be such a creep who had dominated her and that if she had pulled the wool from her eyes much sooner she would have seen this instead of remaining in a relationship that did nothing for her physically or emotionally.
Bel rents a cottage at Queen’s Point which has stunning views that overlook the loch and the space gives her the time and clarity she needs to breathe once again and recalibrate.The cottage, as is most of the land buildings in the village, is owned by Hal Cameron but it’s the old lady Gretchen Ross who manages the lettings of the cottage. She is now in a home but Bel strikes up a friendship with her which was lovely to read about. Bel is a complex character who I have to be honest about in that I swayed back and forth as to whether I liked her not and I think that was because I found her quite frustrating at times as did her sister Sally. Theirs was a relationship which was very much up and down and it did go back to their childhood and their parents.
I could see both women’s point of view and appreciated where Sally was coming from as Bel at times I found her to be very unsteady. In that she didn’t have the courage and strength to make decisions for herself or navigate her own path. It was like she always needed back up and support which of course anyone would give but I think she relied too heavily on others. As she said herself before her father had passed away she was excitable, bossy, argumentative and pouty but she had lost that spark with him gone and dove straight into a relationship with Andy who certainly didn’t spark anything within her although she remained far too long in the relationship which only served to dim any hopes of igniting any spark or fire within her.
Being in a relationship which was dead, restrictive and boring meant that now Bel was free she had the chance to start a whole new and exciting life for herself. If only she was willing to take that risk and just go for it. Loch Cameron may very well be the place that will inspire her and make her come to understand that you should never compromise yourself for anyone. Andy agrees to buy Bel out of their house and when Bel sees an empty shopfront on the high street that was once a hairdressers an idea starts to take root in her mind. She had previously trained as a hairdresser and knows she has the talent to make a go of it. But is she willing to take a leap and set up a new business in a town very new to her? Has she the confidence to do so given the recent knocks she has suffered?
I thought this was the very opportunity where she could take her life into her hands and steer herself onto a path that would be beneficial to her in the long term. At times up until this point she did come across to me as a bit of a day dreamer. Someone who needed grounding and a bit of a shake and wake up call. I had my fingers crossed that things would work out with setting up her own salon and that long term she could make a real go of it but of course there had to be some trials and tribulations along the way which to be honest only added to my enjoyment of the story as life can’t always be smooth sailing.
As with any book in this genre there has to be some romance in the story and it’s always very welcome. Yes, the outcome can be pretty formulaic and there aren’t a mountain of unexpected twists. I mean you can easily sense where the plot of the book is going but half the time I don’t mind because it’s the kind of read I want at the time of reading. If I wanted something that was nitty gritty I’d have chosen something very different. The main male character comes in the form of the rather handsome Christian and I could see the electricity flowing between himself and Bel even if they didn’t get off to the best of starts with Bel showing her rather cantankerous side.
Christian was a fabulous character who I felt that there could have been so much more of in the story. I thought we got to know a bit about him and that he had many sides to him but I wanted more exploration of him as a person on a deeper level. There seemed to be so many assumptions about him seen as he was part of The Warriors, a motorcycle gang, and Bel herself forms opinions of him rather too quickly and harshly. He had such a lovely side to him that Bel needed to wake up and not believe everything that she hears on the grapevine. Rather ask people straight up and they will either tell you the truth or shield themselves which I think Christian did at certain times. It was interesting to see how the Bel/Christian angle of the story was going to be developed but truthfully it felt too rushed towards the end and I would have preferred more of a balance between this and the other plot within the story.
All in all A Gift from the Cottage by the Loch was a really enjoyable read and I hope there will be several more books to come in the series. Bel for me was a divisive character but by the end I had really come to like her and I appreciated the journey she undertook. It’s the perfect feel good romance read that you will glad you spent a few hours lost in.
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