Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Catriona McGovern and her sister Bridget have never seen eye to eye since Catie left Loch Cameron years ago. So when they learn of a mysterious inheritance from a woman they have never met, Bridget and Catriona are stunned. The will states they must put aside their differences and live together in the beautiful, ivy-covered house overlooking the loch for at least one year.
Catie needs all the help she can get untangling historical property records and housekeeper diaries for the manor. The local laird’s wayward younger brother, Matt Cameron, is tasked with helping out: although surly Matt, newly returned to the Highlands under a cloud of his own seems less than pleased. But spending time together at the old mansion, they soon bond over their love of old movies and Matt’s increasingly cheeky jokes.
But Castle View House is hiding more secrets than the sisters ever thought possible. And when a battered wall safe in the attic reveals a clue as to who left them the house and why, the sisters are pulled into a decades-old family mystery that could finally reunite them, or tear them apart for good…
Can Catie and Matt work together to see that there’s more to life than burn out in the big city, and that family is the most important treasure of all?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of Inheriting the Cottage by the Loch to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Inheriting the Cottage by the Loch is easily the best in the Loch Cameron series by Kennedy Kerr since the first two or three books and this is now book number eight. I had felt the last few books, enjoyable though they were, had fallen a little bit flat with the excitement and mystery not fully there. But right from the very first page I could easily sense that things were back on track and that I would be in for a very good read and I was proven correct. There was a good solid storyline here with an element of mystery but also the more personal side to things and the relationship that was explored between the sisters was fantastic. I didn’t notice the pages flying by and was disappointed to reach the end far too quickly. But that has only whetted my appetite for more.
The opening pages are set before the present day and there are quite tense and, in some ways, dark. There is a lot said but at the same time lots left unsaid which only raises questions that I wanted the answers to immediately but I had to be patient and bide my time and get to know the characters and watch the story unfold. In the present day Catie’s Great Aunt Isobel has recently passed away. She had been estranged from her family and not seen Catie since she was a baby so Catie is more than surprised to discover that alongside her sister Bridget that they have inherited Castle View in Loch Cameron. But there is a stipulation surrounding the inheritance. The sisters must live in the house for one year and then the house can be sold or the pair or just one can choose to live on in it. Not too much to ask for in the grand scheme of things one would think. But the major issue with this is the sisters have a very rocky relationship where they barely if at all speak to each other so living together for a year alongside Catie’s teenage daughter Skye would be next to impossible.
Catie is all for the rules of the inheritance but the arguments of the past and buried resentments make things very challenging. When things are revealed I could see why Bridget feels the resentment that she does. It’s only natural and we would have all probably felt like that in her case but would we have let things get to the stage that she did so that the relationship with her sister is deeply fractured? Given that Catie needs somewhere to stay especially as Hal, the Laird of Loch Cameron, is upping the rents and her job as a librarian doesn’t offer herself the financial security that she craves if Bridget would just play ball things would be an awful lot easier. To be honest I could see both sides of where the sisters were coming from but given the story was mostly told from Catie’s perspective I was hoping that Bridget’s arm could be twisted. Unfortunately, that was done for her when their father suffers a second stroke and home help needs to permanently move into the family home. So soon the rooms of Castle View are occupied once more.
I’ve already mentioned there was a mystery element to the story and I have to say I adored it. As much as I love the setting of Loch Cameron and the varied cast of characters that I have already met there is nothing like delving back into the past and uncovering clues to get the excitement going in a story. Great Aunt Isobel has set the girls a task and to be honest I think she knew exactly what she was doing all along and she was quite clever about it. Catie and Bridget have a lot of troubled waters to navigate both in terms of the quest but also in terms of their relationship and by coming together for one cause and the fact that Bridget is quite astute when it comes to something going on with Skye things start to change for the pair. I enjoyed how this was subtle and didn’t happen in a rush rather there was room for things to occur naturally and it does give you that warm feeling inside to see the sisters slowly start to draw back to one another as past hurts are attempted to be healed. Yes, Bridget may have come across as being a bit obnoxious. It was as if she presumed that Catie knew every little detail of things that were bugging or antagonising her instead of her just stopping the nonsense and being truthful and straight up with Katie. But this slowly starts to come over time and for both Catie and the reader things became clearer.
Of course there has to be a romance element in books in this genre and in my mind it’s always welcome and in this case it comes in the form of Matt, the brother of Cal, who I remember being briefly mentioned in one or two of the earlier books. He is recently returned from America and for various reasons which I won’t reveal is not flavour of the month with Hal as things he has done are having repercussions for the residents of Loch Cameron which in turn are making Hal himself unpopular. Matt comes across as rude but he doesn’t mean it. I thought he was under a lot of stress and pressure and when we delve deeper into his character you could see why but I thought it was of his own making and he needed to find his own way out of it instead of relying on others. He did good deeds for Catie in terms of modernising things at the library and the pair enjoyed some serious flirtation and the attraction and bond grew. But all of a sudden I felt things came to a halt when further exploration and more air time was needed. This element of the story came to the fore again in the last few chapters but I thought oh it’s too late and I needed more of it earlier.
Catie and Bridget begin with a distinct disconnection but Castle View works it magic as does the various elements of the journey they undertake and this makes for a very enjoyable read. Not to mention it was great catching up with all the other characters especially Hal and Zelda. It was brilliant to see a good progression of their storyline from book one. Don’t worry if you are new to this series as Inheriting the Cottage by the Loch definitely can be read as a standalone book and there is lots of secrets, entertainment, fun and some soul searching to be found in the pages of this wonderful story.
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