It’s such a pleasure today to be joining the blog tour for Surprises on the Scottish Isle by Lilac Mills, and sharing my review: this is the first book in her new Coorie Castle Crafts series, was published by Canelo Romance on 23rd January, and is now available in paperback and on all major ebook platforms. Thank you, as always, to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation and support, and to everyone involved in providing my advance reading e-copy.
When I was planning my reading for the first few months of the year, I was actually wondering about trying to fit in another book from Lilac’s alter ego Liz Davies’ Sweet Meadow Park series – I so loved the first book, and you’ll find my review here – when Rachel’s email dropped into my inbox, and the urge to read a new series from the very beginning proved irresistible. While I’ve read and reviewed quite a few of her independently published Liz Davies books – just pop the name into my search bar – I’ve only just discovered the many books written as Lilac Mills. Towards the end of last year, I paid a visit to The Tanglewood Bookshop, and the book was an absolute delight – characters I took to my heart, a perfectly drawn village setting, the wonderful community feel I always so enjoy, and all the Christmassy touches I could possibly have hoped for (you’ll find my review here). This new series is set on the Isle of Skye, a location I always love – I might have already mentioned that I’m taking a cruise there in May, having read so many books set there recently and really wanting to experience it for myself. And I always love the author’s writing – so this was a book I was rather looking forward to…
Will they get a second chance at first love?
When newly divorced Tara McTaigh spots an advert for a studio to let in Coorie Castle’s craft centre, she packs up her Edinburgh life and moves to the Isle of Skye, eager for a fresh start.
Little does she know that the castle’s estate manager, single dad Calan Fraser, is the man who broke her heart back at university. Thoroughly done with romance, Tara decides to ignore Cal and focus on building her business – creating dollhouses to commission. But Duncoorie is a small community, and the two keep bumping into each other…
Just as she is starting to open her heart once more to Cal, a change in his life puts everything on the line. When a surprise storm threatens Tara’s safety, will Cal realise in time that love is worth the risk?
An uplifting and feel-good crafty romance for fans of Holly Martin, Sue Moorcroft and Julie Shackman.
A year ahead of her at university, Calan leaves for home in the Highlands in search of work as an estate manager – but his relationship with Tara is so strong that they both hope it’ll survive their separation. Until life intervenes – issues he finds it impossible to share with her, leaving her devastated. Ten years later, they’ve both been married to others – but Tara’s divorce has forced her to search for a suitable home where she can run her highly successful business making intricate dolls’ houses. And the craft village at Coorie Castle on the Isle of Skye looks just perfect – a workshop and studio, a shop on site where she can sell and display, and the offer of a cottage until she’s ready to make the move permanent. Until she finds that Calan is the estate manager there – their break-up changed the direction of her life and is still very painful.
It’s awkward for them both, but they slowly find they still have strong feelings for each other and she’s finally able to forgive him – although his life is rather complicated by the shared care of his young daughter, and a firm promise he made her. The obstacles to future happiness are considerable – at times I was in tears over the impossibility of it all, the pain so very real for them both. There could perhaps be a way through, but it might just be too late – the intervention of others might help, but so might the dramatic and life-threatening incident that makes him realise that their relationship is worth fighting for.
They were a couple who entirely won my heart – the sharing of both their perspectives was beautifully done, and really helped you understand the issues that were forcing them apart. And the supporting cast was superbly drawn too – the castle’s matriarch with her calm approach to every problem, the supportive friends, the wider community – and I’ll look forward to spending more time in their company and sharing their stories. And, rather unusually for me, I really loved Calan’s daughter Bonnie – very real, no filter to her interventions, the source of much of the book’s humour, but quite inadvertently causing some of the heartbreak too.
The book’s crafting focus was fascinating – not the first time a craft village has featured in a book I’ve enjoyed, but this was one I’d really like to visit – and I loved the detail of Tara’s construction of the miniature houses and everything found within. The wider setting was perfectly drawn too – breathtakingly beautiful when the surrounding seas are calm, dark and threatening when things are otherwise. And the romance? That was just so perfect, a connection you could really feel, a couple who were made for each other – and I so desperately needed that hoped for happy ending for them both.
There’s a particular warmth to the author’s writing, and a real emotional depth to the story – this book, with its focus on fresh starts and second chances, was one I very much enjoyed. I’m already looking forward to the rest of the series.
About the author
Lilac Mills lives on a Welsh hillside with her very patient husband and incredibly sweet dog, where she grows veggies (if the slugs don’t get them), bakes (badly) and loves making things out of glitter and glue (a mess, usually).
She’s been an avid reader ever since she got her hands on a copy of Noddy Goes to Toytown when she was five, and she once tried to read everything in her local library starting with A and working her way through the alphabet.
She loves long hot summer days in the garden, and cold winter ones snuggled in front of the fire, but whatever the weather she’s usually writing, or thinking about writing, with heartwarming romance and happy-ever-afters always on her mind.
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