Escapism to the Highlands!

Synopsis

Escape to the Highland Coral Beach – where broken hearts can be healed

Beatrice Halliday needs a break from life. Booking a trip to the Highlands on a whim, Beatrice hopes learning Gaelic in a beautiful Scottish village might help her heal her grief after losing her baby, her husband and her much loved job in a space of months.

But Port Willow Bay isn’t exactly as the website promised. Instead of learning a new language, she’s booked in to learn the ancient skill of willow weaving, her hotel room is Princess and the Pea themed (with a stack of mattresses for her bed!) and worse still, her tutor is Atholl Fergusson, grumpy landlord of the hotel where Beatrice is staying – and she’s the only one doing the course.

But as Beatrice finds herself falling in love with Port Willow Bay and its people, and as she discovers the kind heart beneath Atholl’s stony exterior, can she really leave?

Escape to the beautiful Scottish Highlands with this utterly romantic, feelgood book; one visit to Port Willow Bay and you’ll want to come back! Fans of Sarah Morgan, Carole Matthews and Holly Martin will be captivated.

My review

Beatrice is mourning… the best way to cope with it, is booking on a whim a holiday to the Highlands. To clear her mind, she wats to take classes to learn Gaelic. She wants to stop thinking about the loss of her beloved baby and the separation of her husband.

Arriving in Port Willow in Scotland, she soon realizes that her holiday/escape is not how she imagined! Instead of following a course of Gaelic, she finds herself booked in the skill of willow weaving with grumpy Atholl Fergusson.

Despite her initial dislike of her whole holiday, she soon starts to fall in love with the place and its people. Will this holiday be the place she needed to find to process her losses? And is Atholl really just a grumpy man or is he also what Beatrice needs?

This book is just wow… Beatice is going through so much. Slowly we get to know her better, and she opens up to the people around her. but of course this isn’t without any struggle.

From the very beginning you sense that she suffered a great loss. But the hows and whats aren’t very clear.
It’s not only losing her baby that got her on a breakdown, but also the aftermath have left her no other option than a quick escape.
She realizes she is not being herself and acting out on people. She knows she has to change to her former self, but it’s easier said than done.

The minor stories give Beatrice a purpose. So she makes it her goal to help out Gene and Kitty. And also the other people she meet, have their own story, making Beatrice feel more at home.
Thanks to all the kind people, Beatrice starts to feel better each day that passes. She learns new things she never imagined doing.

Also the relationship with Atholl develop for the better. In first instance there is a real dislike towards each other. It even causes Beatrice some real scares. But Atholl is man enough to realize his mistake and is not afraid to apologize.
We also get to know Atholl better and as often, behind the grumpy man is a man who really cares about his brother and is really a nice man. He senses that Beatrice is having a hard time and gives her all the space and time she needs, but also pushes her to go explore things she never thought of.

I felt happiness when Beatrice was finding herself again and allowed herself to move on. And the way Atholl is helping her, and goes the extra length for her, made me all mushy!

It’s heartwarming to see how a community and even totally strangers open their arms and hearts to you, and are prepared to help you process the hard past.
This story shows you also that everyone has a own way of handling grieve, and that there is no strict timeline to know when you can move on.