When a castle is the setting to get through tough times.

Synopsis

What if the castle has the key to mend their broken hearts?

After a miserable few years, fun-loving Iona McKenzie tossed her corporate job to the wind, swore off long-term relationships, and escaped to the Hebridean island of Barra to teach water sports.

Recently dumped by an ex who labelled him ‘boring’, Monty MacNeil is having a tough time. When he’s tasked with carrying out his late father’s last request to scatter his ashes at Kisimul Castle – the famous castle in the bay – he doesn’t expect his trip to Barra to begin by running smack bang into a feisty and gorgeous woman, knocking her off her bike, and almost dropping his father’s urn into the sea.

Iona turns out to be the person he needs to take him over to the castle, but Monty soon sees another way she can help him. A few paddleboarding lessons would make him look more adventurous and give him a way back to his ex when his holiday’s done. But an unexpected attraction begins, despite both Monty and Iona fighting it, and the lessons soon develop from boarding and snorkelling to ‘love lessons’. Suddenly it’s harder to separate real from pretend.

True love may be closer than they think, but if they want it, both must take a chance – and soon – before Monty returns to his life on the mainland.

My review

Despite his fear of everything involving water, Monty MacNeil heads of to the island of Barra, to scatter the ashes of his father at Kisimul Castle. For Monty, this is also a chance to prove his ex, Sophie, that he isn’t the boring man she claimed him to be when ending things. But being adventurous is easier said than done, as it just isn’t in Monty’s nature and whatever adventurous activities there are, they mostly involve water. And not only water, but also all provided by Iona McKenzie… And Iona is everything that Monty is not… But Iona has her own reasons for staying at the island, as she had been through a few miserable times herself. And the island is giving her the freedom and fun she has been looking for, teaching water sports and having everything but a long – term relationship. These two opposites start clashing, but slowly an attraction starts to grow and somehow, Iona finds herself teaching not only Monty to be more confident on the water, but also to be more confident in the love area, to conquest Sophie back. But is that truly what Monty wants, after spending time in Barra?

What I love of this author, is that she is able to take me to unknown places, yet makes me fall in love with not only the place, but also with the main characters, no matter who they are, what their background is or the reason of them being in this story.

From the start, I felt so so just so sorry for Monty. My heart went out to him, seeing him struggling with the loss of his father. And I found it sweet that Monty wanted to fulfil his father’s last wish to have his ashes scattered at Kisimul Castle. Even if Monty doesn’t believe what his father was determined to prove, he want to honour who his father was, by doing something that terrifies him.

His fears are so palpable, and I could understand them all. Even if not at the same level as Monty’s, I will be holding on in a plane, on a boat, and you could offer me all the money of the world, you would never see me doing any kind of water sports…

But his backstory is more than the above… because his girlfriend ended things with him. Of course feelings can change, and love can end. But reading how Sophie claimed Monty to be ‘boring’, well, I found it very rude. It felt like Sophie was just looking for an excuse to break up with Monty and just gave a stupid reason to do so. Is it obvious that I don’t like this Sophie at all?

Yet as we see Monty’s resolution to show her wrong, and wants to win her back, makes it clear that Monty would do anything for his loved ones. And that no matter how much Sophie hurt him, he still cares about and loves her.

The person that Monty is, couldn’t be more different than Iona’s character. Where Monty is strict (in a certain way), and holds in, Iona just lets go.

Obviously Iona has not always been this free – spirited and it took her a whole process to get to this point of happiness and freedom. It took her a while, which also means that she won’t let go of that freedom that easily.

I could understand why she doesn’t do relationships, but I didn’t agree with her choice. Being free does also mean free to love. To let love find you. So in a way, her not committing to anyone, felt like she was locking herself in, not enjoying her freedom at the fullest.

Also, I need to admit, even if I would never ever do all the things that Iona is doing, I was in awe of her. She is courageous obviously, but she is also caring, loving and helpful. She shows this in so many different ways to her island – friends. You can count on Iona, and she would help out her friends, even if that means being around Monty.

With characters being so different, obviously Iona and Monty don’t get along initially. It’s not that they dislike each other, but they are just in different worlds, with different lifestyles and purposes. So when slowly Iona and Monty are getting closer, and help each other in the most difficult moments (emotionally and physically too), those bits were truly warming my heart.

And they find themselves opening up to each other, finding not only someone that listens, but also someone that wants to genuinely help. And that brings them perhaps to an unconventional agreement.

An agreement that brings them even closer, even if they don’t understand exactly how close they have become, and how much them being together is changing them, for the better of course.

This isn’t just a story about opposites that attract, which in itself is already a great trope. But it is about doing things you would never expect to do, to get over your fears, to understand who you truly are and what you truly need in life. It is about daring to step outside your comfort zone, daring to open up your heart and let life and love take a course you would never imagine. It is about letting yourself feel again, and see what real love can look like.

This is the first book of a brand new series, of an author that I already loved before. And this first book for sure sounds very promising for the rest of the series! Margaret Amatt once again swept me of my feet!