The Highland Lodge Getaway

Finished June 20

The Highland Lodge Getaway by Julie Shackman

This is the fifth novel in the series Scottish Escapes. Set in the small highland town of Craig Brae, near Ben Nevis, the town has been growing as a tourist attraction for the last few years. Some of the houses have been bought up by outsiders as vacation homes, and there are some that appreciate it and others that don't. Lottie Grant is fine with it. She left the city for a job back in her hometown a few years ago to work in a new festive shop a friend of her mother's opened called Christmas Crackers. She's grown to be the manager of the shop, using her degree in interior design to create a welcoming place as well as effective marketing tools. The plan is for her to buy the shop as the owner is marrying a man from the U.S. and moving there. 

When the landlord decides not to renew the lease and instead take an offer from a restaurant chain, Lottie is devastated, as are the other employees. A chance encounter with a customer takes her in a new direction, with a job as project manager for a set of cabins at a newly renovated historic lodge. Things are looking up for her, until she meets the man that her employers hired as a hiking, wilderness, and mountaineering guide, Blake Dempster. He doesn't think much of her design ideas, pushing for a more rustic, spartan look, and the two clash for the first few meetings. Someone else had done a poor job of the cabin's decor before Lottie was hired and time is tight for her to get the job done for the Christmas bookings, but she has good helpers who work just as hard as her. 

I liked the larger picture of family life for Lottie, and the sense what got of the town and the beautiful setting it has. The dynamic of enemies to friends to lovers is one that works well here, and the plot is fast moving with some surprises along the way.