She is determined to restore her inherited Scottish castle. He needs her to fail so he can escape his tormenting memories. Can true love overcome the pain of the past this Christmas?

When Londoner Marla Wilson unexpectedly inherits a crumbling castle in the Scottish Highlands, she's desperate for a fresh start. But her stubborn neighbour Niall McCarron—still haunted by his tragic past—needs her to sell her inherited mansion. And that's never gonna happen.

Marla and the annoyingly attractive widower clash at every corner of their Highland small town. Yet beneath their fiery disputes simmers an increasingly irresistible attraction. Even though he drinks rosé…

A snowy Christmas party in the village pub brings unexpected feelings to the surface. Slowly, Niall and Marla’s enmity turns to friendship. Until during a fierce Highland snowstorm, their last guards come down and they spend an unforgettable night of deep desire and passion.

But Niall still hides a secret, with plans that could demolish Marla's dreams of putting down roots in the Highlands. Will their blossoming love survive when the truth comes out or will their old wounds ruin everything?

+++ Love in the Scottish Winter Highlands is the first part of the stand-alone 'Escape to Scotland'-series. It's written in third person with alternating POV and addresses bereavement and emotional growth. This novel contains some swearing and two open door scenes. +++

Love in the Scottish Winter Highlands is a wonderfully sweet story, set in the most beautiful location over Christmastime. Marla and Niall have an adorable meet-cute, and even though they really don’t like each other in the beginning you can see the sparks immediately. I liked both characters. Marla is enthusiastic about taking on the challenge of restoring her newly and mysteriously inherited castle, and her independence and drive is admirable. Niall would rather she not be there at all, but it’s for a far deeper and more emotional reason than one might expect. It was interesting watching him help her and fall for her while also wishing she would sell the castle and leave. He’s grumpy and broody, but that’s all a facade to hide the pain he’s been in since his wife passed away. He and Marla are both grieving and trying to figure out how to move forward in a life neither one of them planned for. Marla’s dilapidated castle, while a disaster, sounds like a magical place and I loved reading about her renovation process. I loved seeing Niall slowly open up to people and return to his former self a little. I loved the close-knit community and all the Scottish holiday traditions they participated in together. There is a lot of merriment and dancing, which sounds like so much fun. The romance is a very slow burn, and very believable. I thought is was very sweet and tender.

I was hoping for a little more focus on Christmas, which this book kind of breezes through. I enjoyed the parts I got, but for such a short book it spans quite a few months and December is right in the middle. I was disappointed when December ended and we moved in to January and February. I also found one of the open-door scenes to be a bit cringey. I don’t know about you but there are some words that, when used during a sexy scene, do the exact opposite of what they’re intended to do. lol. Apparently Marla has some very lovely genitalia, and the actual human anatomy word (vu***) was used instead of the usual choices that elude to the part in question. It’s just not a sexy word, but maybe that’s just me! It reminded me of that episode of Friends when Ross is dating this girl who asks him to talk dirty to her and he has no idea what to do, so he just spits out that same word and she recoils and he looks like he’s swallowed a bug and the mood is absolutely killed. lol. Anyway, I digress.

This was a much heavier book than I was expecting. The themes of grief and blaming oneself for the loss of a loved one were very prevalent. Well done, but difficult to read. This is not what I would consider to be a light holiday romance, so go into it prepared for that. I still really enjoyed it, though! The descriptions of the scenery were lovely, and I can tell that this author loves Scotland. I am interested in seeing what the author does with the next book in this series!