Book Blog Tour Stop & Review: Harper's Highland Fling by Lizzie Lamb

Harper’s Highland Fling by Lizzie Lamb

After a gruelling academic year head teacher Harper MacDonald is looking forward to a summer holiday trekking in Nepal. Her plans are scuppered when her wayward niece, Ariel, leaves a note announcing she’s running away with a boy called Pen. The only clue to their whereabouts is a scribbled footnote: I’ll Be in Scotland.

Cue a case of mistaken identity when Harper confronts the boy‘s father - Rocco Penhaligon - accusing him of cradle snatching her niece and ruining her bright future. At loggerheads, Harper and Rocco set off in hot pursuit of the teenagers, but the canny youngsters are always one step ahead. And, in a neat twist, it is the adults who end up in trouble, not the savvy teenagers.

Can Cupid convince Harper and Rocco that they have found their soul mates?

Fasten your seatbelt for the road trip of your lifetime -

It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

http://mybook.to/HarpersHighlandFling

An action-packed enemies to lovers romance!

As executive head of three schools, Harper MacDonald is ready for the summer holidays. As legal guardian to her niece, Ariel, she needs to get the eighteen-year-old to the airport, to catch a flight to LA to spend time with her mum. It would finally free Harper of the legal responsibility of caring for her sister Shona's daughter. It also means she can embark on a trekking holiday to Nepal. Only, Ariel has disappeared!

When the prim headmistress of the local school charges into his garage and demands to speak to Pen, Rocco Penhaligon knows trouble is brewing. After hearing the woman's verbal accusations, he realises it's a simple case of mistaken identity...his son is the one Ms MacDonald is looking for and he's disappeared too!

When Harper and Rocco meet, their first impressions of each other are filled with stereotypical assumptions.

"He'd bet her house was neat as a pin. Full of those perfectly matched things spinsters collected."

"It did no harm for her to have her prejudices challenged while conversely, it did him a power of good."

However, as the pair spend time together, it is clear they share more similarities than tracking down their wayward teenagers. Seven Hundred and thirteen miles later, both have a much clearer view and understanding of each other, mostly!

Harper isn't an instantly likeable character but I warmed to her, once I got to know her. Rocco definitely helps to bring her out of her protective shell. He has his faults too but overall, he is a good guy who deserves the best life can offer.

I had a false start with this novel because I couldn't make sense of why the protagonists' were embarking on a crazy journey to track down two thoughtless adult teenagers. Therefore I took a break and put it down for a week or so. Thankfully, when I picked it up again, everything clicked into place. As I continued to read, I became invested in Harper and Rocco adventure, feeling more attached to their personalities. Also, I gained the insight I was initially looking for…and my impatience satisfied… I'm sure there's a moral of the story there for book reviewers ;-)

Harper's Highland Fling is a humorous and fun novel. It's packed with action and secondary character but not in an overwhelming way. Overall, it's fun and full of lots of surprising details, adding an unexpected level of enjoyment.

***review copy received courtesy of the publisher***

After teaching her 1000th pupil and working as a deputy head teacher in a large primary school, Lizzie decided to pursue her first love: writing. She joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers’ Scheme, wrote Tall, Dark and Kilted (2012), quickly followed by Boot Camp Bride. She went on to publish Scotch on the Rocks, which achieved Best Seller status within two weeks of appearing on Amazon and her next novel, Girl in the Castle, reached #3 in the Amazon charts. Lizzie is a founder member of indie publishing group – New Romantics Press, and has hosted author events at Aspinall, St Pancras and Waterstones, Kensington, talking about the research which underpins her novels. Lizzie romance Take Me, I’m Yours, set in Wisconsin, also achieved BEST SELLER status >travel>USA. Her latest novel - Harper’s Highland Fling - has been declared her ‘best one yet’ by readers and reviewers. In it, two warring guardians are forced to join forces and set off in hot pursuit of a runaway niece and son. She has further Scottish-themed romances planned and spends most of the summer touring the Scottish Highlands researching men in kilts. As for the years she spent as a teacher, they haven’t quite gone to waste as she is building a reputation as a go-to speaker on indie publishing, and how to plan, write, and publish your debut novel

Lizzie lives in Leicestershire (UK) with her husband, David.

She loves to hear from readers, so do get in touch . . .

https://www.amazon.com/author/lizzielamb

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lizzielambwriter@gmail.com

website: www.lizzielamb.co.uk

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New Publication Spotlight & Author Guest Post: Nighthawks by Lambert Nagle

Guest Blog post written by Alison Ripley Cubitt.

An Awkward Meeting Over Lunch  

In one scene of Nighthawks, an awkward encounter between the two major characters takes place over lunch. Detective Stephen Connor, working undercover, is new in town and has invited fellow Irishman Monsignor Michael McCarthy for lunch. McCarthy rashly agrees, but finds the encounter as embarrassing as Stephen does and wonders why he accepted the offer. 

Stephen asked McCarthy to take him to a typical Roman restaurant and McCarthy takes him at his word. Stephen knows he’s venturing into McCarthy’s territory. The lunch gets off to an awkward start as Stephen gets his timings wrong and is late. They meet in Monti, a trendy neighbourhood in the city centre, popular with locals and tourists alike, and Stephen made the mistake of exiting the Metro at Coliseum and has to push his way past all the tourists posing for selfies. 

Flustered, Stephen assumes that when he sits down, he’ll get a menu and be able to choose what he has for lunch. McCarthy is a regular at the restaurant and eats whatever the chef decides to put in front of him. Monsignor Michael McCarthy is a bit of a gourmand when he gets the opportunity. Stephen rashly tells his guest that he’s game to try anything, but draws the line at offal. McCarthy takes him at his word, and he is presented with a plate of bone marrow, one of those dishes which is all about how it tastes, rather than what it looks like. 

‘Stephen glanced down as the waiter slid a plate in front of him. There appeared to be a bone with a hole in the middle, oozing with fatty liquid, and sprinkled with parsley. It looked distinctly unappetising, but the aroma was Sunday roasts with Yorkshire pudding.’ To add to his unease, Stephen hasn’t a clue how you go about eating this and has to take his cue from his host. I chose this dish to show the age gap between the two characters and how food tastes have changed between generations. Stephen and McCarthy may be from the same country but they certainly don’t eat the same food.

They would have eaten at least one other course in the meal and some sort of vegetable accompaniment, but I skip that in the book. In winter it might be the dish of bitter greens known as puntarelle, a delicacy. They have dandelion-like leaves and need to be sliced thinly. Keen to try them, I once ordered a plate, but could only manage half of a rather large portion as the stems were quite stringy, although the dressing of olive oil, garlic, lemon and anchovy was tasty.  

As Stephen and McCarthy sit there, it becomes apparent that all these two really have in common is their ancestry, and Stephen struggles to find a topic of conversation to fill the awkward silences. He latches onto food and goes into detail about how his father was banned from eating his favourite food at home and had to be banished to Stephen’s grandma’s house to eat it. Stephen is aware he is trying too hard and feels embarrassed. It’s made worse when McCarthy says, ‘we’re both a long way from Cork.’ Stephen’s internal monologue is: And we didn’t come here to talk about food memories.

Nighthawks by Lambert Nagle

When art, money and power collide...
A Mafia boss addicted to beautiful art. A Catholic priest who knows too much. A modern-day Jay Gatsby.
And a woman on the run.
Disgraced London detective Stephen Connor is given an ultimatum: take a transfer to Rome or kiss his career goodbye.
With his love life in tatters and his confidence at an all-time low, can Stephen find the world's most valuable painting before it disappears forever?

https://books2read.com/u/4NXA1W

Lambert Nagle is the pen-name for Alison Ripley Cubitt and Sean Cubitt, co-writers of international thrillers, mystery and crime. Alison is a former television production executive who worked for Walt Disney and the BBC before pivoting to become a multi-genre author and screenwriter. Her short film drama Waves (with Maciek Pisarek) won the Special Jury Prize, Worldfest, Houston. Sean’s day job is Professor of Film and Television, University of Melbourne, Australia. He writes about film and media for leading academic publishers.

Other titles by Lambert Nagle include Revolution Earth (featuring detective Stephen Connor) and Contained in Capital Crimes, a short story collection from members of ITW (International Thriller Writers) with a foreword by Peter James.

With six passports between them, they set their books in the far-away places they live and work.

Website: http://www.lambertnagle.com

Author: Instagram:@alisonripleycubitt

Author page Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alisonripleycubittwriter

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lambertnagle