Customer Reviews

Highland Fling

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When Katie Fforde is "on," nobody can reel you in like she can. And "Highland Fling" s the best she has written in years.

As always, the plot is pure fluff, and we know from page one that the lead character, a gritty Brit, will save the day. In this book, our heroine is particularly likeable: a thirtysomething, thoroughly modern Londoner who, after being dumped from her dot-com job, has become a "virtual assisant." In that role, she uses her accounting and business skills to analyze weak businesses for her Internet boss, whom she has never met in person. The job suits her, and apparently suits him too, as she is well paid for her efforts.

As the book opens, Jenny is leaving her impossibly boring and stodgy live-in boyfriend, Henry, for the North country--the Scottish Highlands, where she is being sent to investigate a failing family-owned woollen mill. Secretly glad to get out from under Henry's patronizing wing, Jenny rides up north to tackle what she thinks will be a quick and dirty assignment--prove that the books are hopeless, report back to her boss, and drive home before he closes the mill out from under the family and local employees.

But it doesn't qute work out that way. Jenny is drawn into the bosom, so to speak, of the Dalmain family--owners of the mill--whose dowager mother lives very much in the 19th century, whose "laird," the eldest son, is dating a barmaid, and whose daughter, a spinster in her domineering mother's eyes, is a psychological mess. Jenny gets drawn into the drama, and in no time, is up to her eyeballs in llamas and alpacas as she tries to save the mill.

Oh--there's also a tall, handsome, and impossibly rude stranger who brings out all the worst in Jenny...what is Ross Grant doing in Scotland, and why does he make her want to jump out of her skin? I can say no more.

As the Brits would say, "Well done, Katie!" This is great fun, and a great read. Pick it up and see for yourself.

Genevieve ("Jenny for short") is a virtual assistant sent to the highlands to inspect the books and profits of a failing sweater company. She stays at Dalmain House where she gets to know its inhabitants a little more than she would have preferred. Lady Dalmain is an old shrew that treats her only daughter like a servant. Philip is the sweet, doting eldest son who does no wrong. Felicity is the agoraphobic who seethingly does everything her mother tells her and never stands up to herself. Iain is the rebel son who married under class and lives a "cottage love" life. Upon Jenny's arrival, things start to change for the better for everyone.

I loved Jenny - she was so caring, sweet and self-sacrificing for people who were basically strangers. Ross Grant was a treat and I loved how Jenny was so rude to him, totally out of character for her.

The book was very predictable, but oftentimes these light romance novels are. Other than that, I have no complaints! Highland Fling is funny, sweet, breezy, touching, at times very hot, and ultimately satisfying. What more do you want in a romance?

This was my first Katie Fforde novel, and based on it I will definitely read more from her.

I used to enjoy some of Katie Fforde's earlier romantic novels, but now she seems to be rushing off a book a year simply to meet her publication deadlines. Highland Fling rehashes Fforde's overworked formula of an ordinary, rather scattered heroine who somehow manages to attract a gorgeous, highly desirable hero, all the while denying her own attraction to him and repelling him with rude, immature behavior at every turn. This book is so sloppily written and cliched, it feels like Ms. Fforde must have dashed it off in a couple of days.

I enjoyed reading this book and look forward to trying some of Fforde's others.

This is basically a very light-hearted romance, with plenty of eccentric characters who become somewhat endearing once one knows them. The best part of the book is really the plot about trying to save a mill that has been mismanaged. The weakness is that the development of the romantic suspense does not fit in with what we know of the characters involved. We are told about their childhoods, etc. but there is no real effort to tie those factors into the story. Then one wonders why they are put in there. The heroine resists the pull of our romantic lead for reasons which make little sense overall.

Fortunately the tone of the book is so light and frothy that the illogical bits almost seem irrelevant

Katie Fforde's work is generally so much better than this annoying effort. The heroine's choices make NO sense, her motivations are childish in the extreme, and the whole book seems sloppy. Fforde's editor needs to work a little harder.

I have read several other books by Katie Fforde and expected to enjoy this one. I should have left it on the shelf. It is dull and predictable and full of slightly annoying characters. Twas no fun at all...

I love Katie Fforde but this one just wasn't her best. I never really felt like I knew the heroine and the male characters were really annoying.

There didn't seem to be a good reason why the main character was with her first boyfriend and there wasn't enough character development to explain why she was so attracted to the second one.

I really enjoy Fforde's books, primarily because her heroines are strong, determined, and a little cranky sometimes. Even though Fforde's novels are light and fluffy for the most part, you can always count on Fforde to present a great protagonist.

Katie Fforde is a great author to read when you don't want depressing, when you don't want to think too hard, when you need a smile.

The only thing I didn't care for about Highland Fling was the sometimes in-depth information into the textile aspect of it; however, I understand there was a place for it and that those details were appropriate; they just bored me a little.

I will continue to read Fforde's offerings with pleasure.

In England, her boyfriend Henry tells Jenny not to go on her business trip to Scotland because it will prove to be a failure as he believes she is too passionate to do the job. Serving as a virtual assistant to clients she rarely sees Jenny goes ahead with her trip in spite of his dire warnings to determine whether Dalmain Mills is worthy of outside investment or he should just be shut down.

In the Highlands, Jenny meets pregnant Meggie Dalmain, wife of the younger son to the Dalmain estate, and before she can shut her mouth agrees to run Homely Haggis, a refreshment stand. She meets the rest of the family including the standoffish matriarch, lonely daughter, and oldest son. However, she begins to like the eccentric brood and decides to turn the business into an efficient effective company through cockamamie schemes. There is also nasty Ross Grant who she should detest for his boorish behavior towards her but instead falls in love with him.

This is a fun contemporary romance that focuses on an individual who struggles to succeed in her profession, but allows her feelings to interfere with her business acumen. Though amusing especially during the gender war scenes, the story line contains a serious undertow involving failing "cottage" industries. Though the ending is tied up to easily and the use of profanity for the most part is out of place, Kate Fforde provides an all around good "thyme" for her fans.

Harriet Klausner

I have enjoyed several Katie Fforde's books, but I found this one boring and predictable and struggled to finish it. If this was the first Katie Fforde book, I would have not read another one by her. She has done much better - my favorites are Stately Pursuits and The Roses Revived.