SOME LIKE IT SCOTTISH – Patience Griffin
Kilts and Quilts Series
Signet Eclipse
ISBN: 978-451-46831-4
July 2015
Contemporary Fiction

Gandiegow, Scotland

Kit Woodhouse is putting her entire business on the line with her plan to set up her matchmaking business in Scotland. She is hoping that the shy, but wealthy clients she has in the States will be drawn to the well-off men she has set up meetings with in the area of the tiny seaside village of Gandiegow. But her arrival doesn't get off to the best start. The driver she has contracted to drive her around has sent his younger brother to meet her at the airport, and they don't exactly hit it off at their first encounter. Things get even more tense when they arrive in Gandiegow and Kit is deposited in a room over the local pub. The barmaid gives her a glare that could kill, and informs her that all of the women in town think Kit is there to steal all the men away. Still, Kit has a business to run, and she's going to forge on.

Ramsey Armstrong has been ordered by his oldest brother to ferry the matchmaker around the Highlands to find men for her “stable”. However, Ramsey is going to make sure none of them sign up. First he sets her up in the pub instead of his brother's house where she was supposed to stay. Then he makes sure the entire town is aware of her job, and afterwards he manages to get to her bachelors to talk them out of meeting the American women. Ramsey does sort of like Kit, though, which is making some of his decision-making turn to bits of guilt. Plus, she is certainly not the “old biddy” he thought she would be. Ramsey wants to set up his own business, separate from his brothers' fishing work. Will he learn anything from Kit on how to achieve this independence?

When Kit finally meets the members of the village, she realizes she needs to set things straight. Without insulting everyone, she tries to assure them that she's not out to steal away the local men. She is only after eligible and well-off single men who are interested in marriage to an American woman. The village spokesperson, as it turns out, is Deydie McCracken, who runs the quilting guild, and who lets Kit know that first she must learn how to quilt. Kit is all business and quilting was really her grandmother's thing, but she grudgingly allows herself to be drawn into the group.

Thanks to Ramsey's interference, the bachelors that Kit had contacted all decline to participate in her plan. With her business on the line, as well as the money she needs to finance her younger sisters' education and pay for her mother's rent, Kit has a struggle ahead of her, and it starts with figuring out why Ramsey is so set on her not succeeding.

The Kilts and Quilt series continues with this latest enjoyable book. SOME LIKE IT SCOTTISH is about two people who have more in common than not. Kit has commitments that Ramsey is unaware of, and Ramsey has plans that Kit can possibly make come to fruition – if only they could get over their initial animosity. Secondary characters figure them out way before Kit and Ramsey will, and the backdrop of the magical village and its love of quilting will be sure to enchant every reader.

Jani Brooks