Girl In The Castle by Lizzie Lamb

 

• Paperback: 346 pages
• Publisher: New Romantics Press (21 Mar. 2017)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0957398573
• ISBN-13: 978-0957398573

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

Her academic career in tatters, Dr Henriette Bruar needs somewhere to lay low, plan her comeback and restore her tarnished reputation. Fate takes her to a remote Scottish castle to auction the contents of an ancient library to pay the laird’s mounting debts. The family are in deep mourning over a tragedy which happened years before, resulting in a toxic relationship between the laird and his son, Keir MacKenzie. Cue a phantom piper, a lost Jacobite treasure, and a cast of characters who – with Henri’s help, encourage the MacKenzies to confront the past and move on with their lives. However – will the Girl in the Castle be able to return to university once her task is completed, and leave gorgeous, sexy Keir MacKenzie behind?

Review

Girl in the Castle captured my heart from the first pages; ghostly pipe playing, the Scottish mists, a young woman running from her troubles and a castle on an Island in a Scottish loch.  The young woman in question is Dr. Henrietta Bruer, a historian who found a significant piece of illuminated manuscript only to have her superiors take the credit  and she did not take it well, smashing a television.  Henri is given the chance to catalogue the library of the remote Highland Castle, with the idea of finding pieces to sell as the Laird is bankrupt and needs to the money.  Throw into the mix a wonderful housekeeper, a lecherous Laird, his good looking son and the sons intended, and the myth of lost treasure and you have a recipe for a wonderful and engaging read.

Lizzie Lamb has a talent in her characterisation.  All the characters are well developed, all have had problems in the past, all of a certain chemistry, good and bad and by the end of the book you really feel you know them.  Henri is an academic with ambition, she wants to be a junior lecturer, but her actions may have ended that dream.  She is certainly not looking for romance, but who can resist a once grand castle, and the son and heir Kier, who has his own problems and the legend of treasure. Kier is the perfect romantic hero, good looking, obnoxious at first, and has a troubled past with his father. He shows a different life to Henri, that there may be more to life than academia.  My favourite character was Alice, the house keeper and Kier’s aunt.  She has a wonderful way with words and obviously is in charge of that household, no matter what the Laird thinks.  Her relationship with Kier is heartwarming, she is the nearest thing to a mother her has and is very protective of him, and the family in general. All the characters have had

The beautiful descriptive writing brings the sublime Scottish Highlands to life; the ever changing landscape, the remoteness, and the rawness of the mountains.  There really could not have been a more romantic setting, I was quite jealous of Henri in that large castle, the huge library, the home cooking and of course the handsome heir.  Lizzie Lamb uses a lot of colloquial language and includes a glossary at the front of the Gaelic language.

Girl in the Castle is a book that I found hard to put down; I was drawn in form the first page to the last. The plot has romance, mystery, tragedy, history and family legends, which with the endearing characters make this an enjoyable and engaging read.  I really hope there is going to be a follow up novel to this fabulously atmospheric and all encompassing read, I loved it.

 

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