Scot and Bothered

American Brooke Sinclair is ghostwriting a memoir for her famous mentor, Mhairi McCallister, and is less than thrilled when she is thrown back together with photographer Jack Sutherland to make the book as authentic as possible. Jack is Mhairi’s nephew, with whom Brooke had an ill-advised fling as an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh. Brooke’s editor and Mhairi are convinced that the memoir is missing that special something, and that Brooke and Jack can capture it by following the same trail that is detailed in the book. Hiking and camping across difficult terrain on the Isle of Skye with Jack brings up long-buried feelings of attraction, despite years of resentment. Jack’s quiet sincerity forces Brooke to reconsider the past and her future, but as they get closer to the end of their journey, Jack will have to reveal Mhairi’s devastating secret, which he has known all along. Unfortunately, the plot doesn’t propel readers forward with any urgency, and the forced-proximity and miscommunication tropes could have been better utilized.