Lake of Destiny by Martina Boone (Website, Twitter, Facebook)Also by this author: Compulsion, Bell of Eternity
Published by Mayfair Publishing on April 25th 2017
Helping her aunt organize a Beltane Festival in a picturesque Highland village seems like the perfect escape from Anna’s second broken engagement and the meltdown that wrecked her legal career. But to succeed, she’ll need to wrangle kilt-wearing villagers, dangerous sheep, a disaster of a dog, and the reclusive laird who refuses to open his property to the public for the ancient tradition of “Sighting.”
For centuries, Loch Fàil in Balwhither has been known to locals as a "thin" place, one where the veil between worlds peels back on Beltane morning to reveal the face of a person's one true love. The tradition could draw tourists by the busload, but that’s exactly what Connal MacGregor fears will expose the two secrets he's been desperately keeping hidden.
While Anna struggles to mediate between the needs of the village and Connal’s need to protect his identity and his child, Anna finds herself falling in love with all of them: Connal and his daughter, the magical glen, the villagers. But day by day, opening herself to love exposes deep scars from Anna’s childhood, and confronting those wounds could finally set her free--or endanger her every chance of happiness.
When I read the summary of Lake of Destiny by Martina Boone I was immediately interested…I mean, it includes the Highlands, men in kilts, and some romance.
Anna has had a rough time of it lately…her fiancé left her and she recently lost her job at a top law firm in Washington, D.C. so when her aunt asks her to come to Scotland to help organize a festival, she jumps at the chance to get away and do something where she isn’t failing to meet everyone’s expectations of her.
I liked Anna and while some pieces of her story were slow to come out, I thought she was a solid character. It is clear she is running away from her life and her mother. She has never quite lived up to her mother’s expectations and on top of that, Anna has always felt like she has taken a backseat to her sister’s lives in her mother’s eyes. As her history is revealed, I couldn’t blame her. I’m not saying avoidance is the right thing but I don’t know that I would have had the strength to deal with the things that Anna did. I know that sounds cryptic but I don’t want to give anything away…just know that I don’t blame her.
When Anna gets to her Aunt Elspeth’s village in the Highlands, she is immediately welcomed. Well…after she crashes into one of the locals. Elspeth talked Anna into coming to help with organizing a Beltane Festival and Anna immediately dives right in to helping negotiate the event between the villagers and Connal MacGregor…the man she crashed into and the man who really just wants to stay locked away on his land. Unfortunately the changes to the festival mean he may have to reveal his secrets and he’s not sure he is ready to do that.
As Anna and Connal get to know more about each other, they quickly fall for one another. Unfortunately, Anna is still planning to go home to the states after the festival and Connal isn’t completely ready to share all his secrets. This creates some bumps for these two but Elspeth is there to talk some sense into Anna and Connal quickly realizes that if he truly cares about Anna, he can’t hide away in his house. I loved seeing these two open up to each other. No, they weren’t always straightforward with each other but they both came to realize that life may have had plans for them that were different than what they thought they wanted.
I loved the secondary characters in this story as they added some perspective for the main characters. Elspeth and Anna’s mother, Brando, Moira…all added something to the story to keep it moving forward but also give Anna and Connal others to interact with. As both characters come to realize just how their decisions have been impacting those around them, they also realize that if they don’t change, they might just regret the decisions they have made.
This ended up being a quick read. There are some pieces to the story that I wanted more from – really I am interested in seeing if Anna’s relationship with her mother and sister will ever change. If you’re looking for a light romance set in the Highlands of Scotland that has a bit of folklore included, definitely consider checking this one out. I will be keeping my eye out for another book if this is a series as there are a few other characters I’d be interested in finding out more about.
Thank you to the author for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
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