obstinateheadstrongcurl 's review for:

Whisky Business by Elliot Fletcher

4.0

lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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More romances set in Scotland written by Scottish authors please. It was so refreshing to read a book with no badly written Scots, no fetishising tropes and with correct information about whisky (this is one of my biggest pet peeves – if you’re including whisky in your book, do the bare minimum of research!). 

Mal and April were so cute. He’s struggling to keep her family’s distillery afloat, while keeping his own family at a distance because of his dad’s disapproval with his career. She’s returned home to deal with the distillery and her family home after her grandfather died, having just gone through a #MeToo ordeal when her manager began sexually harassing her. Mal thinks April is unfeeling and shallow for not coming back to be with her grandfather at the end of his life, but he doesn’t know that her grandfather never told April he was sick. Meanwhile Mal doesn’t know that Keir (the grandfather) had been lying to him about selling him the distillery and has been pocketing the money that Mal’s paid him over the years as April had to buy the distillery after her grandfather’s gambling addiction got out of hand and almost ruined the distillery. April decides she has to make sure Mal can take over the distillery, and they set about working together to get it profitable again.

It's pretty clear these two are both gone for each other from go, as much as they both try to hide it. They really are sweet together, and I think Fletcher does a good job of showing how they take care of one another. And once they get together, whoo it is spicy and delightful.

My critique of this book is that some of the plot felt a bit underdeveloped, especially Mal’s relationship with his dad and April’s relationship with Keir. It felt like we didn’t really earn that final scene at the Macabe family dinner, and it was a bit surprising how much of a non-issue Keir’s deception was.

Overall I really enjoyed this one and I can’t wait for the next. Hoping we get more of the town in that one because it seems like there’s potential for some really fun side characters!