Published By: Boldwood
Pages: 288
Released On: 05/09/2025
Bella Douglas is living her dream life on the Isle of Skye but misses her friends at Drumblair Castle. She has the love of her life by her side, Granny Isla just up the road and has landed a big job to renovate the interior of a gorgeous Victorian hotel for an American client. What could possibly go wrong?
When Bella’s new client sends their son to project manage the hotel renovation, things take an unexpected turn for the worse. Ex-model Carlton Somers has set his sights on Bella and doesn’t seem to understand the word ‘no’. But her relationship with Harris is rock solid; nothing can break that foundation … can it?
Meanwhile Granny Isla’s ‘friendship’ with her neighbour Tam Guthrie is going from strength to strength but when drama hits Pabay View Residential Home Bella’s life is quickly sent into a tailspin.
What will it take to get her life back on track? And can she ever find time to focus on her own happiness and future?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
A new Lisa Hobman book, and it’s a Christmas one – that is automatically a winner for me.
Yes it is part of the Highlands series, and so I think you’d probably get more out of it if you read it in order, but it’s equally as enjoyable as a standalone.
I love the sense of family and love and friendship and community and togetherness that is visible on every page.
I loved the characters – even the “baddies”. They were so well written, so layered, and just leapt off the page. They felt recognisable and so real, like you could know them in real life.
It is a sweet book, sometimes quite sickly sweet, but for a rom-com book that is very heavily geared towards the love, there wasn’t much romance. It seemed just a bit surface-level.
It wasn’t my favourite of her books, which surprised me, because I love Christmas and I love love but it was just missing something. Don’t get me wrong, I still really enjoyed it and I loved what was there, but it kept feeling like something was missing. Even though it does touch on some difficult topics, they were only really touched on, and never had much depth. Even the Christmas elements, there’s a bit at the start and a bit at the end, but for a book that highlights it being a Christmas book, I wanted her to make more of that.
There’s a few twists and turns, but not too many as it’s not a thriller, but overall it’s a pleasant, cosy, warming way to spend a few hours, but it didn’t hit the heights of her previous ones.
Books By Your Bedside 