I really enjoy Jenny Colgan’s books for a bit light-hearted escapism, and this one did not let me down. Know that this is book 3 of the series, and somehow I read the first book and still have the second one sitting in my TBR pile, but even so, I really enjoyed this book and easily picked up what I missed.
Lissie is a London nurse, juggling dozens of patients assigned to her house call detail, when she witnesses a teenager get run down by a car right in front of her. While her nursing instincts kick in, he’s too injured for her to save. She’s left with PTSD, which leaves her unable to do her job. Her supervisor suggests she takes a job swap, where she swaps jobs with a nurse in the Scottish Highlands, Cormack. He’ll take her job (and apartment and friends) in London for three months to learn new skills, and she’ll take his quieter, easier job (complete with the small town charm.) Lissie and Cormack stay in daily contact over email to discuss their patients’ details, and slowly, they feel a spark. But they haven’t met in person yet…
I liked revisiting the Scottish Highlands in this book. Yes, there’s definitely a similarity to the rest of the series — move to the Highlands and your life will be infinitely happier and you might get to fall in love — but it’s just a feel good story that makes you want to see a new part of the world (especially since we’re all still stuck inside.) I really felt for both characters dealing with the culture shock of living in a whole new community, and thought a lot of Lissie’s experiences going from a large city where everyone is anonymous to a small village where everyone knows everything about everyone was funny. I felt the ending was quick — and if you’ve read Colgan before, you won’t be surprised — but that fits with her usual book outline.
As a side note for readers for the trilogy, I also loved revisiting some of the characters from the first book — and yes, spoiler alert, Nina is still happily selling books out of her van in the town center.