3.5 // easy, cute, predictable read. loved the setting of the story. ( )

This was just really lovely and summery and flowery! Can never imagine being in that scenario, but it was a good example of how to prove to yourself you can do something. ( )

Fun British chick-lit that though predictable in parts, does have some surprises. ( )

Summer fluff, but entertaining ( )

Fieldnotes:
Loch Dorn (a small boutique hotel on Scotland's West Coast near Skye), Contemporary in the BeforeTimes (p. 2021)

1 Drifting Young Woman with No Career Prospects
1 Case of Mistaken Identity Taken Way, Way Too Far
1 Very Bad Sort-of Boyfriend

1 Absent Sommelier Friend
0 Wine Knowledge or Credentials
1 Newly Branded Hotel Depending on the Sommelier to Save their Fortune

1 Staff of Lovable Misfits, Including
1 Michelin-Starred Jerk of a Managing Chef
1 Very Handsome Chef with a Passion for Foraging
1 Very Eager Young Wine Enthusiast (Life-Saving Variety)
1 Closet Alcoholic

1 Wine-Based Event that Needs to Be Extraordinary
Too Many Lies to Count
Several Disasters
Beautiful Landscape
Woefully Inadequate Clothing

The Not-So-Short Version:
Elizabeth "Birdy" Finch has no real plan in life and is drifting from unsatisfactory job to unsatisfactory job. When her best friend - an up and coming young sommelier - ditches a job at a small hotel in Scotland and the manager of the hotel mistakes Birdy for her friend at a wine event Birdy is attending in her stead...well, it just seems easier to bluff it out. After all, it's one summer in Scotland - how much could there really be to recommending wine, anyway?

There was a lot to like about this novel - but as a heads-up. It is not as frothy and fluffy as the rom-com cover would have you believe. The book deals (well) with alcoholism, and issues arising from being the child of an alcoholic.

Birdy soon finds herself in way over her head (the hotel has had a luxury makeover and the job entails far more than she anticipated), but buckles down to study to make the most of the summer without (hopefully) destroying her friend's reputation or hopelessly misleading her romantic interest. The staff are a ragtag bunch of lovable misfits who help one another out (heartwarming) through a number of amusing disasters. The inevitable boy is lovely and Scotland around the Isle of Skye is gorgeous and described in a way that lets you admire its beauty as Birdy does. I actually like that a woman in her early 30s is still a bit adrift and trying to figure out her place in the world and the work she does and how invested she becomes in Loch Dorn are great.

But the sort-of grovel at the end doesn't do anything to actually apologize to the people whose livelihoods she risked, and it made me mad that she didn't have to deal with any consequences from being so incredibly self-involved and risking not only herself (fine and understandable) but a LOT of others. Instead she has a direction! So it must be worth it! I liked her, I wanted things to be ok for her in the end and I wanted her to find her sense of belonging. But I don't think she actually did any of the work to repair the relationships that all miraculously are fine by the end of the book. Plus, I just didn't buy the "victory" which seemed like it had a chip on its shoulder about showing up "pretentious wine people" rather than the heart we'd seen elsewhere. ( )