Cover Image: A View to a Kilt

A View to a Kilt

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Member Reviews

I wanted to like this book, but A View to a Kilt just wasn’t for me because I really disliked the writing style.

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I will admit...I felt a bit lost reading this one...then I figured out it's #3 in a series! I will be reading the others soon and then will revisit this review!

**OMG! I cannot believe that these reviews haven't been done! I am so sorry they are so late!!!**

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Hält nicht, was es verspricht - unter herzlich lachen verstehe ich etwas ganz anderes.
Leichter Stil, kann man lesen, muss man aber nicht.

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The synopsis for this book was definitely something that appealed to me, a mix of glitzy and glamorous lifestyle with a fun cover, however it just didn't work for me. It wasn't a bad book, it just wasn't on my taste and I didn't care much about the characters, or able to relate to them in a meaningful way.

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When I requested the book I didn't realise that it was the third in a series. I still managed to follow the story although I do think I missed out on not reading the previous books first.

I thought it was funny, but a little slow in parts and was only ok. A decent read but not one of my favourites.

I loved the title and cover. For me, it was good but not great.

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I must admit to having never read a Wendy Holden novel before, but I can now confirm that A View to a Kilt will definitely not be the last Wendy Holden novel that I read!

Laura Lake is the editor of the award winning magazine Society, a magazine famed for its exposes and hard hitting articles about topics that other glossy magazines won't touch. When Laura's long-standing CEO Christopher retires, she finds herself managed by the wildly different Bev Sweet, a woman with big plans but no budget. With advertising revenue at an all time low, she sets Laura the impossible task of bringing huge amounts of revenue for the next issue or find herself out of a job.

Finding herself set up to produce a Scottish issue Laura finds herself in Scotland, away from her boyfriend Harry at a crucial point in their relationship and at Glenravish Castle, guest to the eccentric Sandy McRavish. What follows can only be described as entertaining and comical! This really is a laugh out loud novel - there were twists that I was not expecting at all, so for a light-hearted, entertaining read you are still kept on your toes! I loved reading about Scotland, Holden's descriptions are so vivid - they could definitely be used as a Scottish sales tool - it has certainly made me want to visit those rolling mountains and lochs.

Anyway, back to the book. This really is a fab read, and I am more than happy to recommend it to you all. It is perfect for a cosy Sunday afternoon read on a rainy day, or equally as perfect when sat on a beach with a cocktail in hand - read it anytime, anywhere. I'm already considering my next Wendy Holden read...feel free to throw your suggestions at me!

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I did enjoy this book but think would have been better to read previous books in the series
I used to never miss a Wendy Holden book and really love them,I will continue to read them

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Smart and effervescent comedy is what best-selling author Wendy Holden does best and she is on dazzling form with her latest novel, A View to a Kilt.

In the digital age of social media and online celebrity news, circulation numbers for glossy magazines are plummeting at an alarming rate. With celebrities keener than ever to tell their side of the story themselves via their Instagram pages, readers are deserting traditional media and going straight to the source – which is not exactly music to an editor’s ears as Laura Lake knows only too well. Society, the magazine she edits, is in big trouble. Advertising revenues are a thing of the past and if Laura doesn’t do something she is going to be out of a job. But what could she possible do? The odds might be stacked against her, but she is not about to roll over and admit defeat. She has a trick up her sleeve that takes her all the way to Scotland. But will she find salvation among the beautiful majestic landscape? Or is she merely setting herself up for disappointment?

High society simply cannot get enough of Scotland at the moment. From bagpipes lessons to haggis tempuras at a Michelin star restaurant, it seems that Scotland is bang on trend. However, Laura knows that she is going to need more than porridge facials to save the magazine, so the intrepid editor sets off to a baronial estate in the Scottish highlands to get a taste of the high life and hopefully still have a job by the time she gets back to London. Laura is looking forward to Scottish glitz and glamour, but will reality live up to the hype? Or is she about to end up with egg on her face?

Laura is prepared to go to any lengths to restore the magazine’s ailing fortunes. Will Glenravish Castle provide her with the scoop she is desperate for? Or is she about to get more than she ever bargained for? One thing is for certain: when Laura Lake is around, trouble is never far behind!

When a book has Wendy Holden’s name on the front cover, a good time is guaranteed and A View to a Kilt is certainly no different! Hilariously witty, wonderfully outrageous and an absolute scream from beginning to end, A View to a Kilt is the next best thing to a spa weekend. Sparkling with hilarious repartee, high society hi-jinks and plenty of mischief, A View to a Kilt is classic Wendy Holden.

The ultimate indulgent feel-good treat, A View to a Kilt is another warm and witty romp from the fabulous Wendy Holden!

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In need of a 'lighter' novel for the bank hokiday weekend in the UK, I thought I would give Wendy Holden's latest novel a try.

It has a bit of everything, career issues, competitive colleagues, a bit of a love story and a mystery. That said, I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped to. I didn't realise it was the third in a series, it reads as a stand alone book but maybe it would have been better if I'd read the other two first.

I did like the flashes of wit and sarcasm throughout and the comedic character names. However, the plot didn't really excite me and I was expecting the love story to be more powerful than it was considering the first few chapters.

An easy read, just didn't quite work in my opinion, not as good as some others by Wendy Holden.

Thank you to @netgalley for the opportunity to review.

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Found it hard to get into although it is the third book in the series and was a stand alone story. Whether I should go back and read the first as recommended by other readers although I couldn’t warm to the main character; Lulu was funnier, Laura quite self-centred and annoying. It made me smile a few times but was glad it quickly came to an end.
Found it a little too much like an advertisement for all things rich and should have spent more time on plot and describing the wilds of Scotland.
It’s well written but sometimes confusing I was glad it wasn’t a long book and by the end of the story decided I won’t look out for the other titles. Although I’ve read Wendy Holden before and enjoyed her stories.
Thank you to net galley for the ARC for a truthful and honest review.

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This is a great premise for a book and you know I am all about a book being set in Scotland. I love the idea that everything Scottish is trending and people are excited about Haggis and fashion. I do feel like there could have been a little more of a glimpse of the Scottish landscape or the cities a little but still excited to have a book set here.
Laura is not the easiest character to like all of the time because she has flaws like you and me. It is those flaws that make her interesting though and good to spend the book with. I liked that she is determined to do well in her career and doesn't mind trekking across the country fr that. She is fairly vain and does want things to come easier in life but I think that again his adds to her intrigue.
This is the third book in a series but I have not read the other two books and I was fine getting to know the characters in this one. It reads like a stand alone and has enough things going on within the pages that you don't need to know what happened previously or how these characters got to be where they are. The characters seem well-developed and we certainly get enough of their back story to understand them. This is a very much tongue in cheek novel so don't take it too seriously but you will laugh and if you're looking for something light-hearted to escape from the real world then this could be the one for you.

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What an inventive story! I really enjoyed the way the author used imaginative characterization to convey little nuances about the people, and the way that emotions are so vivid and strong - It really makes for a great reading experience! I would definitely recommend everyone read this book :)

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It’s my pleasure to welcome you on my stop of the blog tour for A VIEW TO A KILT, the engaging brand new novel by Wendy Holden which it is published today. I’d like to thank Vicky and Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the blog tour.

In the third instalment featuring Laura Lake, we see the dynamic award-winning journalist fighting not only to save her job as editor of the glamorous magazine Society, but also to save the magazine itself that she has come to love and cherish. This means that she has to deal with her crazy new boss who reminded me a little of Miranda Prestley from The Devil Wears Prada, she has to travel to Scotland and spend the night in a castle in Scotland that it appears to be haunted by a ghost, and she finds herself mixed in dangerous situations.

A VIEW TO A KILT is such a fun and entertaining read. It features a cast of colourful and eccentric characters, bizarre situations, and the beautiful and evocative setting of Scotland that made me want to hop on a plane for this beautiful country. I really liked the unusual and weird names of the characters that fit perfectly with their quirky behaviour and that made me laugh page after page. There are twists, mysteries, and revelations and there is romance, friendship and rivalries that keep you glued to the page and make you laugh out loud.

A VIEW TO A KILT is a humorous, refreshing, and captivating novel that you can read as a stand-alone, but I highly recommend the first two book of the series because they are completely worth it.

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This is the first book I have read by the author and I didn't realise that it is the third in a series featuring Laura Lake. It certainly didn't hinder my reading of this book and I was able to read it as a standalone book.

I was attracted to reading this book because of the magazine setting and it didn't disappoint. Laura has a new CEO - think Miranda Priestley meets Ugly Betty - she wants it all and she wants it now. So Laura goes off to Scotland in pursuit of the latest fashion Scotland style and to lure advertisers for her magazine.

The book is very tongue in cheek throughout with the names of the various characters and places in Scotland making me continually smirk. There's also the champagne detector which was used very cleverly and the fabulous virtual assistant Fiona who manages to take control at the estate agency with fantastic panache.

I loved Laura's friend Lulu who is so rich she has a pink helicopter and I loved the fact that it had a Vivienne Westwood orb on the roof!!! The helicopter is also expertly piloted by her female butler Vlad who has an unusual way to uncork champagne down to her army training.

Just when I thought the book was going to be a just a little fluffy read an actual mystery started which I hadn't expected. Like all cliffhangers it switched back and forth between two characters and I was racing to get back to what was going to happen next.

A delicious read for when you just want a completely relaxing novel and a good chuckle. I am giving this book 5 out of 5 stars and my thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for my ARC to review.

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There are three full novels plus a novella in the Laura Lake series. I’ve read the previous two and was really looking forward to this one. To the extent that I had a search around Netgalley once I found out its title and was excited to get a copy to read.

If you haven’t read either of the other two books it doesn’t affect reading this one, it is a stand alone but in all honesty I would at least recommend you read the first one – Three Weddings and a Scandal. That way you can completely appreciate the full back story, get to know all the characters more thoroughly and ‘get’ the humour. I do think the humour is an acquired taste, you’ll either find it hilarious or you won’t find it funny at all. I don’t think there’s an in between. If you read this book without having read the others you can’t really appreciate the relationships between the characters that have developed over time and within past events. I don’t think you get to know the characters at all in this book if you’ve never met them before.

For me it started off well, it had me laughing out loud at the turn of almost every page. It was like putting on an old comfy pair of slippers, the familiarity of that crazy, tongue in cheek humour. Wendy Holden’s imagination at coming up with funny names, her observations of how easily the most ridiculous of ideas can be sold with the right marketing, and how fools are so easily parted from their money, provided of course they’ve got plenty of it, I think is so good.

However the second part, once Laura and Lulu were in Scotland didn’t really hold my interest. It’s not the first time in this series of books that a situation has developed into something farcical but in this instance I thought it went too far and just verged on silly. I was also quite surprised to find I’d reached the end too, it did seem a little bit rushed with all the loose ends suddenly all tied up and sorted.

All in all, though I did get quite a few laughs from this book, I have to admit that I was a little bit disappointed in it. I don’t think either of the two subsequent Laura Lake stories have quite lived up to the first one which I just thought was brilliant from beginning to end.

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I have never read a book by Wendy Holden before and when I requested the book, I didn't realise that this was the third book of a series, so I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it. I found it funny, smart and a little crazy, and of course it took place in Scotland which is a huge plus for me.

I have to admit that I had trouble to connect with the characters, probably because I was new to the series and I didn't know anything about them and their history.
All in all, I liked the descriptions, some of the characters and some parts of the story. It was a good, fast paced book and a nice read!

Thank you to the publisher and the NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

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While the majority of my time reading the first book in this series was spent trying to determine whether it was hilariously tongue-in-cheek or seriously vapid, A View to a Kilt demonstrates to the reader very early on that it’s a satire. Further struggles with the book’s identity resolved, it was a fun read. However, despite how decently-written it was (decently, as every single character lacked depth and any real redeeming or interesting qualities), I put the book aside for three weeks and just… didn’t get back to picking it up because I didn’t care. While it might have been a fun read, it’s not something I cared enough to obsessively read. Laura remains distinctly unlikeable - not even an anti-hero, but a genuinely boring, self-centred and (dare I say it) stupid character. I’d hoped, after skipping a book in the series, she might have matured to the point that she considered the feelings or thoughts of others, but she seems to remain ever-centred on her own issues. There’s a line between anti-hero and genuinely irritating character and Laura definitely sits on the wrong side of that line. While A View to a Kilt was a fun read at times, it’s not one that I feel like I enjoyed.

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I was really surprised just how much I enjoyed A View to a Kilt; I knew it would be humorous but it really made me smile, with some parts making me laugh out loud far more than I expected. I've read other novels by Wendy Holden before but not any from this series, and I particularly enjoyed this novel as the character Laura lives in Shoreditch, which is close to where I live, and the references to the extremely hipster neighbourhood and businesses around her ring so true, as well as plenty of other entertaining references which many people can probably relate to.
A View to a Kilt is also completely mad, taking the reader on a crazy journey from London to Scotland and back again which, although being a bit odd at times, I really liked.
It's an easy, fun read which would be perfect for a holiday or just an evening in relaxing, and I'd definitely read more from this series.

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There are quite a few things I liked about Holden's story, mainly the humour, the characters - though I haven't read the rest of the series - and the initial storyline, however what started off as one thing ended up being something else.

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An entertaining funny read full of humour, but unfortunately for me the plot was all over the place. It didn’t seem to know where it wanted to go. I loved the characters and their chemistry but unfortunately for me the plot direction meant 3 stars instead of 4

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

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