Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Bookshop by the Loch.

I loved all the characters and the story kept me turning the pages from beginning to end.

We meet Lexie, after a promotion is passed to someone else, she’s now not sure whether she still wants to be employed doing that job. Lexie takes the leave due to her and comes home to Bracken Way to thing about what she wants to do.

Back home, she’s remembers a book shop that she used to frequently visit and goes in search of it. The shop, she finds is closing down after the owner isn’t sure if he wants to keep it running. Lexie, after a discussion with the owner is offered a job, to do what she can to keep it open.

She accepts, not knowing it’ll change her life.

There’s so much happening throughout the story and everything is linked.

I highly recommend this book.

It was a real treat to return to the Scottish Highlands and meet Lexie and Tobias. They both arrive in Bracken Way after their lives have been hit by challenges that caused them to rethink their positions. Having been brought together in the reimagining of the local bookstore, Book Ends, there is a significant amount of animosity between the pair and working together looks pretty hopeless.
I just love the manner in which Julie Shackman creates and presents her characters. Lexie is down but not out when she arrives at her family home and only intends to stay for 3 months as she licks her professional wounds. Lexie used to see her own worth but having been repeatedly overlooked and then passed over, enough is enough.
Tobias is perfect as the new resident, a portrait artist with a seemingly high opinion of himself. He is the polar opposite of Lexie as he dresses well and carries an air of success. However, he does wear a tee for an obscure rock band from Germany. Lexie also loves the same band, maybe they do have something in common with each other.
On the surface, you could be forgiven for thinking that this would be a simple boy meets girl love story, but you would be mistaken as Julie is skilled at bringing real stories to life and weaving them into the threads of gentler tales. No spoilers here but be prepared for some surprising bumps in the road.
My favourite character, apart from Lexie and Tobias, was Celeste. Despite her impressive age, she had a real lust for life and a wonderful backstory. I felt a real warmth as I learned more about her life and also about her past.
Bracken Way sounded like a picturesque setting, with a castle overlooking the loch and a parade of independent shops, it is somewhere that I would love to visit. This is a gorgeous book, and I can highly recommend it.

The Bookshop by the Loch will appeal to readers of sweet/clean romance, where a happy ending is assured, and to those who love books about books. This is an entertaining and charming tale of family bonds, love and forgiveness.

For me, the more enjoyable parts were related to the book store, and how Lexie helped to spruce it up. The scenic Scottish location creates a lovely setting for the story.

Lexie suffered crushing career disappointment, so she took three months leave to go home. While home, she decides to take a job offer to manage the local bookstore, and she also places ads for freelance editing work.

While the owner and Lexie are remodeling the bookstore, the owner’s nephew shows up. Tobias is a jerk, but the owner agrees to share store space with Tobias for an art gallery.

There is so much more exposition I could add, but I’m leaving it out. I wish the author had left it out, too. This book was a meandering, rambling story that suffered from “throw in the kitchen sink” syndrome. That is the dread illness authors contract when they overplot the story and add too many plot elements in an attempt to be interesting or tricky. This author seemed to write part of the story and think “Oooh now I could throw in this story line”… over and over.

This is a gentle story. It wanders from one thing to another with lots of wordiness. If you enjoy a quiet book, this is for you.

The Bookshop by the Loch by Julie Shackman the 6th instalment in the Scottish Escape series. What can I say other than I loved it and read in one day.

The setting of a tiny town called Bracken Way in the Scottish Highlands sounded enchanting and the Bookstore (one of my favorite places too), I could picture myself spending an afternoon walking along the Loch or up to the castle.

As with the other books in this series, it had everything you could want in a story love, loss, regret, laughter, sadness, forgiveness, friendships and families.

I found the characters to be well developed, and multi-dimensional. There were multiple sub-plots to keep you engaged and interested in the outcome.

I will definitely read other books by this author.

I requested and received an advance reader copy of this book from Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter and Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Lexie goes home after taking a much needed vacation. She is unsure about hr life and is taking a few months off. While home she meets new people and her life changes in ways she never saw coming. A quick read.

The Bookshop by the Loch, this one had such fun, emotional and drama filed moments. I enjoyed the can do and keep going spirit of the characters in this story.

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a review.

I do enjoy books about books and this is no exception as it was a lovely read. I'd love to visit the Bookshop by the Loch!

This book appealed to me, as I typically feel drawn to any book with a bookish setting, such as a bookshop or library. This book was also part of the Scottish Escapes series, and I've read and enjoyed some of the previous books in the series.

I felt a connection with the protagonist, Lexie, and identified with her in some ways. This was a lovely, comfortable read, and as is usually the case with this book, it provided me with an ideal escape, forming images in my mind of a place that I might like to escape to. It was very comforting, and although I found myself a little bit emotional towards the end, it was a lovely heartwarming read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.

This cozy and sweet romance gave me exactly what I wanted from it. Lexie moves from a busy publishing career in Glasgow to managing a small bookshop in her Scottish Highlands hometown. Complicated family dynamics and long-silenced drama with both the main and side characters adds intrigue. Romance is provided by the initially-portrayed-as-a-jerk Tobias, who becomes Lexie's work mate and eventual love interest. A feel-good clean romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for sending me an eARC of this book.
The Bookshop by the Loch is a cozy fantasy featuring a publicist who quits her job when she is looked over for an impressive job promotion and a realism artist with some family skeletons in the closet.
I’ll be honest I wanted to like this book so <i> badly </i>, but I just couldn’t get into it. This was hardly a romance story, but it felt like a slice of life with a dash of romance. The amount of other people’s family drama that the FMC is caught up in is insane. She’s just the new book manager why is she privy to all this stuff? Like her father getting dementia and then this lady comes in with her mom’s bucket list of things to do before she dies. I rolled my eyes at this, the author tried too hard to add some plot to this story when it didn’t need it.
The drama watered down the entire book and was overlong. It felt like half the book surrounded Celeste and her family issues. Where are the FMC and MMC interactions? The romance we get is the MMC being nice and supporting the FMC, like what??
Furthermore, the writing feels…juvenile. The dialogue and monologue felt like something I read in Wattpad. What is with the author using! after! every! internal! monologue! Lexie! has!
I just could not do this book at all and was really disappointed — for me this book held so much promise, a super cute cover, I liked the plot, and it just fell f l a t.

This was a lovely book to read. The characters were interesting and the description of the scenery made we want to go there. Heartwarming story that was very easy to read. I didn't know it was part of a series, reads fine as a stand alone book.

The Bookshop by the Loch was so good! It is a book I will read over and over. I liked all the characters in the book and the storyline was one that held my attention from the first page to the last word.
Lexie was in a job she was unsure if she wanted to keep doing when she was passed over for a promotion, she was so sure was hers. This made her take a leave of absence to catch her breath and rethink her life.
When she was back in Bracken Way she was drawn back to her favorite shop – it is Book Ends the local bookstore. The shop was having issues, and the owner was not sure if he could keep it open much longer. When he offered her the job of doing what she could to keep it open. The challenge was one she accepted, and this one decision would change her life forever.
The story had so much happened, and everything was intertwined and made it a story readers will love.
Thank you NetGalley, Julie Shackman and HarperCollins UK for the ARC of The Bookshop by the Loch. This is my personal review.

I enjoyed reading this book immensely. It's a bittersweet story about lovely people facing difficulties and doing their best.
A heartwarming, emotional read, full of hope and caring.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book for my review. So this book is part of a series but this like the others can definitely be read as a standalone. I particularly like books that feature book shops or libraries especially one that need to be saved. This book features a local bookshop that has been part of the community forever about to close. We meet Lexie who has just returned home to the area to try & work out what to do with her life. On discovering the sad news about the store, her favourite place, she sets about trying to save it, but artist Tobias Black has his own ideas about the store. A delightful story.

A deeper and more nuanced novel of second chances than I expected. You will root for Lexi and Tobias, both of whom discover things about themselves as they navigate their relationship. And books. And the Loch. A very good read.

I received this as an ARC from Harper Collins UK and also NetGalley. I really thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Even thought it is part of a larger series this also can be read as a standalone novel. I loved the authors writing style and loved the characters and plot!

I just finished reading The Bookshop By The Loch, the sixth book in the Scottish Escapes series. Although it's part of a series, I found it easy to read as a standalone. At first, it may seem like a lighthearted romantic story, but as you delve deeper, the layers reveal a much more complex tale filled with emotional trauma, relationship healing, chaos, redemption, and physical challenges that affect the lives of three families. This book is brimming with humour despite the difficult situations, which is one of the reasons I loved it. This is my first time reading Julie Shackman's work, and I highly recommend this book if you're looking for more than just a romance.

Lexie Dunbar is a bookworm who loves her local bookstore, Book Ends in Bracken Way, Scotland, more than anything else in the world. After being passed over for a promotion at her publishing firm, she takes a three-month leave of absence to reassess her life. She decides to return home, becomes the new manager of a struggling local bookstore, and revamps everything. This one decision byLexie will have a ripple effect, intertwining her story with others and impacting their lives as well as her own.

This was a fast paced story with enjoyable characters and great setting. At times it seemed like there was too much going on for such a fast paced story, and things didn't always read smoothly. Overall an enjoyable book by a wonderful author.
I received advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

An easy light read which was fast paced and fairly enjoyable overall. I did find that with so many plots/subplots happening in a short timeframe nothing was particularly in depth with a lot of predictability throughout. I blew hot and cold and a little frustrated with Lexie, the main female character, who seemed to overthink things and be rather shallow feeling unnecessarily affronted at times . I didn't enjoy this book by Julie as much as previous ones as there was just too much going on.