I did not see it going there. I know that probably makes me a little slow considering the name. But just the same I like when a book takes me by surprise. I’ve become a fan of the light or cozy fantasy. And maybe this is one of my first Romantasies?

Key and Lachlan are characters I just naturally rooted for. I connected and wanted them together from the start.

Enemies to lovers combined with grumpy sunshine kept me wanting more. And I loved the Scotland setting.

I’m not normally a fan of mythology but it works here.

This is the one to choose if you are looking for a little something different in your rom com.

4.5⭐️

This one was so good!! I loved the Scottish MMC and the mystery/suspense that the plot had. The spice was also HOT. Never in a million years did I think a Lochness monster romance would be so enjoyable but it was. It gave beauty and the beast vibes and the Scottish slang reminded me of outlander, so how could I not love it!

This is my second Lana Ferguson book and I really enjoyed it. I love how different each book has been. Under Lock and Key is definitely like no other romance I have read. There were some things I just did not see coming, and I would love to ask the author some questions. I look forward to more of her books.

Thank you to Berkley and PRH Audio for the advanced reader/listener copies of this book. All thoughts are my own!

I went into this with little expectations and an open mind as I very rarely read monster romance. And I was shocked by how much I absolutely loved this!

Lana writes such fantastically smutty books with just the right amount of romance. I thought this was such an interesting and fun concept; never would I have thought to make Nessie a man! It made for such an unique read and I loved how the family rivalry between these two really tied things together.

I listened to this via PRH Audio and I HIGHLY recommend it. Samantha Summers and Flint Park did such a fantastic job with the narration. They say sometimes you can't put a book down, but I couldn't stop listening to this one and I truly think the narrators played a big part in my overall enjoyment of the book.

This book was everything??? Was such a unique concept, pulled at my heartstrings while also making me blush. I love the two main characters so much as well as the plot. It made it more than your typical romance. The family drama had me hooked and the ending had me on the edge of my seat.

I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time.

I feel like this was a cute story overall, but there were certain parts where the pacing was a bit lacking. I love the setting against Scotland, such a beautiful place, and the inclusion of a well known Scottish legend. This book could have definitely benefitted from a change in pace or some added scenes to liven it up a bit. Overall a cute storty.

This was my first Loch Ness Monster romance and it was fun! I’m a sucker for good banter and this had it in spades plus a little mystery to keep things interesting. Lana Ferguson is becoming one of my auto-buy authors.

I listened to the audiobook, and I definitely recommend the dual narration for this one. The Scottish accent for Lachlan was lovely. I also think the narrators did a great job capturing tone and emotion. This is a fun rom com exploring the possibility that the Loch Ness monster is real- and a result of an ancient curse that only our main characters can solve together. If you can suspend reality for a bit, it was a really fun book.

This was honestly really disappointing. The lack of character development! I am really tired of an "enemies to lovers" relationship built on the man saying one thing one time to the woman in a tone she did not like. And I never got a sense of any deep attraction to them. And the book really dragged. Honestly a struggle to finish.

I was intrigued by the paranormal premise of Under Loch and Key, but it was a miss for me. Keyanna MacKay travels to Scotland to spread his ashes and uncover her father’s past. She meets Lachlan Greer, a brooding Scotsman with secrets of his own... of the Loch Ness variety. This is my first time reading Lana Ferguson, so I'm not sure if it's her normal style, but I found the story started to drag in the middle. Too much internal monologuing slows down key moments. I picked the book up and set it down several times before finishing.

If there's one cryptid I believe in whole heartedly, it's the Loch Ness Monster. I rock with Nessie because she is truly my girl. So I knew I had to read this book, though it surprised me that Nessie was a boy.

This book had great enemies to lovers banter along with a fun romance. Sometimes I had trouble imagining how some of the monster part of this book worked but the romance stayed the focus point which I appreciated.

Lana Ferguson has such a gift for writing unique but fun romance books.

Definitely a cool plot line - with an interesting beginning, a little slow in the middle and then picked back up. Overall, moments of funny and emotional, adventure and of course some mystery and magic. I enjoyed the characters. You get grumpy vs sunshine and forced proximity with this one as well as Scottish lore and magic. I liked this author's other book and overall enjoyed this one.
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkeley for the complimentary advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is a great first step into the water of monster romance if you have never given it a try before. I liked the setting in Scotland and the Loch Ness monster was not a romance I had explored before.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

“𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎; 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒐.”

Okay, this one was cute! The banter was zesty & I loved the ending so much. It was such a perfect little wrapped up HEA.

While this is technically a monster romance, I'd say it was more romance than monster. We get a couple of scenes where it's kind of fun, but other than that it's more about the characters figuring out the curse and what that means for their relationship. I was hoping for a little bit more, but I'll take what I can get.

I would definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for the following:
▫️monster intrigue or a foray into monster romance
▫️enemies to lovers
▫️witty banter
▫️spells/riddle breaking
▫️Scotland setting

4.5 stars. This was such a fun read! It's a take on the lochness monster I didn't expect to see, but totally appreciated. The mystery kept me guessing. A good rec for paranormal romance fans!

The lochness monster is a girl because he name is Nessie, right? Nope, the lochness monster is not a girl, it's definitely a man, a very broody and large man. Lana Ferguson does an amazing job of weaving fantasy into this rom com and sprinkling in plot twists. Of course the FMC is the key to the prophecy to break the spell.

I was really unsure about this book at first but ended up loving it! I really enjoyed that Alix was going back to her roots and discovering her family history not only about the relationship. This was also my first real paranormal romance, I was unsure what to expect, and although there were parts I thought a little strange, overall I really enjoyed!

This was such a cute story with an amazing backdrop. As an American who has always dreamed of travelling to Scotland, this setting was atmospheric and whimsical.
At some points, the plot was losing me and the story did not feel like it had a natural flow. I found myself putting the Book down multiple times because the pacing of the overall plot was not holding my attention.
The romance felt instant but did grow on me throughout the story.

I love cryptids, but I really love the Loch Ness Monster. Nessie is my favorite legend, and one of my biggest bucket list items is to go sit on the shores of Loch Ness for a few weeks and try to spot her myself. This is the first romance I’ve ever seen that centers on Nessie, so I was very excited to read it! The blurb is pretty vague, so as not to spoil anything, so I will also be vague! We meet Keyanna, still mourning the loss of her father. He had never shared much about his growing up years with her, and they never went to Scotland together to visit her family. His dying wish was for her to return and spread his ashes at Loch Ness. While there, she meets her grandparents and other extended family. She doesn’t get the warmest welcome from her grandma, but the rest of her family quickly embraces her. She also meets Lachlan, who works on her family’s property even though he hates the entire family. Their meeting is cold, but there’s also a small spark of intrigue. As he and Key get to know one another better, secrets are revealed on both sides and feelings grow.

The book starts off really strong, but the middle two thirds of this book really dragged for me. I was very intrigued by the mystery, the dangerous loch, the family secrets, the magic, and folklore, but I’m not going to lie… this was a slog to get through at times. We spend a lot of time in both characters’ heads while they sift through their feelings, worries, concerns, etc. It got quite repetitive, because their thoughts mirrored each others’. I really loved Lachlan. He’s a grumpy cinnamon roll, who has been very hurt in the past and is alone in this world. He doesn’t know where his future will take him. He’s very loyal and sweet and his ability to love deeply tugged at my heartstrings because of all the heartbreak he’s endured. Key was meh for me. She came off as both very smart and very dumb at times. She pretends to be humble, which is a pet peeve of mine. But I liked them together, and I was pulling for them the entire way through. I also liked Key’s cute grandpa and her grandma grew on me by the end.

The romance didn’t do it for me, and it’s kind of hard to explain. The blurb doesn’t specifically call this book a monster romance even though, in hindsight, the cover and blurb hint at it very heavily. Still, though, the monster romance genre is different than a romance with humans who are not fully human. I guess I was expecting the same kind of situation as a vampire or werewolf romance. But I avoid “monster romance”. It’s just not my thing, and I didn’t realize that’s what I was getting with this one. Many monster romances I read about have some spicy elements that I don’t find appealing. The spice level in this book is not what I expect from books with covers that look like this one. The scenes are much longer, more intense, more detailed, and contain word choices that made me uncomfortable.

I actually wish there was no romance in this at all and that Key and Lachlan were just friends who maybe fell in love in an epilogue or something. Their relationship is what I would consider to be “forbidden”, but it’s also insta-love and I had a hard time wrapping my head around how they were able to open up and trust each other so quickly when history shows them that they shouldn’t have. I would have preferred a stronger focus on the lore, history, magic system, mystery, etc. I love medieval folklore and magic and really enjoyed learning the history of two dueling Scottish families and how their history has continued to spread mystery throughout this area of Scotland up to the present day. I loved the parts where someone discovered something important or a revelation was made. There’s some suspense and searching and I loved all of that. I loved the descriptions of Scotland and the loch and I loved exploring a medieval castle. I loved Nessie. But then, circling back to the issue of pacing, things dragged a lot in between the parts I loved. The major climax happened with an hour still left in the book and I remember wondering what they heck they were going to do with with last hour. This book was extremely long and it wasn’t necessary. I wish everything had been tightened up more so momentum wasn’t lost. I will also note that there’s more swearing in this book than I’m used to, and found it to be distracting.

Bottom line, there were parts of this I really loved and parts that I skipped entirely. I wish I had been more aware of what I was getting into with this book (although, it’s Nessie so I’m sure I would have read it anyway), but I made it work for me by skipping the parts I wasn’t interested in and ended up really enjoying the story I got as a result. I even got emotional at times because of some sweet family moments and some swoony things Lachlan said. I don’t think I’ll be reading more books by this author, though, because the storytelling didn’t work for me.

A wonderful wonderful love story and one that I was not expecting to pull my heart strings as much as it did.
The setting was wonderful and the I was really impressed with the research that was done on Scottish colloquialisms and culture. Lachlans mannerisms and speech really drew me to him and I loved to see the Scottish tongue shine through.
I thought Keyanna was a wonderful female lead who was both strong and soft in all the best ways. I really empathized with her grief and her journey to fulfill her dad’s wishes. Her relationship with her grandma and grandpa and their growth was one of my favorite parts,
The romance was sizzling and HOT and didn’t draw away from the romance and plot. It was wonderful. I really enjoyed the pacing as well and I can’t wait to read more by Lana!!!