{Book Review} Work in Progress by Kat Mackenzie

This book screamed my name from the description. Girl running away from problems after a hard season. Literary themed travel tour. In the UK. Scottish hero. Uh, hello, yes please. Thank you @avonbooks for the review copy!

WORK IN PROGRESS by Kat Mackenzie was a fantastic blend of quirky foibles and real emotion. It was a little over the top to start but given the circumstances, it didn’t bother me. The travel through the UK and some of my favorite cities in the world was amazing. I immediately wanted to book a plane ticket back and could imagine so much of where Robbie took Alice and his elderly tour group around.

The addition of the tour group being all elderly ladies was chef’s kiss. Their stories, ornery moment, and stories from life brought a lot of levity to the story and I loved it. I highlighted ao many quotes about life and love. If you’ve been to the UK or always wanted to go, this book will transport you immediately. I loved this in all its chaos and misunderstanding and moments of clarity. This is such a fun read but also had great moments of growth and emotion.

**𝑨𝑹𝑪 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘** 𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒊𝒏 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒃𝒚 𝑲𝒂𝒕 𝑴𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒏𝒛𝒊𝒆

Release Date: January 14, 2025

4.5⭐️2.5🌶

This book is so heartwarming and real! It was exactly what I needed this week to lift my spirits! I have to thank Kat Mackenzie for making me want to go on a bus tour of Scotland....right now! This book was so magical and whimsical with its adorable little bus full of adorable older ladies. This book gave me all the wanderlust for a country that I've always longed to see. I think I'm going to have to move Scotland up on my bucket list!

Alice is nearing 30 and has just lost her job and her fiancé. What better time to travel to Scotland? She books a super affordable last minute flight to Edinburgh and signs up for a Literary Bus Tour of Scotland (specifically for female tourists). Except go off the rails, starting with her flight to Edinburgh. At the end of the harrowing 36 hour flight, she meets a man at the baggage claim counter that will do nothing but get in her way, who later turns out to be the one and only tour guide for her 3 week long trip.

Alice slowly warms to the bus full of older ladies, and the handsome tour guide also starts to grow on her. From sharing her story with a group of experience women, she realizes that no ones life is perfect and many things happen for the better. While her ex was very good on paper, she comes to realize that she didn't have any real passion with him. But she may have found real passion with the Scottish, worldly tour guide.

I ate this book up, and left no crumbs!


Themes/Tropes:
🍁Rom Com
🍁Contemporary Romance
🍁Traveling to find yourself
🍁Scotland
🍁Trip of your dreams
🍁Enemies-to-lovers
🍁Finding your passion

TW:
✨Cheating
✨Loss (past)

This was just what I needed going into the new year! This book is cozy and cute with the perfect amount of witty banter and tension between the main characters. I loved how the author brought in the wisdom and storied past of each of the older women on the tour. I loved them nearly as much as the main characters. You'll be booking a trip to Scotland and searching for Kat Mackenzie's next book once you finish this book!

A delightful enemies-to-lovers romance that I thoroughly enjoyed. Alice, the main character, spends her life’s savings on a three-week tour of the UK to escape her shambled life. Along the way, she meets Robbie, and true to the trope, they really hate each other at first. But as the story unfolds, you can’t help but root for their dynamic to change—and when it does, it’s so satisfying.

Told through Alice’s point of view, Robbie comes across as both a jerk and a gentleman, reminded me of Elizabeth Bennet’s initial view of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. By the end, I was completely won over by Robbie, realizing just how wrong I had been about him—and wanting more of him!

One of my favorite aspects of the book was the vivid descriptions of the places Alice and Robbie visited. The sightseeing, cozy bookshops, peaceful moments with tea, and overall atmosphere left me longing for a trip like this myself. The side characters were another highlight—they were hilarious and brought so much life to the story.

That said, this book isn’t completely clean. There are some spicy scenes and frequent profanity, but if you’re like me, you can skim or skip over the steamier moments. Overall, Work in Progress is an enjoyable romance with humor, heart, and a travel itinerary that will leave you dreaming of your next vacation.

Thank you Avon and Harper Voyager for my ARC. This is my honest and voluntary review.

It is hard to believe that Work in Progress is Kat Mackenzie’s debut novel!

It is such a good book!

I gave it five stars!

Let’s talk about it.

Work in Progress is a rom-com with just the right amount of spice. Alice has just been through a horrible breakup, her life is totally upside down, and so she makes a rash decision to go on a women’s tour visiting literary highlights in England and Scotland. Robbie is the tour owner and operator, a charmer who’s adored by all of his clients.

What Alice soon discovers is that the trip is not the young ladies’ jaunt through the landmarks of the UK that she envisioned, but rather a journey with a number of senior citizens and a questionable service dog. Robbie is their knowledgeable and helpful Scottish driver, leading the women on the tour with wit and care.

While Alice and Robbie first meet in an unpleasant exchange at the airport, which then festers so much that Alice really cannot stand him, there is a growing attraction between these two young characters. Perhaps it’s no surprise when they have an explosive kiss, but the ride to get there is a fun one.

Work in Progress is a true modern rom-com. I loved how Alice befriends the ladies and learns many life lessons from them. I enjoyed getting to explore all of the different sites and bites with the group as they drove around for their tour. The book is very funny with numerous laugh-out-loud moments.

I look forward to Kat Mackenzie’s future books. I hope she’s got something coming down the road soon.

This was a fast read for me. Overall it was a fun, wisdom parting, heartwarming, and witty book. The banter and wisdom scattered throughout provided for a cozy read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Alice is trying to jumpstart her life. After her boyfriend/fiance of 6 years ends things and gives her ring to the girl he cheats with, she is in a downward spiral. She has lost her job and is just lost. She feels like she has no direction and is lost. Since her ex wouldn't travel with her, one night she gets the idea to book a tour. It is an all women tour and she thinks this is just the thing she needs.
Unfortunately, on her way to the UK she runs into one thing after another that threatens to ruin her trip. Not to mention the rude guy who can see that she is having the worst day of her life and doesn't seem to care. She just needs to catch her tour bus and get this trip underway. Of course when she gets to the bus, she sees that the rude guy is none other than her guide and things are about to get interesting. The tour is full of "mature" women and she is pretty sure she can't take anymore.
I loved the way this book was written. It doesn't hurt that I am an enemies to lovers fan who is also someone who wants to do this exact tour. I have dreams about setting off and seeing real life castles just like Alice did. Seeing the countryside and all the fun things from Jane Austen novels. It also helped that there were Bridget Jones references because she is an icon in my mind. The romance was sweet and Robbie was just the cutest ever. The banter was on point and so was the tenderness that he showed to Alice. 4.5 stars.
Thanks to Avon, Netgalley and Kat Mackenzie for an early copy.

This is one of those books that had so, so much promise and just let me down in such an intense way it feels like a crime has been committed. In full disclosure, normally this book would have been a DNF for me by about the 30% mark, however being an ARC and a buddy read, I pushed through, the DMs between my fellow reader and me the only things keeping me afloat amidst this sludge of unhappy prose.

Unfortunately for me, the FMC, Alice, is not just unhappy and hurt, she’s downright mean. From the very beginning, we see her throwing tantrums and getting extremely upset about just about everything that’s happening- something, she originally assures us, is NOT normal for her, but she’s going to say something this time. But it appears this is actually her entire personality? The meaner she got, the happier she seemed to be with herself, and it was quite troubling to see, especially after her inner monologues where she told herself she should be kind and thank the person who just did a whole lot of favors for her, and then immediately changing course and thinking nah, it would be more fun to be mean instead.

While I think I could have loved this book with a different FMC, as the male lead, Robbie, and the old lady companions on the bus tour were charming enough, I just could not buy that any of them had any interest in being Alice’s friend- or lover, for that matter. These women took Alice under their wing, doted upon her, told her their stories, and taught her all these lessons, and I honestly could not figure out why. She never seemed to grow except off-page, where we would hear about her gradual changes in mood and perspective, but we never given the actual opportunity to see these things happening.

Ridiculous bad luck followed her through the entire book, starting with unfortunate and veering off into downright absurd and unbelievable- and certain plot points became important only when it suited the narrative, then slunk back into darkness until they were needed again. I kept going back and forth between pages, wondering if I had missed things that suddenly made absolutely no sense. Did we EVER find out why she lost her job 6 months before this trip?? We may never know.

The lack of communication was extremely frustrating, and there were a few points where Alice simply REFUSED to ask questions, clarify anything, or talk about any of the feelings she was having, because it felt so much easier to just get mad about whatever she thought was going on instead. Even in the third act, as the last few chapters unfolded, I had to go back and re-read a few different sections, sure I had missed that very pivotal and vital conversation that apparently never took place.

I really am sad that this one didn’t work for me, but it really was a flat and frustrating story that I ultimately cannot recommend.

If this romcom debut doesn't make you want to book a flight to Scotland I don't know what will!! I absolutely loved this Scottish literary bus tour romance between American, Alice Cooper, fresh off a breakup and looking for some adventure, and the grumpy, snarky Scotsman, Robbie who is leading the three week tour with an all female group of elderly lady passengers.

This was FUNNY, full of great banter, heartwarming intergenerational friendships, LOTs of great Scottish sightseeing side stops, Bridget Jones' Diary vibes, anxiety rep (Alice) and was also excellent on audio narrated by Angela Dawe.

There was some miscommunication involved but Robbie was secretly such a swoony, sweet book boyfriend I fell hard for him myself. Highly recommended for fans of books like Two for the road by Chantel Guertin or Kilt trip by Alexandra Kiley.

Huge thanks to the author and publisher for sending me a physical ARC and NetGalley and HarperAudio for an ALC copy. I switched between the print and audiobook and enjoyed both.

Steam level: fade to black/closed door

This one is really special. The enemies-to-lovers on a roadtrip across the UK is top-notch, but set among the group of elderly ladies, it really couldn’t get any better. I was laughing out loud on every other page, and it was still one of the most heart warming books I’ve read in a long while.

The cultural and literary references were right up my alley, especially everything with The Moth.
I wished for a little more toward the end, maybe a little more of an angsty goodbye or some more insight into the intimacy they develop, but for folks that like neat endings and fade-to-black, I highly recommend!

Loved it! 4.5 stars. Thank you for the early access!

Alice just got her heart broken and lost her job so she drunkenly signs up for a three week bus tour through England and Scotland. Maybe, just maybe connecting with her roots will help her find herself again.

She arrives only to find the tour is for the geriatric set and the tour guide is the rude guy from the airport. And after an unending series of misfortunate events, Alice is miserable.

I’m gonna stop there. I would have DNFed save for the fact that it was a buddy read and Cammie and I really worked some stuff out in our DMs.

This book did not work for me at all. Let me count the ways:
•Alice is the meanest, most immature romantic leads I’ve ever read. I tried to empathize with her initially but within two chapters, she’s off the rails and I wanted to…give her a stern talking to.
•The amount of unfortunate events that befall her go from kinda funny to kinda sad to absolutely unbelievable.
•The enemies to lovers lasts for more than 65% of the book NO THANK YOU. Honestly, Robbie grew on me and I was hoping he’d meet someone else. It made zero sense that he fell in love with her.
•And while we’re at it, the reverse meet cute between Robbie and Alice resulted in such a wild amount of disdain as to be infuriating - take a nap and get past your jet lag then try to be a decent human you wee bawbag.
•The pacing is slow, only made to feel slower by the fact that there’s no one to root for.
•The crucial misunderstanding just as they are about to get together is honestly dumb and feels cruel.

What did I like?
•The old ladies are mostly a hoot.
•The scenic tour through Scotland and England was well described.

I cannot recommend this one.

Honestly if it’s a book set in Scotland I’m probably going to read it. Add in a literary tour? I’m sat.

Alice Cooper has a rockstar name but does not have a rockstar personality. She’s had her whole life planned out and when her fiancé cheats, she discovers that even the best laid plans don’t always work out. So in order to dig herself out of her depression she spontaneously books a literary bus tour of England and Scotland. Only to find upon arrival it wasn’t quite what she planned for. Especially the hot Scot tour guide.

The banter between Alice and Robbie is delightful even though half the time I was like, you’ve to realize this is just Scottish humor and he’s flirting with you. Unfortunately she did not realize this. I loved the Bridget jones references and the lists. The details about the sites, the side stories and the literature. The ending was fantastic.

Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the arc.

Slow to start but once I got into it, I inhaled this book. I love the way the octogenarian bus tour attendees are described and the ways that Alice connects with and appreciates them. The slow burn romance was so good too.

i liked the plot setup and the names of the characters- but that’s unfortunately all that i liked about this book. the writing wasn’t my cup of tea - it didn’t flow and made me have to go back multiple times to understand what was going on and i felt no chemistry between the two MCs. I think there was just TOO much detail and not enough plot and depth to the characters. the little tidbits about the country were pretty cool though

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.5 Loved it, would read it again

Man, these people REALLY hate each other. I kept thinking that while reading the first third of this book. I didn’t expect literal enemies in a rom-com, but that’s where it starts. It ends somewhere I didn’t expect to be - heart full and happy.

Alice Cooper’s life has imploded. She’s lost everything she thought was important. Cut to an idyllic bus trip throughout the UK with a hot Scottish bus driver and a bunch of octogenarians, and you have a cute story.

What I loved:
The book is called Work in Progress, and Alice's arc is truly that. She takes a long, hard look at herself and what’s important.
Hilarity ensues at every point in this book
The fellow travelers and their stories were adorable
Witty writing and funny dialogue

What I didn’t love:
Perhaps because I am a people-pleaser, I could never imagine myself saying some of the things Alice says because they are stone-cold zingers
Part of me wonders how Robbie took all the verbal abuse
One of the main plot points on why they were not together was based on a misunderstanding that could have been cleared up with one conversation or question.

I didn’t know what to expect, but I loved this book. I ended up rooting for Alice and Robbie to figure out their long-distance relationship. I loved the supporting cast of characters that made me wish I had friends like them and added so much flavor to the story.

ARC received through NetGalley

Thank you to Book Club Girl, Avon Paperback, and NetGalley for an early read in exchange for an honest review – Five Stars.

I devoured this book! American, non-impulsive Alice Cooper impulsively books a 3-week bus tour of the British Isles. A gorgeous, knowledgeable Scot is the tour guide. Add in a group of elderly, sharp-witted women, historic castles, cozy pubs, and an enemies-to-lovers adventure — all wrapped together to create the perfect romance novel. I highly recommend it!

The wisdom of octogenarian, white-haired ladies with sage life advice is an added bonus.

Thanks to Avon for the gifted copy!

This book makes me want to go to Scotland immediately (I mean, really the whole UK). Like I could literally make a list of all the places the bus tour went and go on the best trip ever! This was a laugh-out-loud funny book that also had a swoony romance and lots of growth for our FMC Alice -- it was so well-rounded. There are lots of Bridget Jones references if you're a fan, and lots of other books mentioned that take place across the UK. If you enjoy playful banter, enemies-to-lovers, and meddling old ladies, this one is for you!

A gorgeous read that I struggled to put down. Loved every minute of it. The friendships and stories were lovely. Satisfying ending. Nothing cloying and the romance was actually nice and well written. Perfect read.

Sweet read! A nod to Bridget Jones with a fun group of characters. Really good humor.

Some parts felt a little too summary heavy. The author packs a lot into this book and very character has a side story. It got hard to keep everyone straight. The ending felt rushed too.

Funny and warm with cutting edge snark😄

4.5🌟 stars
I picked this up for the book's setting (a bus tour of Britain), and fell in love with the confrontational relationship between American Alice Cooper and Scottish tour guide Robbie Brodie.

Alice is almost a slapstick Lucy Ricardo with the situations she ends up in starting from the very first pages of the story. She identifies Robbie as her nemesis right off and the sparks fly. Smirks, eye rolls, cutting retorts all pepper this enemies to lovers romance. But it's more, with a lot of life at the crossroads soul searching and a coterie of senior women (and a dog!) who lend humor and warmth. It was a real delight to accompany them on their three week tour of Britain.

The intimate bits don't really fall into the steamy side of romance; they are quite dreamy, though, and suited my inclination for less mechanics, more feelings, please. And I liked that Alice and Robbie had heart to heart talks discussing troubles in their past and ambitions for the future. The chemistry was strong, but it came with some real communication once the heights of their battles were put behind them. And the fact that their lives were based in different countries was not just written off or magically solved, adding realism to their situation. Cute ending too!

Kat Mackenzie came up with a really entertaining story, here, and I would definitely read more of her work.

Thanks to publishers Avon and Harper Voyager, and NetGalley, for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

Review shared on 1/5/24 on Goodreads, Waterstones, Bookbub, and to Barnes & Noble. To be shared on kobo and Google Play when published.