Getting Hot with the Scot: A Sometimes in Love Novel, by Melonie Johnson

Publication: St. Martin’s Paperbacks (April 30, 2019)

scot About the book:

IT’S TIME TO FLIRT WITH A MAN IN A KILT

Cassie Crow, a pop-culture reporter for a TV talk show, is focused on becoming a “serious” journalist. But when she stumbles into a kilted Highlander with a killer accent, Cassie decides that taking one night off from work and spending it with a sexy Scot couldn’t hurt. . .

Logan Reid has built a career on his charm, hosting a series of off-the-wall hijinks on the Web. But when the Scottish prankster meets the all-American, equal parts intelligent and irresistible Cassie, Logan realizes that one night of fun won’t be enough. Could it be that this career-focused, commitment-phobic couple is finally ready to take a chance at true and lasting love?

My Review

Today I was looking for something light and romantic to read so I finally sat down with Getting Hot with the Scott which is the first in Melonie Johnson’s Sometimes in Love series. This is about Cassie Crow and her meeting Logan Reid while traveling through Europe with her friends. Cassie meets Logan at a Scottish castle and the chemistry is instant. Thinking it will be only one night with her Scot, Cassie and her friends continue on to London for the last part of their amazing vacation. But she quickly learns that she will be seeing more of Logan.

I will start by saying that I enjoyed this book and am truly regretting not requesting the second in this series when it was available on NetGalley. Overall, I liked the main characters, as well as, the secondary characters with some exceptions.

Initially, I loved Cassie and thought she and her friends were intelligent, funny, interesting, etc. Her character was developed somewhat slowly in my opinion for a rom-com, but it was done well. Logan inspired instant lust for me and I found him charming, sexy, and funny. Again, his development was slow but it worked. I was a huge fan of all of Cassie’s friends (although Bonnie gave me whiplash several times with her mood swings) and I adored Theo. But… Truth be told, who Cassie and Logan were at their core was not someone that I would enjoy being around or want to know. Why?

My primary issue with Logan’s character was his repetitive dishonesty. If I’m reading a rom-com I certainly expect flawed characters, but his ongoing lying became distracting to me. Equally annoying were the numerous holes in his story ranging from his mysterious friendship with Theo to why he wouldn’t call his sister once he was in the States. By the end of the novel, I still didn’t feel as if I knew his character, despite him revealing more of himself and his emotions in the last 20% or so of the book.

Regarding Cassie, my main issue with her character was a complete lack of backbone and self-worth. Logan lied repeatedly and had one major screw-up. Then there were ongoing instances of him closing off, shutting down, and pushing her away that, at times, were downright cruel. Then there was Cassie’s evil co-worker Tiffany… That evil hag of a person was wretched to Cassie and obviously had been for quite some time. But with both Logan and Tiffany, Cassie rarely stood up for herself and was insanely quick at dolling out forgiveness. So if a character doesn’t even like themselves, how does the reader learn to like them?

Moving on from all of that, Getting Hot with the Scott was a good read. There are some very funny parts of the story, an eclectic cast of characters, and an original storyline. Melonie Johnson’s writing flows along flawlessly and reels you into the story from the very beginning until the last line. I especially loved the enormous variety of settings, accents, dialects, food, customs, and so on that were included in the story. If not for the previously mentioned issues I would say I absolutely loved this one, but it ended up being a fairly strong like instead.

*Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Paperbacks for providing this copy in exchange for my honest review.