Love On Loch
Are romances set in Scotland the Key to my heart? Maybe!
This week we are back in my favorite romance location, Scotland, in Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson. The following post is mostly PG-13, minus some brief discussion of Monster appendages. Spoilers.
Keyanna McKay is going through it. Her dad died, and her mom died in childbirth so now it’s just her out here in the world. So she does what any smart redhead with a Scottish parent would do. She returns to her dad’s hometown in Greerloch. Once there, she is almost immediately accosted by sheep in her ancient rental car, and believe it or not, things continue to get worse.
While the shepherd looks at her car, which was stalled out on the road when the sheep appeared, she ventures out to the loch with her dad’s ashes. She ignores every single ‘Keep Out’ and ‘Danger’ sign, thinking that they’re just empty threats, and no one’s around anyways. It’s not like she’s going to climb the really jagged rocks to dump her dad’s ashes in the loch.
Turns out the signs were there for a reason, and she is saved from nearly falling in by Hot Guy McScot Lachlan Greer. Lachlan thinks Key is very pretty and very dumb and does not hesitate to call her stupid and yell at her for ignoring all the signs that are on his land.
Since her car is being towed to the shop, Lachlan drives Key up to her family’s farm, where he also works as a farmhand. Her grandmother, Rhona McKay, is less than pleased to see her and initially sends her away, but relents and lets her in. Key’s grandfather Finlay is overjoyed to have his granddaughter in his life, however, and says that Rhona will come around. Key also meets her cousin Brodie, who is on leave from his job with the historical society so he can work on an ancestry project.
Key goes to the pub with Brodie after the rough start. The twins who own the pub, Blair and Rory, ask inquiring questions about what she’s doing so far from home, and when she mentions her father’s stories about the Loch Ness Monster, they tell her about Loch Land, conveniently while brodie nips off to the bathroom. Lachlan (lol) knows exactly what the twins are doing and does not spoil the joke, letting Key believe this really might bring her some answers.
In the morning, Finlay shows her around the farm, and she feels little sparks of… something? Is it just being back in her father’s homeland or is it something more??? She doesn’t have too long to ponder because she’s off to Loch Land! Turns out Loch Land is a kiddie attraction and Key’s been had. She does go through the exhibits, and gets some odd looks. And who should she find waiting for her outside the building? Why it’s Lachlan, who laughs it up about the twins pulling a fast one. He also talks about how he and brodie never got on, even as kids.
Long time readers will know that I don’t love Small Town Romances (if you’re new here, hi! Enjoy this new bit of lore about yours truly!) But I will always make an exception for small towns in Scotland. I think it’s because there are less weird religious and conservative undertones than in American small towns, and no racially fraught histories that also come with the idea of an “American Small Town.” But hey, Scotland? That’s fine. I haven’t read any other non-American small town romances, so Idk if Scotland is just special all on its own or if it’s just American Small Town romances that I don’t love.
Regardless, I do love watching a big city girl (Key is from New York) learn to live with, and eventually love, farm animals. I personally think highland cows are adorable, so of course there are bonus points for the livestock in this story being such. Lachlan is still in complete denial about how into Key he is, and is still trying his best to be a thorn in her side, even when he helps her complete farm work. He has bigger problems to deal with than this pretty city slicker! Key is trying her best to adjust, writing Lachlan off as a (hot) jerk, but she and Rhona are still struggling to get along.
And remember earlier when Key felt ~something~ when she was on a tour of the farm with Finlay? Well, now her window won’t open, and when she gives up trying to shimmy it loose and walks away, it creaks open of it’s own accord. Now Key is certain something weird is happening.
Key finally gets the chance to spread her dads ashes and upon dumping them into the loch is immediately pushed off the rocks into the loch. Once she surfaces and gets her bearings, she discovers there are two loch ness monsters! One is trying to eat her, the other is trying to protect her and gets bit in the process. The one that got bit hauls itself onto the beach after her and Key uses her magic powers to heal the nasty gash in it’s side and then passes out after expending so much energy.
She comes to next to a naked and asleep Lachlan and puts two and two together, which he denies. He just ~happened~ to be out swimming in the nude and took a nap. Key is of course not buying this, and presses him about being the real life actual Loch Ness Monster. Reluctantly, he breaks down and tells her the story of how his family was cursed centuries ago by a kelpie who is a McKay ancestor and now all the men turn into Nessie. The other monster trying to eat Key? That’s Lachlan’s dad.
The story as Lachlan knows it is that the Kelpie betrayed Lachlan’s ancestor and just turned them into Loch Ness Monsters basically for the hell of it. Key, feeling responsible for her ancestors actions, insists on helping him. He agrees, despite the prophecy (which he leaves out when he tells it to Key) that says “for the end only comes with a daughter of McKay” which he assumes is like the end of his line or something, because what else could it possibly mean?
Key wants to get as much info as possible, and despite Lachlan saying he’s already been to it, they go to the abandoned castle that used to belong to Lachlan’s ancestors. On the way it rains, so they take refuge in a barn, where Key almost burns everything down when she and Lachlan almost kiss and she accidentally sets the hay on fire. They put it out, but of curse they cannot put out the fires in their hearts. When thet get to the castle, Key is stoked to explore a real life actual castle (I mean, I also would be pretty excited).
They find where Lachlan’s ancestor kept the kelpie imprisoned on accident because of Key’s magic powers, which they’ve definitely decided are magic powers for sure, leading her to a door. The door is not actually what was important, and Key falls through the floor into the chamber below. It’s not a nice prison, but they fin evidence that someone released the kelpie, instead of her escaping like they previously thought. The castle is not exactly structurally sound, though, and when beams start falling Lachlan shields Key and they end up pressed together against the wall, and that almost kiss from earlier becomes a real kiss.
Of course Lachlan freaks out and is weird about the whole thing, and Key cares about the discovery but cares more about the kissing thing, so she confronts Lachlan about it. This of course leads to more kissing, and then some sex where we get a glimpse of the beast within when Lachlan all of a sudden gets claws and Key’s magic knocks all the lights out. Keys into the claws, even though Lachlan is a bit tripped out about it, since it’s never happened before. Because of the claw incident, Lachlan is more worried about losing control and never turning back to his human form, stuck as a monster like his father, and the hunt for the journal intensifies.
There is a brief interlude of highland games where Lachlan gets a little possessive over Key, who is the prize for the games, which are being put on by the twins.
Key finds the journal under the floorboards in her dad’s bedroom, which I can’t believe was not the first place she looked (although maybe I watch too much Masterpiece: Mystery!). It turns out Lachlan’s ancestor Laird Greer was a power hungry jerk who basically held Sorcha, the Kelpie, hostage for her magic. Tavish McKay found the bridle and set her free because they fell in love and THEN Sorcha cursed the Greers. The Journal was written by Tavish, and is mostly just a record of day to day life on the farm. Key also discovers the prophecy written in the journal in its entirety, and realizes that Lachlan has been keeping the last half of the prophecy a secret and is not real happy. The journal also has a bit written by Sorcha about how a McKay daughter can break the curse by forgiving a Greer man, but that bit isn’t important right now because Key is pissed.
She and Lachlan fight and Key needs space so she walks away. As soon as she’s out the door, Lachlan is like I fucked up I need to set this right, so he goes to follow her, but what’s this? A knock at the door? Is it Key?! Nope it’s not and whoever it is knocks Lachlan out and drags him off.
Key does some reflecting on her life and her dad and how everyone is ding things out of love and it occurs to her that she knows where the bridle is (again, this girl must have never read or watched a mystery in her life)! She rushes to tell Lachlan except all she finds is a piece of wood and a puddle of blood in the grass. She uses her magic powers to follow Lachlan’s trail to the graveyard where she finds him and… Brodie? Yeah, it turns out he went off the deep end and figured out Lachlan is the Loch Ness monster and he’s going to prove to the historical society he’s not crazy.
A fight ensues between Lachlan and Brodie. Key finds the bridle, it’s in the graveyard where we saw it the first time, and brings it back to try to get Brodie to back off. He instead stabs Lachlan, takes the bridle, and when he goes to finish the job Key sets his pants on fire and he trips and knocks himself out. Key puts out the fire, but the bridle is destroyed. She heals Lachlan, and it turns out she doesn’t need the bridle to break the curse on him (and his dad).
Our epilogue moves us ahead a few years, and Key and Lachlan are still living in Greerloch, with their darling birthday girl daughter Sorcha, who has inherited her mother’s powers. Key also still has her powers, which is amazing because there is nothing I like less than the magic girlies losing their powers at the end of the book (except maybe pregnancy tropes).
I appreciate Ferguson’s ability to toe the line when it comes to monster peens. There is a scene where Lachlan gets scales and also his normal man dick becomes a monster dick, significantly larger and with ridges. He also has a serpent tongue at one point? And it was almost a little too ridiculous, but somehow she makes it work. It helped that Key was super into all of it. And based on the epilogue she obviously wasn’t too disappointed that he was just a normal human after she broke the curse.
This book had a lot of Dad TM themes, and I appreciate that no one was a deadbeat dad, it was still kind of a lot. I think it’s tempered a little bit by her relationship, and initial lack thereof, with Rhona. And I appreciate the acknowledgement through out the book that the granddaughter she’s never met coming back after being estranges for 27 years is a lot to handle, coupled with the death of her son.
I think at this point I can comfortably say that my favorite kind of contemporary romance is the kind set in Scotland with a cutie American girl finding the love of her life in a grumpy and kilted man. Is this because I want to be a cutie American girl finding the Scottish love of my life among the highlands? Maybe!
Other Things I Read and Watched This Week
Skeleton Crew - this was so cute and wholesome. I’m glad that the adults weren’t totally useless, even though my favorite trope is ‘Adults Are Useless.’
I’m working my way through Onyx Flame, so probably next week you can expect some thoughts.