Highland Fling by Katie Fforde

Every now and then I fancy something that looks like an easy, frothy read, and since I'd just read Going Dutch by Katie Fforde, which mixed "chicklit"-type romance with a story about people living on and working with narrowboats, and quite enjoyed it, I thought I'd give Highland Fling a go when I saw it in the library.  It's about Jenny Porter, who is a Virtual Assistant but has taken on a more hands-on role for a particular client (who of course she's never met).  She also uses her working trip to Scotland to re-consider her current relationship with Henry, but it isn't long before she seems to be doing just as Henry predicted: everything that anyone asks of her. Before she's even reached the house where she'll be working, she's all but taken on the running of a mobile tea and butty van, she eventually takes over cooking at the Dalmain's, agrees to organise a dinner party for sixteen people, and of course she's saving the village via saving it's ailing woollens mill. Of course there's also a dashingly annoying tall dark stranger for her to deal with...  And it was an easy read, and it was frothy, and I did quite enjoy it, but...


...oddly enough, even though I thought I knew what to expect - or not expect - I was still somehow left wanting more.  I didn't quite like Jenny, or feel particularly sympathetic to her - I wanted to give her a good shake, and most of the other characters as well.  I wasn't keen on the way the tall dark stranger treated her, and I don't even want to go into the way she seemed to be living off Henry in return for being his girlfriend... He didn't seem to treat her well either - but from the way she seemed to have gone into their relationship, neither did she he!  At the same time she came across as almost over-competent in some ways (magically re-organising the mill and setting it up for a whole new future, cooking a wonderful meal for the dinner party and preparing the whole house as well) and yet unable to safely go for a winter's walk on her own, or to say "no" to anyone. Yet she was also strong enough to throw tea at Mr Tall Dark Stranger, and snap back at him when required...  Of course we're all a mess of ridiculous contrasts, but hers just didn't seem to quite fit together to make one whole real person... 

I felt a little bit unfulfilled like this at the end of Going Dutch, but at the same time at least I'd been shown a world that was slightly sideways of my own - it was good fun crossing the sea to Amsterdam! - and so not having complete sympathy for the lovers-to-be didn't strike me quite as much.  In Highland Fling, though, I felt as if I was constantly waiting for that one thing to happen that never quite did.  Which did at least keep me reading to the end of the book!  And I gather from reviews that lots of other people liked it, so...