Alice's Review: A Scottish Ferry Tale

Summary:  Cassie Wrentham goes to Scotland and has her heart broken. She is cynical enough to close the door on true love, but hopeful enough not to lock it. Instead she escapes, to an island off the west coast, where she meets someone who could change her life... if she'd only allow it. Does she? And who is this life-changing person, anyway? Are there dragons? Fairy godmothers? Chocolate cake? What about happily ever after?

Review:  I try not to read too many romance novels, mostly because I overdosed on them in my teenage years. Another reason is romance novels warp my sense of love in real life. I mean seriously, not everyone has a happy ending. Not every man loves you as much as you love him. Yes, I know I’m a total cynic, but when you spend your impressionable years believing in happy endings, it’s hard to deal with that broken heart when it those happy ending don’t come.

That being said, there was something about this A Scottish Ferry Tale that totally touched me. Maybe it was the May/September romance between Cassie and Ralph. Maybe it was the magical setting of Scotland. Maybe it was my recent adventure with a chance at love in the midst of healing my broken heart. I think it was probably a combination of all three. I loved this book. Ms. Volkers has quite a few nuggets of greatness, both about love and life, woven throughout the story.

The first comes from Ruth, Ralph’s older sister talking to Cassie about dealing with the death of a parent. She says, “People who’ve lost a parent as a child – it changes them. They try more, risk more, do more. They’re no’ as afraid of life because life has already handed them such a tragedy and they’re still on their feet. Everything else pales.”

I loved how Cassie describes her “incredible rainbow of love” for Ralph. She covers a spectrum of color, describing each. For example, Red is “for the deep love I’m afraid of.” Yellow is “for our friendship, for hours-long conversations and playing music together and cooking and just sitting together reading, or walking together, not saying a thing.” And my favorite, indigo for “love in the middle of the night, for waking to find you touching me, inside me, then falling away, so that in the morning I wonder if it might have been a dream.”

And finally Ralph to Cassie about perfect love. He says, “There is a time in your life when you stop dreaming up the perfect partner, the perfect relationship……You stop holding out for something better – because you understand what fills your heart, calms your soul. You understand that it won’t be perfect, that it can’t be. And you know if you ever find it, you will try your hardest to keep it.”

Man, I LOVE that kind of stuff. It gets me right in that spot I keep telling you all about.

I know my review and my final take don’t match. The reason I rated it so low is that there were some problems that good editing would fix. It’s a good, solid first effort and a great read. I really believe that Ms. Volkers’ writing is going to get stronger. She has a great ability creating interesting characters and a storyline that speaks to emotions. She showed me that it’s okay to believe in true love and in fairy tales and sometimes well, everyone needs a happy ending.


Final Take: 3/5