Highland Games by Evie Alexander review: A steamy Scottish romance

If you need a steamy Scottish romance book, Evie Alexander has a treat (or more!). You’ll want to check out Highland Games by Evie Alexander right now.

Disclaimer: I did get a copy of this book for free in return for an honest review.

Highland Games by Evie Alexander is the first in her Kinloch series. I’m probably not going to read the rest of the books after this, but that doesn’t take away from the fun and cuteness that this first book in the series offers. I just didn’t connect to the characters enough to continue the story.

What is Highland Games by Evie Alexander about?

Let’s just start with a quick introduction. The book follows Zoe, a young woman who has always played life safe. After the death of her great uncle, she decides to pack up her life and move to the cabin that he left her in his will. However, it’s not the dreamy cabin that she remembers from the past. A lot of work is needed to make it habitable.

Meanwhile, Rory had plans to move into the cabin and live in the wilderness alone. That isn’t an option when Zoe turns up, and he decides to do what he can to get her to leave.

Of course, sparks fly. The two realize that they’re interested in each other. There is a problem, though. Rory is hiding an important secret that could change everything between them.

A predictable romance novel

Highland Games by Evie Alexander isn’t anything that you’ve not read before. The entire story is predictable. Girl and boy don’t like each other, they end up falling for each other, but a secret threatens to tear them apart. I’m not going to give away what the secret is. I’ll let you read the book to find out.

While I loved the setting and some comments like finding Sam Heughan (Alexander must be an Outlander fan), the predictability was somewhat disappointing. I’m not sure anyone can really do a lot of different stuff within this genre, but I’d love to see writers try.

On top of that, things seemed rushed. It felt like there was no buildup to either Zoe nor Rory falling for each other. One minute they hated one another and then all of a sudden, boom, they were hooking up. Their feelings went straight from hate to love, and that just felt completely unrealistic to me. I would have loved more buildup.

I also didn’t really connect with any of the characters. Sure, Rory is described as hot, but I don’t feel like we really got to know enough about his personality. There are books following some of the other characters, with some of them only mentioned in passing. I just didn’t feel invested enough in the story as a whole to really want to know anyone else.

Part of it just felt like I didn’t have the full story. Like there were chapters missing along the way.

If you’re looking for a steamy romance, once the two hook up, you’ve got it. It takes until about the halfway mark for the steam to really pick up, but once it does, Alexander keeps on going. The chapters are descriptive, and the scenes certainly aren’t short!

This will definitely get people to check out more of Alexander’s books if that’s the type of content you want. I just wanted a bit more to the story. I know I’m in the minority based on the Goodreads reviews, but it just wasn’t for me.

Star rating: 2 out of 5

What did you think of Highland Games by Evie Alexander? Are you reading any of her other books? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Get Highland Games by Evie Alexander on Amazon.