Axelrod’s novella is a short, fast-paced contemporary romance with a witty heroine and a lot of heart. Lovie just wants to spend her Christmas vacation on a beach somewhere, but when her best friend, Jo, wins their annual coin toss, the pair fly off to Scotland on a quest to find Jo a lover like Calum MacKenzie, the star of a series of romance novels. When Jo snares a very Calum-like charmer named Hamish in an Inverness pub, Lovie is thrown together with his best friend, “adorable bad-ass” Duff, whose tough image, doting grandmother, and soulful photography capture her heart. The four of them retreat to Hamish’s estate for a steamy weekend, but when the women find out that Duff was helping Hamish conceal a major secret, the fragile trust between them is broken, maybe forever. Readers may be unimpressed by this overused plot device, but the rest of the book handily avoids cliché. Axelrod notes Duff’s appreciation of biracial Lovie’s brown skin and red hair while steering well clear of fetishization, and the contrasting slang of the Scots (“Tea awright?”) and Americans (“Tea would be awesome”) is charming. (BookLife)