“You are not who you are because of where you come from; you are who you are because of where you choose to go.”
― Lana Ferguson, Under Loch and Key

Keyanna ‘Key’ McKay grew up in a family of secrets. Raised by a single father reluctant to share their family history, Key has never felt like she really fit in anywhere. After her father’s death, Key leaves New York, heading to Scotland to reunite with her estranged family and to explore the world her father never spoke about. All she knows about Scotland is her estranged grandmother’s name and the childhood story of her father’s about a monster that saved his life. Determined to fulfill her father’s last wish to go home, Key finds herself on the shore of a great body of water, unknowingly putting herself in danger, and eventually being rescued by an angry, yet attractive, Scotsman. Key is then escorted to her ancestral home, where the welcome she receives from her family is mixed and she realizes that her cranky rescuer lives on her family’s land.

Lachlan Greer has secrets of his own and this wily beautiful redhead who showed up out of nowhere seems determined to ruin all of his plans. After learning her name, Lachlan is even more weary. He is hunting for answers to his family’s history, but Key is a wrench in his plans that he does not need. Living on her family’s land, Lachlan and Key can’t avoid each other. Their attraction ratchets up higher and higher, despite their mutual efforts to avoid each other. It soon becomes apparent that they will have to trust each other in order to find the answers they are each looking for. Their answers rest in each other’s histories.

I picked this book up purely because of the cover, aka the man in the kilt, (plus the punny title)! Under Loch and Key ended up being an absolute delight and honestly, I’m glad I went into this book without knowing anything about it. This is a magical paranormal romance with spicy scenes that happen on page. The characters’ relationships were silly, emotional, mysterious, yet completely magical. This was also my first monster romance, which was a bit of a shock to the system, but honestly not bad. Also bonus it has two of my favorite tropes: enemies to lovers and grumpy meets sunshine. Even though this is a spicy read, the author also throws in several heartwarming themes that deal with forgiveness, family, burdens, and correcting your past mistakes in order to move on in the future. Solid four stars from me!