Under a Summer Skye – Sue Moorcroft

This story certainly had an explosive start, but judging by past experiences, I felt sure that reading and reviewing Sue Moorcroft’s latest book, ‘Under a Summer Skye’, would be nothing but positive. Indeed I was immediately taken by Thea as a character. I have never been to the island of Skye, but Sue Moorcroft’s empathetic descriptions genuinely made me feel as though I was actually there and I actually find myself taking a deep breath in order to capture some of that freshest of air! I do tend to judge people by their treatment of animals, so Thea won plenty of ‘Brownie Points’ with me on that front! I am sure though that I cannot be alone in drawing parallels between Thea rescuing a half drowned pup, and her ‘rescue’, albeit more than a little inadvertent, of Deveron.

There were some amusing moments in their book, but I really did wonder at first how Thea had got ‘Tom/Tim’ from ‘Deveron’. Regardless of what his name was or wasn’t, he also seemed to give fairly decent first impressions – but is there more to him than meets the eye? What is Dev really doing at Rothach Hall? My heart was warmed by the fact that despite his apparent subterfuge, Dev did actually seem incapable of uttering a down and out lie. However is he still willing to do wrong by Thea? I suspect not, willingly, but pasts do have a devious way of catching up with you when you least expect it. Needless to say, I took a fairly instantaneous dislike to Fredek. Whilst I appreciate that one shouldn’t make such immediate judgements of character, in my defence, I am generally right! I liked the fact that Dev was trying to renege on the agreement he had made with Fredek, but this felt a little late in the day, and idioms concerning bolting horses and closing stable doors came to the forefront of my mind. It did make me chuckle, the way that the cast of this book referred to Dumfries as being in the South, and the arrival of Thea’s Sister Valentina had me laughing out loud, due to the fact that she was busting for a wee after travelling, only to be confronted by a dog, of which she was completely oblivious.

I liked Thea and all her sisters, but I particularly admired the way that Thea stood up to disagreeable men in her life, like Fredek and her boss, Tavish.

In a book brimming to overflowing with utterly agreeable characters, Fredek stood out as a complete arse ‘in extremis’. He was lucky to have come out his vehicular accident with Thea, relatively unscathed, yet sees fit to continue to milk social media dry regarding the incident, that he was responsible for?

Can Thea ever escape the ever present dark cloud over her head that is Fredek? Will she find out about and be able to overcome Dev’s initial complicity with Fredek’s scheming? You will have to read this page turner for yourself to find out!

Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Under-Summer-Skye-glorious-bestseller/dp/0008636818/