Kilty Pleasure - Book Review

By Shelli Stevens

Synopsis

The line between lust and hate is often blurred…

After being ditched at the altar over a year ago, Deputy Colin McLaughlin is fine with being single. Despite the fact that nearly every eligible female on the island wants him, he isn’t looking for love.

But something stirs his blood when Hailey starts showing up more on the island. And it’s not just the conviction that the apple doesn’t fall far from her troublemaking, drugged-out family tree. His frustration mounts that even after she ruined his twin brother’s life, the desire he’s felt for her since high school still simmers.

Hailey Alexander knows her past is littered with mistakes. She’s done her best to make amends and move on, but a certain Scottish-born deputy doesn’t seem in any hurry to forgive or forget.

More than just fighting the attraction that’s compromising their hearts, they face a new threat from Hailey’s past that may threaten her life.

Review

KILTY PLEASURE is book 2 in The McLaughlins series and takes place a few weeks from where GOOD GIRL GONE PLAID finished. Here we have Colin and Hailey, two people who crushed on each other in high school, but never had a relationship. Hailey made an appearance at the end of book 1 to give Sarah and Ian closure, and the truth about why she broke them up all those years ago.

I liked Hailey, who didn’t have a good life growing up. Her parents were both drug addicts, so it was up to her to keep her and her little brother fed and out of the system. You can’t help but feel sad for her when you find out just how bad it was and why she felt she had no choice but to break Sarah and Ian up. Like Ian, Colin was a little difficult to like in the beginning because he was quite cruel to Hailey. Even when he wanted her and would make out with her, he’d finish it off with words aimed to hurt. He seemed to come around a bit quicker than Ian did though, so he had that going for him.

“I slept with Hailey.”
“The fook you did.”
“Exactly. Fuck we did.”
“Hailey? But you hate the girl.”
“Aye. At times I do. And yet, apparently at times I don’t.”

KILTY PLEASURE is told in dual POVs, with part of the final chapter being told in Kenzie’s POV, who gets the next book. While it’s part of a series and it can technically be read as a stand-alone, there are some events and characters that would make more sense if you read the previous book. There were two bad guys introduced in book 1 that make appearances in this book as well, and one of them has a connection to Hailey. His involvement in this series comes to an end in this book, but the other character (who has a connection to Kenzie) is still around, and I wonder if his story will be tied up in her book. Again, the conflict was easy to predict and the story moves pretty fast in a short period of time; a few weeks I think. It comes with a HEA and doesn’t end in a cliffhanger.

“I don’t care about your past, Hailey. I care about your future and only that I’m in it.”