"Coming Home to the Loch" by Hannah Ellis

Leana Mackenzie is the oldest of the three Mackenzie girls. They live with their parent son the Isle of Skye, off Scotland’s northern coast. Leana is itching to exercise her wings and try life in Edinburgh, and she finally gets the gumption to do it.  

She finds a hostel to stay temporarily, and immediately lands a job at the nearby pub. Her first night, on the street near where she’s staying and working, she stumbles over what seems a homeless man, who’s drunk, lost, and missing some of his clothes. She gives him some cash to help.

 

The homeless man turns out to be not homeless at all. Alasdair King is the victim of a prank by friends; he’s an engineer, a recruiter, and an aspiring songwriter and singer. Leana, who found a place to live and job quickly, also discovers she’s fallen in love just as fast.

 

Hannah Ellis

But she also finds herself increasingly homesick for Skye, and Alasdair hears the call of professional music. Conflict is inevitable.

 

Coming Home to the Loch by Hannah Ellis is the first of eight novels in the author’s Loch Lannick series. Ellis has also published eight books in the Hope Cove series, two in the Lucy Mitchell series, and four in the Friends Like These series. 

 

As the first in the series, the novel introduces the readers to the characters who will likely be featured in upcoming books – Leanna’s two sisters, Isla and Elspeth; her best friend; Logan, the young man who grew up with the sisters; and others. Coming Home to the Loch is an easy, fast read, with a fully contemporary, diverse, Gen Z kind of feel to it.