Shortbread in the Highlands

Gunn’s latest Suitcase Sisters novel (after Gelato at the Villa) takes readers on a trite adventure into the wilds of Scotland. Cousins Nora and Allie have been eager to explore their family’s Scottish roots and get the perfect opportunity when their grandmother asks them to travel there to retrieve her old diary from a now-deceased lover. The trip gets off to a rocky start when they discover they’ll need to wait several days to access the manor where the diary is located, aggravating Allie, a high-powered executive who needs to head home to confront a work crisis. But traveling through the countryside reinvigorates the cousins’ bonds to one another and their ancestral home—especially for Nora, who’s sick of her ho-hum life back in Arizona. After the two are given access to the ex’s manor, Nora is offered an intriguing job cataloging its book collection and must consider what it means to start over. At the same time, revelations about their grandmother push both women to grapple with their family’s past and trust the “tremendous creative purposes of God” to chart their futures. Unfortunately, the cute premise is hampered by strained prose and awkward, exposition-heavy dialogue (“Knowing Gran, I doubt she ever told anyone. She entrusted us with a secret. I never felt this way about her before”) that saps the plot of momentum and stymies character development. A few charming moments aside, this fails to take flight. (June)