The Cottage continues the story begun in The Inheritance, the first book of the series. While The Cottage can certainly be read as a stand-alone book, I'm glad I had read The Inheritance first. In fact, I had just finished The Inheritance when I received The Cottage, so I read them back to back, which is the way I would recommend they be read, as one continuous story.
When Loni Ford is informed that she has inherited property in the Shetland Islands, she laughs. She wants nothing more than to sell it and be done with it. But when she arrives in Whales Reef, she is stunned to find that "the Cottage" is not at all what she expected, nor is David Tulloch, her distant relative and the man most of the islanders believe to be the rightful heir.
Michael Phillips describes Secrets of the Shetlands as the story of generational legacy. The Inheritance tells the tale of family relationships and the difficulty in determining exactly who is to inherit MacGregor Tulloch's properties. Eventually Loni Ford, an American with ancestral ties to the Shetlands, is determined to be the heir. The Cottage is Loni's story: how she is part of the Tulloch family tree; her reluctance to claim her inheritance; what causes her to eventually embrace the Shetlands as her own.
This is a well-developed and beautifully written story with a number of unexpected twists and turns. One of my favorite things about the book is the wonderfully realistic description of the islands. As I read, I could almost hear the wind howling and feel the mist in my face! The landscape is almost like another character in the book!
Brew yourself a cup of strong tea, add a plate of oatcakes or shortbread, and settle into your favorite chair with The Cottage. You may find you have a hard time putting it down!
Bethany House Publishers provided me with a copy of The Cottage in exchange for my honest opinion.
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