Adjacent but Only Just

The Penn-Leiths of Thistle Muir, Book 2

By: Nichole Van

Narrated by: Mhairi Morrison

Viola Brodure, gentlewoman and celebrated authoress, faces a personal dilemma suited for a novel—everyone wishes for her to make a love match with Ethan Penn-Leith, the famous Highland Poet. After all, the popular novelist and the famous poet are the perfect heroine and hero for their own love story.

The problem is that Viola has never met Ethan, not in the flesh, at least. She has read about him and devoured his poetic writings, but does the man himself live up to his dashing reputation?

Malcolm Penn-Leith exists in twilight. He manages his farm in the shadow of the Scottish Highlands. As the older brother of the renowned Ethan Penn-Leith, Malcolm tends to his prized cows while Ethan basks in the limelight. Harder still, Malcolm lives under a cloud of grief after the death of his wife five years ago.

But then Miss Viola Brodure arrives in Malcolm's village and awakens a piece of his heart that he thought was lost in the abyss of his grief . . .

Viola is surprised to find herself more attracted to the stoic Malcolm than the charming Ethan. As social pressures mount, can Malcolm and Viola overcome the weight of his past and the expectations of her future to forge a new path together?

©2022 Nichole Van Valkenburgh (P)2022 Tantor

Rapid reader

Another win for Nichole Van, with great narration by Mhairi Morrison, great humor, characters from her previous Scottish Tartan series, and loved the character development, great research, and amazing characters!

A true love story

What a wonderful book! This is a romance in the truest sense of the word. The main characters are mature people. So many stories are about teenagers or people who act like teenagers. This story was definitely a step above. I enjoyed the first book but this one was even better!

Beautiful Love Story

I’ll just say that immediately after finishing I started the book over because I didn’t want it to end. I’ve never done that before. This story was amazingly beautiful! The feelings of joy, sadness, inspiration, understanding, and comfort were so profound. Tears were shed and laughs throughout making this such a memorable read.

The narrator for this book is phenomenal, the accent and just everything is so so perfect.

Malcolm Penn-Leith has finally risen above his grief and learned to just be. “Literal death often isn’t the way we die most.” His sister helped him through and he thought he would never love again. The connection he feels with Viola upon meeting her is instantaneous and startles him. I LOVED how he worked through his feelings while effortlessly enjoying Violas company and noticing her true self. AND his protective nature of her: “whom do I need to give a good thumpin’?”

Viola Brodure has her own weights she carry’s and has decided to push past and grow and love what she can do. Malcolm is the first person to make that an easy process and because of that he gets to see her real strengths.

Viola and her father along with The Duke of Kendall (intent on things happening for his own agenda), travel to Scotland to meet a Poet, Ethan Penn-Leith (Malcolm’s younger brother) and form an attachment between him and Viola as a fellow authoress.

As we all know things don’t always go according to plan and some things just happen naturally without even trying. “Often what we think we want and what we actually want are not the same thing.”

Love this book for:
🪨Poets and Authors of Hard Truths
🪨Truth Telling Rock
🪨Highland Coo’s
🪨Sweetest Dog (Bae Woof)
🪨Chapter 16!
🪨Strong Family Ties
🪨Found Love
🪨The swing
🪨Healing Hearts
🪨Malcom’s Declaration of Violas Character
🪨Grief and Loss (normally that wouldn’t be a reason to love a book, but she writes in such a lovely way it brings pure emotions and feelings and makes you empowered to move forward).

I LOVED this story! Highly recommend! Thank you Nichole Van for another enriching read!

one of my favorite books

as I am no writer or poet myself, I can't appropriately describe how good this book is to you. it is art and it is of the most beautiful kind. in my opinion as a reader, there could be no improvements made to this book. it is extremely romantic and well written. the chemistry between the leads and their meant-to-be-ness is instant from the moment they meet. you feel and know to your bones how perfect they are for each other from their first conversation. they are both extremely likeable and you root for them like they were your best friends. they are such well written characters, that you'll be convinced they truly lived and loved each other in real life. the journey they both go through could also be the main plot of a book each. the supporting characters are also very well written and I'm looking forward to some of them getting their own book. one of them I know the book is in the works, but there is another I'm hoping his redemption arc is possible and we'll get his story as well. please do yourself a favor and get this book if you enjoy clean historical romance. I know other reviewers have said that the audio is not that great, but it didn't bother me that she doesn't do the voices too differently. I was so invested in the story from the get go that I didn't even notice. and though I also thought at first her Scottish accent wasn't the best, I was embarrassed to find out later that the narrator is a Scottish native. so it was my perception of the accent that was wrong. I'm really glad a native Scottish person reads this book as it adds to the story to hear it in the proper accent

Connection

I believe in love at first site. This audiobook speaks of how such immediate connection can be so surprising a d wonderful.

Love this series!

Another beautiful installment in the Penn-Leith series. I love these and this family. I love how raw and really the character’s emotions are. Nichole Van knows exactly how to pull me in and not only allow for some good entertainment, but suck me into the very lives of her characters, where I experience an almost visceral reaction in tandem with those in her books. This book delivers. I loved it!

Wonderful book

This second story in this Scottish family is very well, written, character, growth, book of forgiveness, and standing up for your values and beliefs. The poetry of words is mesmerizing.!

This book is SO good!

I always love Nichole Van's books and this one did not disappoint! It is one of my favorites. This book has such great characters, a very interesting and unique plot, a superb narrator, humor, and and of course lots of romance! I love how poetic it is. I also LOVE how Nichole can write a clean romance that is a bit edgy and fun. There are so many awesome quotes you could get from this novel but my favorite quote is this: "Must Kendall be such an ass? Perhaps someone needed to tell him that other behavioral selections were available. That he didn't have to wake every morning and chose "ass-ishness". Love it!

One issue spoiled the story.

Characters, plot, narration all excellent. But, as someone with asthma, must point out that asthma is NOT a nervous/emotional condition. Spoiled the story for me.

Great Listen

Loved the characters, the story, Scottish influence and the reader’s performance. This is a delightful book!