Contemporary Scottish Romance: A Reader’s Guide

Probably the best-known name in modern Scottish romance, Samantha Young’s books tend towards big emotions, intense chemistry, family drama, and plenty of heat, often with a thread of romantic suspense running alongside the love story.

For the Highlands, start with Here With Me, the first book in her Adair Family series, or explore the newer Highlands series. Her current Scottish Isles series takes the romance offshore, while for urban Scotland, her hugely popular On Dublin Street series is rooted in Edinburgh.

Meghan Quinn is better known for her US-set rom-coms, but The Highland Fling takes her trademark humour and heat to a small village in the Scottish Highlands.

After losing her job, American heroine Bonnie heads to Scotland with her best friend to run a coffee shop, where she immediately clashes with Rowan, the brooding local handyman. Expect grumpy-sunshine energy, plenty of banter, a strong small-town cast, and a more emotional story beneath the comedy.

It’s Quinn’s only Scotland-set romance, so there’s no Highland series to binge afterwards, but as a funny, spicy standalone, it’s an easy one to recommend.

Jolie Vines is one of the most prolific authors in Scottish romance, with enough interconnected series to keep you busy for a very long time.

Jolie’s Marry the Scot, Wild Scots, Wild Mountain Scots, and McRae Bodyguards books deliver Highland families, protective heroes, small-town connections, and plenty of steam. If you like your romance darker, check out the Dark Island Scots, Body Count, or Skeleton Crew series.

Storm the Castle is an easy place to start if you want the classic Jolie Vines Highland experience.

This is us! We write steamy, funny, heart-warming contemporary romances set in Scotland, with plenty of banter and heroes with more feelings than they’d care to admit.

Many readers start with The Highland Kiss, the first book in our True Scotsman series, in which a jilted London bride runs away to a tiny Highland town and clashes with the grumpy Highlander running her hotel.

If single dads are more your thing, you might prefer our Scottish Single Dads series. Or if you’d rather read something city-based, check out The Florist and the Fighter.

The Macabe Brothers books follow three brothers on the Isle of Skye. Each brother gets his own spicy love story.

Start with Whisky Business, in which a Hollywood actress returns home to help save her family’s struggling whisky distillery and clashes with Malcolm Macabe, the grumpy master distiller. Expect plenty of banter and opposites-attract chemistry.

Bonnie Woods writes cosy, spicy romances with a strong seasonal feel. Start with Kindling, a grumpy-sunshine Highland romance in which city girl Harper gets stranded in the forest and ends up staying in local woodcutter Fraser’s cabin. Expect forced proximity, autumnal atmosphere, and plenty of heat.

The Scottish Spice series continues with Fireworks, another autumnal romance set in the village of Belbarrow, before turning summery in The Scottish Strawberry Farm, where a burned-out chef returns home to her family’s fruit farm and reconnects with her best friend’s brother.

Kait Nolan’s Scottish romances range from warm, low-angst small-town stories to romantic suspense. Her Kilted Hearts series is the cosier side: Highland settings, found family, familiar romance tropes, and plenty of spice. Start with Cowboy in a Kilt, a marriage-of-convenience romance involving a crumbling Scottish estate and an American cowboy.

For something with more danger, try her Special Ops Scots series, which pairs Scottish military heroes with higher-stakes romantic-suspense plots. Nolan also writes plenty of romances set elsewhere, so these Scottish series are only part of her larger catalogue.

Bella James’s Loch Morven series mixes spicy contemporary romance with castles, whisky, and remote Scottish settings.

Start with Duke It Out, in which a struggling writer takes a ghostwriting job at a Highland castle, only to discover the grumpy new duke is a man she had a one-night stand with in New York.

When you’re done, move on to Whisky and Roses, a slow-burn opposites-attract romance set on a Scottish island, pairing a prickly distillery owner with a woman trying to make a fresh start.

Margaret Amatt sits at the gentler end of our steamy list. Her books are warm, cosy, and romantic, with some on-page intimacy, but the love scenes are not detailed.

Margaret’s long-running Glenbriar series offers small-town romance in fictional Highland Perthshire. Book one is Stolen Kisses at the Loch View Hotel.

For island romance, try Scottish Island Escapes, set on the Isle of Mull, or Love on the Edge, set on the Hebridean island of Barra.

Julie Shackman’s feel-good romances are all about Scottish escapism: picturesque settings, fresh starts, and gentle love stories.

Her Scottish Escapes series is the obvious place to begin. Start with A Secret Scottish Escape, set in the fictional village of Loch Harris, then explore books set in Highland towns, coastal communities, and on Skye.

The romance stays firmly on the gentler side, making her a great choice if you want contemporary Scotland without the heat.

For emotional Scottish romance with plenty of family drama, Lisa Hobman has a substantial backlist spanning the Highlands and islands.

For the Highlands, start with Coming Home to the Highlands, the first book in her Highlands series. If island settings are more your thing, Dreaming Under an Island Skye begins a run of Skye-set romances that continue with Wishing Under a Starlit Skye and Together Under a Snowy Skye.

Her books are closed-door rather than steamy, but they’re not especially “sweet” in tone. Expect adult language, sexual tension, and intimacy that happens off page rather than in explicit detail.

Rachael Lucas writes character-driven, emotionally warm Scottish romance.

Start with Sealed with a Kiss, in which a freshly dumped heroine heads to the fictional Scottish island of Auchenmor for a fresh start.

For a Highland setting, try The Winter Cottage, the first book in her Applemore Bay series, which centres on a close-knit village and the people whose lives keep crossing there.

Donna Ashcroft specialises in cosy, feel-good Highland romance, often pairing small-town charm with cheerful romcom energy and seasonal settings.

Her Scottish Highlands series centres on the fictional village of Lockton. Start with Summer in the Scottish Highlands, in which a newly single mum returns to her childhood home and finds herself drawn to a relentlessly cheerful local chef.

If you like seasonal reads, the series also includes plenty of Christmas and winter romance.

Island weddings, Christmas hideaways, and seaside settings are very much Ellie Henderson’s territory.

Start with A Summer Wedding on Arran, the first of five romances set on the Isle of Arran.

If you prefer a fictional lochside village on the mainland, try A Scottish Christmas Hideaway, the first book in her newer Rowan Bay series.

Kiley Dunbar’s Port Willow Bay series begins with Summer at the Highland Coral Beach.

Beatrice heads to a remote Highland village hoping to learn Gaelic, only to discover she’s accidentally signed up for a willow-weaving course taught by the grumpy hotel owner.

Expect crafts, ceilidhs, a gorgeous coastal setting, and a gentle romance with plenty of heart.

Jenny Colgan is one of the biggest names in feel-good Scottish fiction.

Jenny’s warm, witty novels sit closer to women’s fiction than straightforward romance, but there’s still plenty of romance woven through them.

Start with The Summer Seaside Kitchen (published in the US as The Café by the Sea), the first book in her Mure series, set on a fictional Hebridean island.

The Enchanted Highlands series blends contemporary romance with Scottish folklore, magic, and plenty of humour. The books are set around the fictional village of Loren Brae, where kelpies, ghosts, and ancient magical orders are all part of everyday life.

Start with Wild Scottish Knight, in which an American woman inherits a Scottish castle and discovers she’s expected to become a magical knight—with a very grumpy Scotsman tasked with training her.

The series is cosy, funny, romantic, and lightly spicy, and a few readers have told us they discovered our books after reading Tricia’s, which we’ll happily take.

If you’d prefer something more witchy, Tricia’s The Scottish Charms series is also worth a look.

Under Loch and Key puts a steamy contemporary-romance spin on the Loch Ness legend.

After her father’s death, Keyanna travels to Scotland looking for answers about his past. She finds herself tangled up with a grumpy Scotsman, a monstrous secret, and a centuries-old curse.

There’s banter, mystery, supernatural intrigue, and plenty of spice alongside the romance.

Rosie Danan’s Do Your Worst is a steamy rom-com set around a cursed Scottish castle.

Riley is a professional curse-breaker. Clark is the disgraced archaeologist who thinks she has no business being there. Naturally, they clash almost immediately.

Expect enemies-to-lovers chemistry, supernatural mystery, plenty of humour, and explicit spice as the pair try to unravel the castle’s curse.