Blog Tour: Settlement by Anne Stormont

Today I'm on the blog tour for Settlement by Anne Stormont* with #LoveBooksGroupTours which is a fantastic read. I recently read the first in the series (although both books can be read as standalones - see my review of Displacement in my book round up last month HERE).

Can love truly heal old wounds? Can the past ever be put peacefully to rest? If you like a complex, grown-up romance with lots of raw emotion, dramatic and exotic settings, all mixed in with some international politics and laced with elements of a crime thriller, then this is the book for you. 

Falling in love is the easy bit. Happy ever after requires work, commitment and honesty. 

She wants him to be her friend and lover. He wants her as his wife. Can a compromise be reached? Or are things truly over between them? 

When former Edinburgh policeman Jack Baxter met crofter and author Rachel Campbell at her home on the Scottish island of Skye, they fell in love. It was a second chance at happiness for them both. 

But after Jack proposes marriage, it becomes clear they want different things. 

Then, as Rachel prepares to return to the Middle East to work on a peacemaking project that's close to her heart, and as Jack's past catches up with him, it seems their relationship is doomed. 

Can Rachel compromise on her need to maintain her hard-won independence? 

Can Jack survive the life-threatening situation in which he finds himself? 

Will they get the chance to put things right between them? 

Settlement is the sequel to literary romance novel, Displacement, but it can be read as a stand-alone. 

My thoughts?

Oh wow oh wow I just loved this! It was great to catch up with well loved characters and see where their lives were taking them.

Rachel is pleased to be with Jack but still wants her freedom to do what she pleases which he doesn't understand. There are things from the past Jack needs to work through but he doesn't want to tell or worry Rachel (and there is a good and loyal friend waiting in the wings for him, Morag's hubby, Alasdair).

She hopes she'll be able to reach her daughter and work through her feelings for her son. There's even signs that she can move on and forgive her ex-husband. 

When she heads back to Israel, Jack is beside himself as he thinks she'll want to have a relationship with charming and attractive Eitan, her brother's friend.  To take his mind off things he takes a investigator job with Police Scotland working on unsolved crimes. Rachel comes back to Scotland and her life on Skye and it seems like Jack's past has finally caught up with him...

An absolute brilliant read which I adored (I'm hoping against hope there will be a book #3).

*I received a complimentary e-copy for taking part in the blog tour