Matchmaking at Port Willow: An uplifting, beautifully romantic read that will warm your heart

Matchmaking at Port Willow by Kiley Dunbar is the second book in her Port Willow Bay series, however, it can easily be read as a stand-alone book. It is a heartwarming, and sweet story with a load of quirky characters in a small-town setting. Nina works in a glamorous company in New York City called MicroTrend, a company that seeks new luxury products to sell to the rich and famous who are always looking for the next new thing. Her boyfriend, Luke, took her under his wing when she was an intern with the company and he engineered her rise in the company due to his rich and famous friends and contacts. Just before Christmas, Nina is called into the CEO’s office and is demoted and sent to the Scottish Highlands to find new and exciting new products. She’s sure the demotion is due to her boyfriend, Luke, finding a new girlfriend while on a business trip to Tokyo and dumping her via a letter given to her by his assistant. Nina ends up in Port Willow at the Princess and the Pea Inn, run by Beatrice and Atholl. At the Inn, she meets Murray or Mutt as the locals call him, a decorator, working with Beatrice and Atholl to spruce up the Inn. Nina wants to find something amazing to bring back to her company and prove that she can do her job without Luke’s help and his social contacts, and is not interested in staying in Port Willow any longer than she has to. I loved the small village of Port Willow and its quirky inhabitants. Beatrice and Atholl are so endearing and adorable, and their love story continues in this second book in this series. The Inn is vividly described as well as the surrounding village and the willow fields. I also enjoyed the lonely empty-nester couple, Ruth and Mark as Beatrice helps them to overcome their fractured marriage. Nina is a lot more difficult to relate to. Her ambition to succeed led her to a disastrous relationship with Luke and it was difficult for me to sympathize with her, even when Luke dumped her in a very cowardly way. She’s abrupt and single-minded in her search for the next great product, and she doesn’t have any empathy or interest in the townspeople. She does eventually redeem herself, although it was later in the story and almost too late for me. I recommend this book to lovers of small-town romance and heartwarming stories. I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was a fun and satisfying women’s fiction read with clever wry humor and interesting twists on several familiar tropes with something to appeal to just about everyone. The book started with a dumped broken-hearted traveler hoping to save her career in the back of beyond who wasn’t all that sympathetic on arrival as she was aloof, self-serving, and acted like a snob, but she grew on me. I also enjoyed the empty nest couple with the exasperated menopausal wife hoping she could reconnect with her workaholic husband on their holiday. However, the majority of the storylines belonged to the loved-up innkeepers - an anxious older mother-to-be and her ever attentive and lovable Scottish weaver, the perfect BBF with a delicious burr in his voice. Rounding out the cast was a small village full of gentle and unique characters and family members. The storylines were engaging, the characters were endearing, and the writing was insightful, amusing, and easy to fall into. Sigh, I need more Scotsmen in my life.