RUBY SPENCER'S WHISKY YEAR

When a thirty-something American food writer moves to a Scottish village for one year to fulfill her dream of writing a cookbook she finds more than inspiration - she meets a handsome Scotsman she can't resist in this charming debut romance.

Ruby Spencer is spending one year living in a small cottage with no internet in a tiny town in the Scottish Highlands for three reasons: to write a best-selling cookbook, to drink a barrelful of whisky, and to figure out what comes next. It's hard to know what to expect after an impulse destination choice based on a map of Scotland in her Manhattan apartment - but she knows it's high time she had an adventure. The moment she sets foot in Thistlecross, its verdant scenery, charming cottages, and struggling local pub steal her heart. Between designing tasty pop-up suppers at The Cosy Hearth and befriending the locals, Ruby starts to see a future that stretches beyond her year of adventure. It doesn't hurt that Brochan, the ruggedly handsome local handyman, keeps coming around to repair things at her cottage. Though Ruby swore off men, she can't help fantasizing what a roll in the barley might be like with the bearded Scot. As Ruby grows closer to Brochan and the tightly held traditions of the village she longs to call home, she discovers secret plans to turn her beloved pub into an American chain restaurant. Faced with an impossible choice, Ruby must decide between love, loyalty, and the Highlands way of life. Rochelle Bilow is a romance and food writer based in Vermont. Previously an editor at Bon Appétit Magazine, Rochelle is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute who previously worked as a line cook in Manhattan and as a cook on a small farm in Upstate New York. Her first book, a farming memoir titled The Call of The Farm, was published with The Experiment in 2014.