Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson

A woman discovers that not all monsters are her enemy—the opposite, in fact—in this new paranormal romance by Lana Ferguson, author of The Fake Mate.

Keyanna “Key” MacKay is used to secrets. Raised by a single father who never divulged his past, it’s only after his death that she finds herself thrust into the world he’d always refused to speak of. With just a childhood bedtime story about a monster that saved her father’s life and the name of her estranged grandmother to go off of, Key has no idea what she’ll find in Scotland. But repeating her father’s mistakes and being rescued by a gorgeous, angry Scotsman—who thinks she’s an idiot—is definitely the last thing she expects.

Lachlan Greer has his own secrets to keep, especially from the bonnie lass he pulls to safety from the slippery shore—a lass with captivating eyes and the last name he’s been taught not to trust. He’s looking for answers as well, and Key’s presence on the grounds they both now occupy presents a real problem. It’s even more troublesome when he gets a front row seat to the lukewarm welcome Key receives from her family; the strange powers she begins to develop; and the fierce determination she brings to every obstacle in her path. Things he shouldn’t care about, and someone he definitely doesn’t find wildly attractive.

When their secrets collide, it becomes clear that Lachlan could hold the answers Keyanna is after—and that she might also be the key to uncovering his. Up against time, mystery, and a centuries old curse, they’ll quickly discover that magic might not only be in fairy tales, and that love can be a real loch-mess.

I love cryptids, but I really love the Loch Ness Monster. Nessie is my favorite legend, and one of my biggest bucket list items is to go sit on the shores of Loch Ness for a few weeks and try to spot her myself. This is the first romance I’ve ever seen that centers on Nessie, so I was very excited to read it! The blurb is pretty vague, so as not to spoil anything, so I will also be vague! We meet Keyanna, still mourning the loss of her father. He had never shared much about his growing up years with her, and they never went to Scotland together to visit her family. His dying wish was for her to return and spread his ashes at Loch Ness. While there, she meets her grandparents and other extended family. She doesn’t get the warmest welcome from her grandma, but the rest of her family quickly embraces her. She also meets Lachlan, who works on her family’s property even though he hates the entire family. Their meeting is cold, but there’s also a small spark of intrigue. As he and Key get to know one another better, secrets are revealed on both sides and feelings grow.

The book starts off really strong, but the middle two thirds of this book really dragged for me. I was very intrigued by the mystery, the dangerous loch, the family secrets, the magic, and folklore, but I’m not going to lie… this was a slog to get through at times. We spend a lot of time in both characters’ heads while they sift through their feelings, worries, concerns, etc. It got quite repetitive, because their thoughts mirrored each others’. I really loved Lachlan. He’s a grumpy cinnamon roll, who has been very hurt in the past and is alone in this world. He doesn’t know where his future will take him. He’s very loyal and sweet and his ability to love deeply tugged at my heartstrings because of all the heartbreak he’s endured. Key was meh for me. She came off as both very smart and very dumb at times. She pretends to be humble, which is a pet peeve of mine. But I liked them together, and I was pulling for them the entire way through. I also liked Key’s cute grandpa and her grandma grew on me by the end.

The romance didn’t do it for me, and it’s kind of hard to explain. I think it’s a combination of the audio and the kind of romance this is. The blurb doesn’t specifically call this book a monster romance even though, in hindsight, the cover and blurb hint at it very heavily. Still, though, the monster romance genre is different than a romance with humans who are not fully human. I guess I was expecting the same kind of situation as a vampire or werewolf romance. But I avoid “monster romance”. It’s just not my thing, and I didn’t realize that’s what I was getting with this one. Many monster romances I read about have some spicy elements that I don’t find appealing. The spice level in this book is not what I expect from books with covers that look like this one. The scenes are much longer (some of them are 20+ minutes long in the audiobook), more intense, more detailed, and contain word choices that made me uncomfortable. Perhaps listening to the audiobook magnified everything. The audio is done in a true duet style. Lachlan and Key narrate their own chapters, but the narrators also read all the lines of dialogue for the character they’re portraying. It sounds like a movie. I love when books are done like this, but not necessarily during spicy scenes. I felt like I was sitting in the bedroom while these two go it on. I ended up fast forwarding through all the spicy scenes, which helped me really enjoy the rest of the story.

I actually wish there was no romance in this at all and that Key and Lachlan were just friends who maybe fell in love in an epilogue or something. Their relationship is what I would consider to be “forbidden”, but it’s also insta-love and I had a hard time wrapping my head around how they were able to open up and trust each other so quickly when history shows them that they shouldn’t have. I would have preferred a stronger focus on the lore, history, magic system, mystery, etc. I love medieval folklore and magic and really enjoyed learning the history of two dueling Scottish families and how their history has continued to spread mystery throughout this area of Scotland up to the present day. I loved the parts where someone discovered something important or a revelation was made. There’s some suspense and searching and I loved all of that. I loved the descriptions of Scotland and the loch and I loved exploring a medieval castle. I loved Nessie. But then, circling back to the issue of pacing, things dragged a lot in between the parts I loved. The major climax happened with an hour still left in the book and I remember wondering what they heck they were going to do with with last hour. This book was extremely long and it wasn’t necessary. I wish everything had been tightened up more so momentum wasn’t lost. I will also note that there’s more swearing in this book than I’m used to, and found it to be distracting.

Bottom line, there were parts of this I really loved and parts that I skipped entirely. I wish I had been more aware of what I was getting into with this book (although, it’s Nessie so I’m sure I would have read it anyway), but I made it work for me by skipping the parts I wasn’t interested in and ended up really enjoying the story I got as a result. I even got emotional at times because of some sweet family moments and some swoony things Lachlan said. I don’t think I’ll be reading more books by this author, though, because the storytelling didn’t work for me.

Audio notes: Flint Park is a dream. I went to look for more audiobooks he’s read, and this is the only one! I could listen to him forever. He’s got the most delicious Scottish accent, and he reads with such emotion. He can sound so tender, but then he’s also got this rough growly voice that made me shiver. He did such an amazing job. Samantha Summers was not my favorite. She’d try to sound flirty and squeaky and was overly perky. And when Keyanna got mad or emotional, Samantha’s over-the-top crying voice or yelling voice grated on me. The final hour and a half also seemed to have some production issues with sound getting very loud and very quiet. I kept having to adjust my volume every few minutes.