Review: "Lost Secrets of the Scottish Castle" by Jane Lovering

Lost Secrets of the Scottish Castle by Jane Lovering
Published July 2026 via Boldwood Books
★★★★

Pax knows she and her brother have bitten off more than they can chew when she sees their ancestral castle—the castle that is little more than a ruin and that they have just bought. But the ruin holds far more secrets than she could have bargained for...

Now, here's what I expected from the cover and the description: a present-day castle that has some issues but also a lot of potential, probably a romance, and oh, did I mention the present day? But it turns out that there is very little of the present day here: In very little time at all, Pax finds herself whisked off to another dimension...or at least another time.

Time-slip books are not something I've ever gravitated towards (though castle books are), and I'm honestly not sure this is one I'd have gone for if I'd realized that that was the direction it would go. Pax tumbles into something weird at the beginning of the book, and there was a while where I still thought that she'd get back to the present day sooner rather than later, but as it turned out...that was not to be. As it also turned out, I didn't really mind; it was a week when I desperately needed something light to read, and this fit the bill quite well. Pax isn't alone in the past—there's a group of archeological misfits with her, plus a whole bunch of people from the long-dead past who can't see the present-day group.

It makes for something quirky and a bit absurdist. I liked the characters—not all of them are fully fleshed out, but they do a remarkable job of being adults about the situation in which they've found themselves. There's a romance, but it's pretty low-key; much more of the book is really just figuring out what on earth is going on and of course how they get themselves out of their predicament. Go into it for the whimsy (and also to be grateful that you live in the present day) and with an open mind.

Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars; rounding up because it was a right-time, right-place kind of read for me.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.