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 will openly admit that I picked this up to read not because of the fantasy-flavored monster romance story, but out of gross curiosity as an env. science reader that enjoys reading about cryptozoology. While I do read romance novels, this is my first monster-themed romance novel and my first read by Lana Ferguson. Part spicy Scottish themed romance part magical realism fantasy tale, Under Loch and Key is an unusual novel that attempts to be a contemporary romance but also a more complex fantasy story involving curses, magic, Scottish folklore, and family secrets. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of detail and effort put towards the latter elements, going far beyond what I was expecting and required for a straightforward monster romance.

When I read Ferguson’s opening dedication “for granting me forgiveness for giving Nessie a penis”, I wasn’t expecting much given her past novels sat comfortably in standard romcom territory. Though I originally thought the Nessie premise would be a simple one-trick pony gimmick with light Scottish flourishes, I was pleasantly surprised by how far Ferguson took the concept and expanded it with proper detailed and compelling lore. Rather than simply giving Nessie Lachlan all the exciting fantasy powers, the same treatment was also given to Keyanna, courtesy of another one of Scotland’s folklore icons. Both characters and their associated families have lineages that go back to ancient times, including the focal curse and a mysteriously vague, predetermined fate presented in the form of a poem. The mysterious connection and conflict between the MacKays and Greers, along with the abandoned and torched Greer castle are elements that were far more detailed and involved than what I was expecting. Furthermore, the timing of these developments were perfectly placed right at the point where the will-they-or-won’t-they drama was starting to get stale, catching me off guard and getting me reinvested in the story. While the story’s genre is still primarily contemporary romance with a supernatural twist, these additions had enough presence to start crossing over into romantasy or folklore territory.

Besides the unexpectedly good fantasy developments, Under Loch and Key’s other strength is the chemistry between Keyanna and Lachlan. Deftly using the tried and true spiky stranger enemies to lovers setup, Key and Lachland hit all the right snarky comedic moments and have good back and forth banter, especially in early interactions. Under Loch and Key routinely shifts back and forth each chapter between Key and Lachlan’s perspectives rapidly (as opposed to other books that will switch perspectives by whole parts of the novel) which adds a lot by allowing the reader to experience directly how ridiculously annoying (and charming) they are to each other. This is also a plus during the several steamy scenes where both perspectives are presented back to back with all the pleasure included. Speaking of those scenes, they are for sure spicy and certainly above average; having a monster inside you adds new meaning to “going feral”. There’s a particular scene involving a light partial transformation mid-action that’s just chef’s kiss.

The back and forth perspective is also useful when the inevitable miscommunication occurs to ramp up the drama in the back half of the story. While the their chemistry and relationship isn’t groundbreaking or unique, the Scottish setting and tone adds just enough to make it feel different and refreshing.  A good example of this which is Lachlan’s recurring sarcastic nickname for Key being “princess”. Ordinarily this is nothing special and is the norm for a romance novel, but when it’s mentally read with Lachlan’s Scottish accent, it’s somehow considerably funnier and just works well. Admittedly I did find that their relationship and banter was far less amusing and clever once they got together not because of the lack of tension, but due to the dialogue becoming more generic and forgettable. Speaking of accents and slang, there’s a good amount of slang and regional word choices included that clearly represent the setting well. I don’t have a lot of experience with Scottish culture and humor compared to British humor, but it seemed like a good attempt that isn’t too over the top or comedic. On a side note, there is an odd distinctive lack of Scottish slang and mannerisms in Lachlan’s internal voice compared to his actual spoken dialogue. Beyond the dialogue, the characterizations across the board are decent enough. Each character fits the expected familial role with one two notable quirks, but isn’t anything particularly deep or moving. This is clearly a novel crafted and suited for easy casual readers.

Beyond the two characters chemistry and the Greer curse, there’s also a recurring theme about home and family. Having recently lost her father, her only connection to Scotland, the story starts with Keyanna adrift looking to reconnect with the long lost family she never knew. Meanwhile Lachlan also lost his father a few years ago and has drifted apart from his mother, effectively also being alone without family. The theme about reconnecting with family and finding one’s “home” is another strong element that I also did not expect from this novel based on the marketing, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it was executed upon Key’s arrival and meeting of her grandparents Rhona and Finlay. The slow acceptance and frosting of the initially chilly reception by her grandmother added nice depth to the story between the typical romcom hijinks.

While I applaud all of the great ideas and themes that are included in the story, the actual execution is a bit of a mixed bag. My biggest point of criticism for this novel is the pacing and its length. While the spicy romance and steamy scenes are well done and the Scottish folklore is intriguing, there’s a lot of pages in-between that don’t contribute to either element and cause the story to drag in places. One of the biggest contributing factors is the excessive internal thoughts and monologues. Normally I love books that have extensive reflections and introspections between the plot and action, but I personally found a lot of this novel’s internal thoughts to be overwritten and repetitive. Most notable and glaring in the second half of the story, Key spends the whole time thinking different variations of “I need to save him” while Lachlan is fixated on “I must protect her from myself and can’t let her experience more loss”. The first half of the book worked well for me because there were different levels and thoughts ranging from annoyance, to confusion, being impressed and then unwillingly attracted. In the second half of the book, it becomes a cycle of the same monologue over and over (not to mention they’re not particularly insightful or exciting monologues). This is more noticeable since the novel already introduced so many other compelling ideas like the original Greer/McKay history, the logistics to Lachlan’s dad’s disappearance, exploration of Key’s powers and their origin, etc. Everytime Key or Lachlan would internally monologue, I constantly wished Ferguson would’ve chosen almost any other topic or idea to focus on. The dual-perspective exacerbates the problem twice fold when both main characters are repeating themselves constantly. The ebook version of this novel lists 415 pages but when you look at how much plot this story actually has and with its pacing issues, 300 pages would’ve been more appropriate.

The other notable issue is that the spicy romance angle and the fantasy angle don’t always compliment each other. Most of the first half of the novel follows familiar spicy romance scenarios with added comedic banter. The writing often has a thirsty wandering eye which suits the romance storylines well. However, Under Loch and Key also has a tendency to go for long stretches of chapters that explore the family mysteries, Keyanna’s powers, the historical folklore, and then randomly out of the blue have Keyanna’s eyes visually undressing Lachlan. I get that this was meant to be a romance novel from the start, but the near complete lack of spice when the story is focusing on other elements is completely jarring. Some of the sex scenes make perfect sense with the tension and frustration well-placed, but others derail the momentum of the fantasy elements completely. On the flip side when viewed from the romance angle, I’d imagine the large stretches of little romance when the characters are investigating the mysteries would be dry, boring, and unappealing as they lack any hint of spice. This odd dichotomy creates an unfortunate issue where the sexy gazes cheapen the ambition of the fantasy elements while the added storylines detract and take time away from the romance. If the novel went further in either direction or the transitions between the two smoother, this would be a considerably stronger read and much higher rating.

Outside of the clashing ambitions, the simplistic character drama and internal thoughts don’t help. While clearly an adult romance novel due to the graphic and detailed sex scenes, the execution of the character drama clearly has a YA feel to it. Lachlan and Key’s concerns are quite basic and the story has a habit of having huge overreactions that verge on comedic due to how dramatic they are for questionably set up moments. The plot and the “villain” are entirely predictable due to the foreshadowing having the finesse and subtlety of a blinding spotlight. The villain in particular was unintentionally hilarious to me by how corny and forced their grand reveal monologue feels (not to mention having canned and stock material motivations) and with some tweaks and greater ambition, this story probably could’ve worked without a true living villain. While not necessarily due to the prose, there’s also a constant feeling of casual contemporary fiction adequacy that’s just fine and good.

Additionally the ending is a bit too happily ever after for my taste and the epilogue really didn’t add anything of value. I personally feel that the novel might’ve been stronger without the epilogue that doesn’t contain any important and is just irrelevant fluff. View Spoiler » Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think anyone cares or wanted to read about Key and Lachlan’s baby vs them just being a happy couple together, Lachlan’s parents reconciliation, or Key’s newfound life in Scotland (there’s quick references to Lachlan wanting to settle down and start a family but they’re so brief, it feels weird to have an epilogue centered around it). Scorcha quite literally just takes up pages with baby babbling and her display of powers actually creates more questions than it answers them. Why did Key not discover her powers until she was an adult vs her baby and having a Kelpie ancestor, biologically the kelpie genetics should get weaker and weaker each generation, not stronger. Unless the historic name grants her some extra bit of power, nothing about this epilogue makes sense or is satisfying to read. « Hide Spoiler

While there’s some pretty notable drawbacks and a definite sense of missed opportunities, I thought Under Loch and Key was an above average crossover romance novel that was very close to being great. The ideas and concepts were there, which was way more developed and ambitious than you would expect when you hear the book is about a hot romance with a shape-shifting Loch Ness Monster. Although a bit slow in places, I was originally thinking of rating this a 4-4.5 but unfortunately the constant repeating monologues and the juvenile-esque tone of the second half knocked it down quite a bit. That being said, I am interested in reading some of Lana Furgerson’s other works that are more standard romance novels that likely won’t have a cross-genre disconnect. At the end of the day though, I definitely do not regret reading this novel and my cryptozoology curiosity has more than effectively been satisfied.