by: Julia Kent
Series: Shopping for a Highlander
Genre: Contemporary Romance/Romantic Comedy
Release Date: June 10, 2025
I didn’t expect to fall for a Scottish footballer so annoyingly sunny you need shades to be around him.
I didn’t expect to say yes to his heart-felt, if loopy, proposal while he lay injured on the pitch, blathering on about banana pudding and sparkly unicorns.
What I definitely didn’t expect?
For our engagement to explode into a paparazzi circus, our mothers to turn into wedding bulldozers, and for our wedding protector's perfectly reasonable elopement plan to spiral into a road trip escape.
So here we are.
In Love You, Maine, a town that celebrates Valentine’s Day every single day. We’re here to get married. Quietly. No drama. In disguise.
Although good luck hiding a 6’4” ginger Scottish striker wearing a knee brace and a perpetual extrovert smile.
Instead of being subtle and blending in? Our quiet escape is vibrating heart-shaped beds, mirrors on the ceilings, secret identities, interfering mothers, and one suspiciously enthusiastic moose that humps dumpsters.
This was supposed to be a simple wedding. Just me and Hamish. No fuss.
But nothing about us has ever been simple with us.
Still, this is what love is, right? It’s chaos. It’s compromise. It’s crying in a wedding planner’s office, then kissing in a hot spring.
It’s choosing each other again and again, even when everything goes sideways.
No matter what comes next... this is our comeback story, in more ways than one.
And no - that’s not a euphemism. :)
Shopping for a Highlander’s Elopement is a romantic comedy that blends the worlds of four bestselling series by New York Times bestselling romantic comedy author Julia Kent:
- Shopping for a Billionaire
- Shopping for a Highlander
- Whatever It Takes
- Love You, Maine
If you love sports romance, surprise proposals, grand gestures, chaotic weddings, Scottish footballers, golden retriever/black cat energy, and characters who love too hard, mess up spectacularly, and always find their way back to each other with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments (and lovingly-used scrunchies) along the way, then this is your book.
Shannon turns back to me, sliding into big-sister-who-knows-you’re-spiraling mode. A breeze catches her long, brown hair and lifts it across her eyes, warm concern radiating from them. Shannon got Mom's hair and Dad's eyes, while I'm the opposite, with Dad's auburn hair and Mom's bright blue eyes. Our faces are similar in shape, even if the genetic roll of the dice gave us different features. “You okay?”
I open my mouth.
Nothing comes out.
“Oh, boy.” She takes my hand and scoots into the row where Declan was sitting. “You’ve reached the blank-stare stage. That’s never good.”
We settle into two seats, my breath still shaky. Shannon nudges me with her shoulder.
“You know,” she says, “I’m not even sure where I’m supposed to sit. Jacoby side or McCormick?”
“You were born a Jacoby.”
“Sure, but I married into this madness. And now I’ve got a toe in each volcano.”
“Welcome to the lava pool.”
She laughs. “This is all still better than my proposal, though.”
Every little sister loves being reminded of her big sister's screw ups. I laugh. “You swallowed your engagement ring.”
She grins. “And launched us into a seventy-two-hour medical drama called #poopwatch. Honestly, this whole spectacle? Glitter cannon, megaphone, and Hamish's mom’s interpretive bagpipe routine? It's still less traumatic than giving birth to a diamond solitaire.”
“I had to text you for stool updates.”
“I color-coded the spreadsheet. It was efficient. But I don't recommend unexpected emergency room trips on proposal day.”
I crack a laugh, the pressure in my chest finally giving way. "Thanks for the warning. I have no plans to see the inside of an ER today, thank you very much."
Shannon takes my hand. Her expression shifts to that rare sister-serious look I only ever see in moments that count. I'm so lucky that she and Carol are good, solid, kind, smart adults. I need them at times like this.
Need them more than ever.
We can wisecrack and one-up. We can razz each other and needle. But when one of us is in the fear zone, we're there for her.
Always.
“This is love, Amy. Ridiculous, oversized, loud-ass love. It’s not perfect. It’s not quiet. It’s never going to be. But it’s real. Hamish is choosing you, all of you. And yeah, he’s doing it in a full stadium with a glitter fallout zone, but he’s doing it. He’s all in.”
I breathe.
“He’s just… so much.”
“I know. But he’s your much.”
I open my mouth.
Nothing comes out.
“Oh, boy.” She takes my hand and scoots into the row where Declan was sitting. “You’ve reached the blank-stare stage. That’s never good.”
We settle into two seats, my breath still shaky. Shannon nudges me with her shoulder.
“You know,” she says, “I’m not even sure where I’m supposed to sit. Jacoby side or McCormick?”
“You were born a Jacoby.”
“Sure, but I married into this madness. And now I’ve got a toe in each volcano.”
“Welcome to the lava pool.”
She laughs. “This is all still better than my proposal, though.”
Every little sister loves being reminded of her big sister's screw ups. I laugh. “You swallowed your engagement ring.”
She grins. “And launched us into a seventy-two-hour medical drama called #poopwatch. Honestly, this whole spectacle? Glitter cannon, megaphone, and Hamish's mom’s interpretive bagpipe routine? It's still less traumatic than giving birth to a diamond solitaire.”
“I had to text you for stool updates.”
“I color-coded the spreadsheet. It was efficient. But I don't recommend unexpected emergency room trips on proposal day.”
I crack a laugh, the pressure in my chest finally giving way. "Thanks for the warning. I have no plans to see the inside of an ER today, thank you very much."
Shannon takes my hand. Her expression shifts to that rare sister-serious look I only ever see in moments that count. I'm so lucky that she and Carol are good, solid, kind, smart adults. I need them at times like this.
Need them more than ever.
We can wisecrack and one-up. We can razz each other and needle. But when one of us is in the fear zone, we're there for her.
Always.
“This is love, Amy. Ridiculous, oversized, loud-ass love. It’s not perfect. It’s not quiet. It’s never going to be. But it’s real. Hamish is choosing you, all of you. And yeah, he’s doing it in a full stadium with a glitter fallout zone, but he’s doing it. He’s all in.”
I breathe.
“He’s just… so much.”
“I know. But he’s your much.”
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The Shopping for a Highlander Series:
Shopping for a Highlander’s Baby (Book 4) releases December 30, 2025
From billionaires to BBWs to new adult rock stars, Julia finds a sensual, goofy joy in every contemporary romance she writes. Unlike Shannon from Shopping for a Billionaire, she did not meet her husband after dropping her phone in a men's room toilet (and he isn't a billionaire she met in a romantic comedy).
She lives in New England with her husband and three children where she is the only person in the household with the gene required to change empty toilet paper rolls.
She loves to hear from her readers.
Places to find Julia Kent:
This looks great. I would enjoy reading it.
ReplyDeletelooks like a fun one.
ReplyDelete