A Scottish Love Scheme

Lily (Erica Durance) leaves her job at a brewery with the intention of becoming a professional photographer. But first she travels with her mother to Haddington, Scotland for some time with the Campbell family, who run a whisky distillery there. Her mother has ulterior motives for the visit that Lily is unaware of.

Haddington is a beautiful, small town that offers small shops surrounded by plenty of greenery, stone bridges, friendly pubs, and an aged charm. Lily reacquaints herself with her camera, snapping many shots of family and friends in and around Haddington.

Logan Campbell (Jordan Young), who heads the family distillery, spends time with Lily while attempting to alleviate the company's financial problems. Lily offers her marketing expertise, so they develop feelings for each other.

Besides the beautiful scenery, this Hallmark romance includes some wonderful, atmospheric music. If you cannot visit Scotland, this is one way to enjoy its culture and beauty.

If you want a little armchair travel trip to Scotland, this might do the trick...including music, country vistas, whiskey, Scottish burrs, Gordon Setter, tea, rugby, and highland cow lamp!

The story was actually on-point for a Hallmark film as Lily (Erica Durance) takes a mother daughter trip with her mother Cait, played by the lovely Jo Cameron Brown. The trip coincides with Lily's divorce being finalized and her leaving her marketing job at her husband's family's brewery. The plan is to go to Cait's hometown in Scotland to visit her best friend since childhood and see a bit of the Scottish countryside followed by Lily going to Spain to take a photography course and finally pursue her desire to pursue the art of photography. What Lily doesn't know is her mom has a serious illness.

Lily and Cait are picked up at the train station by the childhood friend Mairi Campbell (Juliet Cadzow) and her son the widower Logan, who they stay with. Coincidentally, Logan and his brothers run the family's whiskey distillery that is having a marketing crisis. Mairi asks Lily to help out since she is there and Lily jumps in to help with their new ice wine barrel adventure...and along the way gets reacquainted with Logan and his son Finn.

I, for one love armchair traveling and as such loved this entry into the Hallmark vault. I loved the music and the views of the countryside...and all the Scottish burrs. I liked the story and particularly appreciated the two well meaning age appropriate moms. The whiskey stuff was lost on me as I do not drink. But I did really like delicate handling of an illness of a family member and how it affects those around us. I loved learning about 99's and the Scottish National drink Irn Bru.

I felt the energy/chemistry was fine between Erica Durance (LILY) and Jordan Young (LOGAN). Since Lily just had her life upended by a divorce and Logan was still grieving the loss of his wife I wouldn't have expected sparks to be flying. Especially given logan has a son to protect and and Lily's going to Spain for six months they aren't looking for a relationship. Both admit that they are cautious about taking their friendship anyplace given where they are in life. I would expect given that they're middle-aged that they are sensible enough not to jump into a relationship but take relationships seriously. I felt the casting was great and especially loved the moms: Jo Cameron Brown and Juliet Cadzo.

I've seen tons of Hallmark movies. Maybe almost all of them. I'm not a critic or reviewer. I watch Hallmark movies to feel better and enhance my life. In my view this is one of the best written, casted, and acted ones ever. Kudos. Meaningful. Believable. If you choose to watch it I hope you enjoy. The photography/cinematography is also great. Dialog is spot on. The acting is excellent. The characters are believable and well played. Feelings are well portrayed. Hard to beat the scenery. Erica Durance, Jordan Young, and the entire cast is wonderful. Believable. Pretty muck the same Hallmark movie equation, but refreshing and not totally predictable.

I enjoyed this sweet story, and it was nice that is wasn't the same cookie-cutter Hallmark movie. The scenery was lovely and made me want to visit Scotland. Unfortunately I was not a fan of the main character Lily, who came across as emotionless to me. That may have been because her entire face was immobilized by Botox, and she had literally the same expression when showing surprise, laughter, and sorrow. It was very off-putting and I found it hard to concentrate on what she was saying. I enjoyed the sincerity of the male lead and his son, and there was a lot of chemistry with most of the cast.