500 MILES FROM YOU

After witnessing a devastating vehicular homicide in London, Lissa Westcott temporarily swaps jobs with a nurse in the Scottish Highlands, where fresh air and charming locals begin to heal her PTSD.

A nurse practitioner liaison for the National Health Service, Lissa is well versed in the complexities of home visits to people unwilling or unable to participate in the conventional care of hospitals and personal physicians. From impoverished diabetics hiding chocolate bars in their sofa cushions to wealthy drug addicts with gaping, self-inflicted wounds, she’s learned to harden her heart, keep her head down, and just get the job done. Up in Kirrinfief, Cormac MacPherson may have the same job title, but his caseload takes him past a blissful field of bluebells with lovely Loch Ness in the distance. Of course everyone in town knows his business, and it feels like one big family, but he is eager to see what life in London is like for three months. Colgan deftly switches between Lissa’s and Cormac’s experiences, and while Cormac endures hot weather and expensive bars, not to mention the attentions of Kim-Ange, Lissa’s dramatic best friend, Lissa meets a collection of characters from Colgan’s previous novels (including Nina and Lennox from The Bookshop on the Corner), in which other lovely lasses beset by the troubles of the modern world find peace and love in a magical Brigadoon. Predictably yet charmingly, Lissa and Cormac begin to form an intimate bond across the 500 miles separating them, and of course this bond is destined: The heart of the boy Lissa witnessed dying is transplanted into Islay, one of Cormac’s young patients. By the time Lissa returns to London to testify at the inquest, love has blossomed.

A bright, lighthearted romantic comedy ready for filming.