500 miles from you A novel

Strangers trade lives in this endearing romance from Colgan (The Bookshop on the Shore), which will remind rom-com aficionados of the film The Holiday. London nurse Lissa Westcott witnesses a teenage boy getting run over by a car and is part of the failed effort to save his life. After the tragedy, she suffers from PTSD, leading her superiors to arrange for her to swap jobs with a nurse in the quiet town of Kirrinfief, Scotland, as a break from stressful London life. Meanwhile, nurse Cormac MacPherson travels from Kirrinfief to cover Lissa's patients in London. As both adjust to the charms and quirks of life in a small town and big city, they exchange notes on patients via email. Soon their correspondence becomes more personal than professional as they forge a powerful bond. Their long-distance relationship is sweet but slow as the medical drama and contrasting settings take center stage, but their eventual face-to-face meeting is worth the wait. This cute, cozy story will draw readers in. Agent: Deborah Schneider, ICM. (June)

In Colgan's third book set in Kirrinfief in the Scottish Highlands, the characters are nurses who conduct home visits. After a tragic incident involving a young man, Lissa struggles with daily life in London. Cormac is back in Kirrinfief after serving as a medic in the military. When the HR department suggests that Lissa take a break from the city by doing a job share swap with someone from a rural area, she is as reluctant as Cormac at first to agree, but eventually they do. For three months, the pair swap jobs, patients, living accommodations, and cars--all the while communicating daily about patient information. While the inevitable outcome of the two finally meeting and seeing each other for the first time (no pictures or social media to give each other clues) pays off near the very end, it's the relationships they build with the people in their swapped cities that are most interesting. VERDICT This fun, light-hearted romance is made even more enjoyable by Eilidh Beaton's fantastic narration. Recommend to fans of Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare.--Courtney Pentland, Omaha, NE

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. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.