The title of this book sounded wonderful, who would not like to have a house by loch, and a wooden cabin at that! It was a wonderful story of family, tragedy and secrets.
I enjoyed it very much, as it swept along through years, but I have to say that I did find it a little bit sad.
However a very good read, especially if you are holidaying in Scotland.

Literary fiction at its best .I was drawn right in the location the characters the atmosphere the story,.An author to follow.Highly recommend this novel. #netgalley #press

This is the first book that I have read by Kirsty Wark and at first I found it a dificult book to get into. I kept going because I had been given a copy by Net Galley in exchange for a review. After reading about 30% of the book I managed to get into the story and then I really enjoyed it.

It is an interesting family story and gave me insights into Galloway an area that I am not familiar with and made me want to visit the area despite the midges that always seem to follow me if I go to Scotland.

I would recommend this book to others and would like to thank Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this interesting book.

What an amazing book! Really good description of characters and a good storyline. Highly recommended. Kept me guessing.

This is a remarkable novel about 4 generations of the same family in Scotland. Walter Macmillan married a local businessman's (with dodgy dealings) daughter who turns out to be an alcoholic. They have two children Patrick and Elinor, and they then have three children between them - Peter, Carson, and Iona.
Their grandfather builds them two cabins by the loch, so that they can enjoy family life, but Patrick's wife despises the place, and persuades her husband, Roland, who is an architect to build a more superior place, after demolishing the old cabin. Elinor is not that impressed by it all - she is a fine botanical artist, who loves both her daughters dearly.
One day, tragedy strikes, and it almost rips the family apart. The novel is so intricately weaved with all their stories, and the resolutions for them all, are impressively solved. The characters are painted in geat detail, and the books makes you want to read on and on. I would recommend this highly. Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to read this.

I waited with baited breath for Kirsty's new novel and was not disappointed. It captured the beauty of the area which I know well and the suspense of the family circumstances surrounding each event. I think we all have skeletons in the 'family cupboard' and this was definitely not lacking in that aspect. Enough twists and turns to keep you grasped without having the shock feature that some novels now depend on. I read this within a few days as I found it difficult to put down, looking forward to the next one.

When this title appeared in an email from NetGalley I liked the sound of it but I hadn't read anything by Kirsty Wark so I downloaded a sample of her first book, The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle. I enjoyed the sample so I bought the book and then requested The House by the Loch from NetGalley.

I really like her writing style. It seems to flow naturally and the characters are well defined making it easy to picture them.

What really stands out for me however is Kirsty's description of location - not just the physical place, but the scents, colours, wildlife, atmosphere. It's wonderful. You feel as if you are right there. (this applies to both books).

The House by the Loch spans three generations: the grandfather Walter McMillan, his children and his three grandchildren. Walter has been haunted all his life by an accident he witnessed as a young boy while playing at the side of the Loch. Years later when he has all the family around for the holidays there is another tragic accident which affects all the family personally.

The story switches between the past and the present seamlessly. As the story unfolds relationships are tested and long held secrets are brought to the fore but ultimately it is a story of love and loss and finding a way to put things right.

It's a sad book in places – but it's not all doom and gloom. I felt the book was quite slow at the start but it didn't take too long for me to get into it and when I did I really liked it.

This is a good read with some shocks! Some of the characters are extremely well drawn and likeable such as Walter, Marie and Carson . Others were slightly less three dimensional such as Patrick whose character did need some development. The insights into losing a child and coping with addiction were superb. The impact on family life and the love still felt was both insightful and moving. I would strongly recommend this book. It was a pleasure to read.

This was an odd one for me. It sounded like something I should absolutely love, but I really struggled with it at the start. It took me quite a while to get going, but eventually I did manage to click with the story, and then I really enjoyed it. The character development really took off, the setting was beautiful, and I managed to really engage with the story and how the plot developed. Definitely one to persevere with if you feel like you're struggling.

An intricate family story that begins in the 1950s as Walter meets Jean at a dance, and moves forward through the generations to the present day. It deals with the power of secrets in a family, and how the initial impulse to protect with silence can damage and mislead. Set in Galloway, there is a love of place and an exploration of the conflict between wanting to stay and wanting to leave (expressed most extremely in the character of Jean's mother who has created a beautiful garden at her home but is unable to leave, even for her daughter's wedding or whenJean goes into labour). Many years later, Walter is with his children and grandchildren at the loch, when everyone's world is shattered. If this description makes it should bleak, it shouldn't as there is a real warmth at the centre of this book and above all, hope. It's a family story to immerse yourself in - enjoyable and rewarding.

I was swept up by Kirsty Wark’s language and transported to Scotland, to the “yolk-yellow gorse and tramped down rust-coloured bracken” and the “tweedy moorland”, and now I want to walk in the “salt-blown air” of the loch and meet the characters from this saga. I felt as if I was part of this extended family with all the problems and joys that the various characters threw up.
Apart from the beautiful, evocative descriptions of the countryside, I particularly enjoyed the flashbacks showing the life of the head of the ‘clan’. We meet Walter as a young boy in WW2 and get to know him as Walter, a lovely gentleman, so patient and kind with Jean (his wife) and her alcohol addiction. I would love to meet this man. He is also a wonderful grandfather to the delightful Carson, another favourite character. The famous lines from Larkin, “They f--- you up, your Mum and Dad…” resounded in my head as I read about Walter’s dead wife’s childhood and the way her own troubled mother tended to her immaculate garden with more tenderness than to her own child.
The clothes are another delight, adding to the rounded characters and their world. Kirsty Wark always looks immaculate and on-trend when she appears on television, and I guess her interest in what best to wear transposes to her book. There is a “cream and white checked voile shirt with flowers embroidered on the collar and cuffs”, an image of a woman raising “her arms, sending her gold bracelets concertinaing together noisily like a hail of coins”, somebody else with “orange-painted toenails peeping out like a row of petals from … brown sandals”… There are so many wonderful snippets that I relished and highlighted whilst reading.
There were lows and highs in the book. Sadness permeates the second half after a tragic incident occurs (and I was very moved by the effect on the family – we had a similar trauma with my little brother). Sometimes the flashbacks intruded and - I hardly dare write this of such a famous person, but I felt the book could have been better edited. There were too many ‘suddenlys’ and ‘just thens’ and – some very strange formatting, when the pages looked like lines from a poem and Kirsty Wark’s name and a number intruded mid-passage. I wondered if I had been sent a version that hadn’t yet been proofread. But in a sense that reinforced the feeling I had when reading this story: that the author needed to pour her words down and that she loved writing them.
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and honestly review this book. I will now hunt out Kirsty’s debut novel: The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle.

The characters and the location in this book were beautifully written, Ilive in Scotland and am surrounded by many lochs, Kirsty makes you feel you are there.
the story runs along two time lines, the 1950s and current time, it gives the family history and shows its impact on the present in a way that fascinated me.

I recommend this book and would like to thank the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

An interesting story with plenty of good characters. A good plot with plenty of interest. Set in a beautiful part of Scotland and well described.

A warm but haunting story of loss, love, misunderstandings and unfulfilled desires. This is a story of a family of three generations who lived by a beautiful loch in Scotland and how they managed or didn’t! Some people prosper in peace and quiet and others shrivel and die.

I wasn't sure about this at first, but as I got past the first few pages, I was hooked.

The characters were so diverse and all the twists and turns kept me interested.
Poor Walter he had his work cut out trying to be a good husband, father and provider and he certainly worked hard.

The big tragedy which befell Iona certainly knocked them all for six as it would anyone.

I look forward to trying Kirsty's first one.

Thank you for letting me have a copy.

A story of past and present set in the Scottish Highlands. It is a tale of tragedy and loss which has a very slow start which is a pity and I would suggest has a rethink going forward or with future novels as it puts one off continuing. However having persevered over a matter of weeks I can see the pace picks up giving rise to some excellent character development and a reasonable plot. More a family saga than a thriller but with a beautiful setting.

Set in Galloway on the shores of Loch Doon the story covers the time from 1950 to the present day. It is the story of the McMillan family. Of Walter, the Grandfather who grew up & brought his talented but damaged wife there. Who gave the land to build cabins for his two children & their families and who tried to be a pillar of strength when tragedy struck.

I was totally captured by this story. The characters were compelling and fitted beautifully into the landscape. I enjoyed the the jumping back & forwards in Walter's life, the events finally joining together. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this five star book.

I loved Kirsty Wark’s debut novel, The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle, so I was keen to read her second book, The House by the Loch. I enjoyed it very much. It’s a beautifully written family saga covering three generations. It has a strong sense of place and goes deep within the characters’ inner lives, hopes and fears. And as mysteries and secrets, losses and tragedy are gradually revealed I became totally absorbed by the story. At times immensely sad it is also uplifting. It’s set in Galloway in Scotland, south of Ayr near the Galloway Hills, mainly around Loch Doon.

The House by the Loch begins when ten-year-old Walter MacMillan witnessed a Spitfire crashing into Loch Doon in October 1941, based on a real incident. It was something he never forgot and he built a cairn as a memorial to the pilot. The narrative switches between the 1950s and the present day, telling of Walter’s marriage to Jean, a vibrant young woman when he first met her, his relationship with his children, Patrick and Fiona, and his grandchildren, Carson, Iona and Pete. They all have their problems and difficulties within their relationships, but matters come to a head one weekend when there is another tragedy in the loch.

This is a book that you need to take your time reading, a book to savour and reflect upon at leisure. It has a slow meditative pace as the beautiful scenery of the Galloway landscape unfolds in front of your eyes. But it is the characters themselves that kept me turning the pages, centred on Walter and his granddaughters Carson and Iona. Walter is an immensely patient man, but he was unprepared for the effect living in isolation in the house by the Loch had on Jean, who came to see it as a prison, and on their marriage and children.

Even the minor characters came across to me as real people – Edith, for example, Jean’s mother, an elegant beautiful woman who couldn’t leave her house and garden, feeling she might collapse, and her father brash businessman Billy. Then there are Marie, who helped Jean when she couldn’t look after Carson and Iona, Fiona, who struggled with her marriage, Elinor, Patrick’s wife and her sister, Meg and also Walter’s cousins who only come into the story in the latter part of the book.

Kirsty Wark’s love of Scotland comes over very strongly in this novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it reminded me of family sagas I’d read years ago – books that swept me along as the secrets of earlier generations impact on their descendants. It’s about family relationships, happiness, love, loss and heartbreak.

Many thanks to the publishers, Two Roads, for my review copy via NetGalley.

Another excellent novel penned by the inimitable Kirsty Wark. Her storytelling skills are just as good as her broadcasting prowess and I could hear her authoritative voice in my head as I read. This is a multi-generational story set in the rolling Galloway countryside which deals with many challenging issues. It is very sad in parts and I was emotionally exhausted by the time I reached the very satisfying ending. A good read!

I enjoyed this moving family saga. Unsurprisingly, given the author, it was beautifully written, with well-rounded characters and a stunning portrayal of Scottish landscapes. Tugs effortlessly at the emotions. Not ashamed to admit I had a wee cry.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this lovely book in exchange for an honest review.