Julia London on the romantic appeal of the Scottish Highlands

Julia London, author of the popular historical Cabot Sisters series, branches out with a new pseudonym, Jessa McAdams. The Perfect Bargain is the first in the How to Marry a Highlander series of short romantic comedies. Julia joins us here to get all gushy about The Perfect Bargain's setting, the Scottish Highlands (and who wouldn't?).

Julia: There are few places in my life that I've found more ruggedly beautiful than the Highlands of Scotland. The place is magical — it's so far north, so remote, that sometimes it feels like you've left this world and gone to another. I've been lucky enough to have tromped all over the Highlands in my hiking boots because I have people in my life who make me do that sort of thing. I've sat in a car on a two-lane road and waited for sheep to waddle by. I've stumbled on castles that aren't on the map, petted a hairy coo and drunk good Scotch whisky. I've found out-of-the-way pottery shops, had a flat tyre — yes, tyre — and have even tried haggis.

Scotland is so gorgeous that every time I'm there, I start to dream of living there. I want to buy one of those whitewashed cottages with the thatch roofs and gaze out at the sea and read my books. I want to be away from the Internet and the news and lawn mowers at 7 a.m. on Sunday mornings. I want to put peat in the fireplace and bake scones and wrap myself in wool plaid when it's cold.

But reality always creeps back in to remind me that I have a dog, and children, and manuscripts due, not to mention family and friends. So I come home. Nevertheless, the older I get, and the more of the world I see, I know that if I had to do it all over again, I would go and live in different parts of the world, starting with Scotland.

Wouldn't it be great to just exist in another culture and soak it all in? What if I had done that when I was younger? What if I'd met some Highland guy who looked like Jamie Fraser from Outlander and was totally into me? What if I had stayed?

That's loosely how this series of short romantic comedies, How to Marry a Highlander, came into being. In the first book, The Perfect Bargain, Sloane Chatfield is a privileged millennial and a real people-pleaser. She signs up for all the things she believes she is destined to do: She finds the right guy to be engaged to. She sets herself up to follow in her mother's society footsteps and do charity work. She assumes she knows how her life will go … until her boyfriend breaks up with her.

Sloane is so devastated that when her best friends want to help her rebound, she can't quite say no. After an unbearably wrong-for-her string of guys, Sloane tries to deflect any more set-ups by insisting she is waiting for a guy like Jamie Fraser to come along, and until he does, she's going to ride it out alone. Au contraire, Sloane — your friends have a great idea. You can all go to Scotland and find a guy like that! They are so excited about the prospect of a trip to Scotland that her no falls on deaf ears.

So Sloane does what any reasonable, wealthy and slightly unhinged woman would do: She gets to Scotland first, makes up her own personal Jamie Fraser and plans to break up with this fictional hunk juuuust before her friends arrive. Voila! No more searching for a Highlander. But when Sloane tells her friends about this phantom Jamie, they are super excited — isn't it great that they changed their plans and will be there day after tomorrow?

Sloane is in a pickle, all right. Her little white lie takes on a life of its own, more specifically in the form of one Highland pub owner, Galen Buchanan. Galen is gruff and handsome and impatient with an American chick and her shenanigans. He's got his own troubles — a failing pub, a non-existent social life and an industrial refrigerator on the blink. But she's offering some money that he could desperately use, and there is the issue of her very lush mouth …

Sloane never had any intention of staying in Scotland. But as the land and the people become more vibrant to her, and her worries and cares begin to slip away, she starts to wonder if maybe she should have bought more than a few hours of this handsome man's time.

I hope you enjoy this playful romp across the Highlands of Scotland with a guy in a kilt as much as I enjoyed writing it. And stay tuned — the magic of the Highlands speak to Sloane's friends, too.

Find out more about Julia and her books at julialondon.com.