One For the Road (Macabe Brothers #3)

Author: Elliot Fletcher Title: One For the Road Publisher: Avon Date Published: 08/25/2026

Read Dates: 07/17/2026- 07/18/2026
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

 📖 I received a gifted e-book ARC. The following is my honest review✍🏻

One For the Road is a dual POV single parent romance. Doctor Alastair Macabe had only planned to return to his hometown temporarily to help with his sick father, and when he finds out his inherited his father’s practice, that doesn’t change. He’ll have to stay a little longer to arrange the sale, but then he'll be moving on! In the meantime, he has to deal with the aggravatingly attractive single mother next door and her friendly seven-year-old. Isla was blindsided when her ex abruptly ended things and kicked her and their daughter out, but she’s making do as best she can, even with a grumpy neighbor who keeps trying to get her evicted! But when Alistair needs to improve his clinic’s reputation to make it more marketable, he strikes a deal with Isla: they’ll pretend to date, the town will think better of him for capturing the heart of the beloved Isla, and she’ll have the partner she needs to enter a baking competition with a much-needed prize. Win-win and so simple, as long as it all stays fake!

I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure that Alistair would be easy to redeem after book two, when he was introduced as Juniper’s pretentious, career-obsessed, and cold ex. Getting to see more of him, and how he took ownership of past mistakes, definitely changed my opinion! I loved his interactions with Isla’s daughter, Teddy, and loved the chemistry between him and Isla. I admired Isla’s grit and determination, although I was frustrated by her unwillingness to force her ex into accountability in an attempt to keep the split as amicable as possible. I loved how she and Alistair brought out the best in each other, and how they saw and appreciated sides of each other that the rest of the world seemed to overlook. This was a fantastic addition to this series!

Burned-out GP Alistair Macabe never planned to return to his tiny hometown on the Isle of Skye. Especially not to live next door to Isla, a newly single mom with zero time for grumpy doctors.

But when Alistair needs a popularity boost in order to start taking on patients again, and Isla wants to ruffle her smug ex’s feathers, a fake relationship seems like the perfect solution.

And with the pair taking their roles very seriously, they might just forget they are pretending after all …