Stop! Before you decide to delve into Alexandra Raife’s Until the Spring, there is something you should know: this is not a straight romance. There is a slight, very slight, romantic element to it, but this is not a romance novel. It has the requisite ending but it’s really a novel about relationships and belonging, about finding your way in the world, and it’s on this level that the book really works.

An old family friend, Jeremy, has asked the Munros a favor. He wants them to take in a woman whom he managed to get pregnant. Kate has been thrown out of her house by her parents and has nowhere to go. Jeremy is not interested in her or the baby, so he sends her to the Munros and their Highland home. Kate is not a rugged lass. She’s had a sheltered and privileged upbringing and is not at all prepared for the family or their lives. They run an inn of some sort where they retired following the death of Grannie’s husband.

The Munros – Harriet, Joanna, Max, Grannie, (their mother) and Laura (Joanna’s young daughter) – are an interesting mix. Harriet, the eldest is…well, I guess spinster is a term that’s as good as any. Joanna, while friendly enough, keeps herself apart, and Max is our – ahem – hero. He has all the responsibility and none of the glory. He is somber and gets angry easily. Laura is a typically happy 11-year-old. Grannie’s will is still strong but her body is beginning to fail her. Through the course of the book, we see what each of them brings to the family and what issues they have with their lives.

While they are not cruel to Kate, she feels shy and awkward. She doesn’t understand their lives and why they seem to do and fix everything themselves. Her endless internal questions through the beginning of the book had me convinced I wasn’t going to like her, especially when she “mewed with dismay.” I am pleased to say that eventually Kate acquits herself quite nicely. She is alone, pregnant, and has absolutely no clue about what she’s supposed to be doing to help. What she seems to be is a catalyst for changes within the family dynamic. Although he fights it, Max becomes quite taken with Kate, and Grannie turns to her as her confidante. Grannie was the biggest surprise in the book. I was fully prepared not to like her, but she’s really just an old woman looking back on her life and feeling she has come up short. Kate sees her vulnerability and tries to help. This touches the old woman and in turn, their relationship is touching to the reader. Through living with the Munros, Kate learns to stand on her own two feet. The Munros and the reader come to realize that a privileged life does not necessarily make a happy one. Kate’s parents tossed her out of the house cruelly and Kate realizes that she was never truly loved or cherished by them.

Kate’s relationship with Max is disappointing. Yes, slowly but surely we come to see that they are growing attracted to one another, and we can pretty much figure out what’s going to happen, but this reviewer never felt they truly connected as people. Though circumstances bind them, I couldn’t quite warm to them as a couple. It could have been Max. He’s not a warm or even charming hero. He’s overworked and, to hear him complain, henpecked by the females in his family. While he does make peace with his life, I felt vaguely dissatisfied with him and never truly warmed to Joanna either. As for Harriet, she justsort of seemed there. But the secondary characters that float in and out the book, including the dog Buff, help flesh things out a bit.

The novel paints a vivid picture of the Highlands, the Munros’ lives, and how those around them live and work. It works on that level and as a book on relationships in general. It falls short in the romance department and in fleshing out the relationship between Kate and Max. All in all though, it is a pleasant read.