Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: January 18, 2022
Source: Netgalley
Summary:
For fans of Downton Abbey and The Crown…welcome to Hotel Portofino, where romance, revelry, and intrigue await.
A heady historical drama about a British family who opens an upper-class hotel on the magical Italian Riviera during the Roaring Twenties.
Hotel Portofino has been open for only a few weeks, but already the problems are mounting for its owner Bella Ainsworth. Her high-class guests are demanding and hard to please. And she’s being targeted by a scheming and corrupt local politician, who threatens to drag her into the red-hot cauldron of Mussolini’s Italy.
To make matters worse, her marriage is in trouble, and her children are still struggling to recover from the repercussions of the Great War. All eyes are on the arrival of a potential love match for her son Lucian, but events don’t go to plan, which will have far-reaching consequences for the whole family.
Set in the breathtakingly beautiful Italian Riviera, Hotel Portofino is a story of personal awakening at a time of global upheaval and of the liberating influence of Italy’s enchanting culture, climate, and cuisine on British “innocents abroad”.
My thoughts:
As soon as I saw this was being comped to Downton Abbey and The Crown, I knew I had to read it…and I’m so glad I did. I really enjoyed it and now I’ll be all set to watch this when it comes to PBS as a series.
I loved the setting of this one as much as the drama that unfolded. I was at once drawn into these characters’ lives as well as the hotel itself – oh how I would love to stay there for a while! I really feel the author did such a great job in bringing the life of a hotelier alive as well as all the ins and outs that go on inside the hotel.
This is very much a character-driven narrative and I was completely there for it. Yes, there are quite a few characters, but they each have such distinct qualities about them that I really had no trouble keeping track of who was who. I enjoyed them all for their own personalities and quirks and found myself swept up in the drama that was happening with the love match and the missing money and the blackmail. It really kept me engaged and intrigued as to what would happen next.
I very much enjoyed this one and cannot wait to see how it all plays out in a TV series – as I was listening I had my own movie playing out in my head. Can’t wait to see how they compare!
Audio thoughts:
This book is just made for audio and the narrator, Esther Wane, does a fantastic job. She really makes this story come alive, giving all the characters their own unique voices and personalities. I found myself completely captivated by this narrative and enjoyed it so much.
