Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Hotel of Secrets

Diana Biller writes some of my favourite heroes. They're just so utterly besotted with their heroines; I love them!

Maria and Eli were so lovely together. Maria is take-charge and independent, running a hotel practically by herself. Eli is buttoned-up and reserved and unflinchingly honest (despite orginally being in Vienna undercover). He's protective of Maria without being domineering about it. I just LOVE to see a starchy hero become undone over the heroine and this book gave me that in spades. Their sexual tension was off the charts and

Spoiler

that scene where Maria masturbates in front of him?? HOT!!

There was very little internal conflict in this romance which is something I always appreciate. Just two incredibly competent people getting to know each other, falling in love and learning to accept it.

All in all, a stunning blend of swoony romance, suspense, and political intrigue. Very rich in historical detail and the complex politics of the time without becoming dry or overshadowing the romance. Plus a great cast of vividly-drawn secondary characters, from Maria's complicated family to her friends and hotel guests. I particularly loved Josephine and Claude! In fact, I want a story featuring Claude.

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

Hotel of Secrets- 2.25⭐️3.25🌶️

It’s ball season in Vienna, and Maria Wallner only wants one thing: to restore her family’s hotel, the Hotel Wallner, to its former glory. She’s not going to let anything get in her way - not her parents’ three-decade-long affair; not seemingly-random attacks by masked assassins; and especially not the broad-shouldered American foreign agent who’s saved her life two times already. No matter how luscious his mouth is.

Eli Whittaker also only wants one thing: to find out who is selling American secret codes across Europe, arrest them, and go home to his sensible life in Washington, DC. He has one lead - a letter the culprit sent from a Viennese hotel. But when he arrives in Vienna, he is immediately swept up into a chaotic whirlwind of balls, spies, waltzes, and beautiful hotelkeepers who seem to constantly find themselves in danger. He disapproves of all of it! But his disapproval is tested as he slowly falls deeper into the chaos - and as his attraction to said hotelkeeper grows.

——————

✨My Opinion✨

I’ve honestly never read a German based romance novel. It was interesting to see a glimpse of the times, but I didn’t get a very good picture of actual setting of Vienna or anything else other than the hotel itself. But the little historical political snippets were nice.

This book was all over the place. The first half of the book was specifically a suspense book, a super slow one where things didn’t even seem to be tied together. I started skimming fairly early on. Then all of a sudden it was very much a romance novel. Thankfully, the second half was interesting, but the espionage entangled ending was a big dud. It seems that exactly no agent/spy/traitor is good at their job… which makes for a bad book about espionage.

As far as characters go, The two main characters were fairly blah. Eli had no personality, with the excuse that his childhood trauma sucked it out of him. Tall, dark and never smiling/laughing before just isn’t enough to make a character interesting for me.

Maria was fine, but for such an independent and modern woman, had to be saved too many times for my liking.

*Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins press for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

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