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sydapel's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Sometimes I think I'll never get bored of historical romance, especially when it so often pairs a grumpy reticent man with a dark past he thinks will never be forgiven with a fiery, independent woman who has emotional walls built so high she thinks no one will ever care to scale. And boy howdy are they both wrong!!!
On a serious note, I really appreciated how this was set somewhere that wasn't England and found the cast of characters, plot and setting really well done. The last 20 pages to me felt a bit clunky and rushed, but overall a really solid HistRom.
On a serious note, I really appreciated how this was set somewhere that wasn't England and found the cast of characters, plot and setting really well done. The last 20 pages to me felt a bit clunky and rushed, but overall a really solid HistRom.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, Toxic relationship, and Kidnapping
Minor: Torture
naomi_k's review
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual content, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Infidelity, Torture, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment
barefootbetsy's review
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
booksalacarte's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Murder
Minor: Gun violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail
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