Today I’m excited to share my review as part of the blog tour for Senta Rich’s debut novel, Hotel 21! Read on to find out what I thought…
Title: Hotel 21
Author: Senta Rich
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Synopsis:
‘I have a first-day rule. Any sign of trouble, even a whiff of a problem, and I walk.’
Noelle is an efficient and friendly hotel cleaner, a model employee. Or so she’d have you think. The trouble is that she can’t help taking a little ‘souvenir’ as she cleans. Nothing of value, just tokens of happy, normal lives: a lipstick, a hair clip, some tweezers. And by the time the guest has noticed, she’s long gone.
As she starts at her 21st hotel, she’s determined to beat her record of one month in a five star hotel before suspicion falls on her. But when she meets her new colleagues, her plans are complicated. These women aren’t just hands pushing carts down lonely hotel corridors: they are women with lives full of happiness and worry, pain and joy. The kind of lives Noelle has never known how to live. They make her wonder what it might be like to have real friends, people to stick around for.
Will the women at Hotel 21 give her the courage to claim the life she deserves, or will her old habits come back to haunt her?
My review:
Hotel 21 is a charming and engaging novel that follows the story of Noelle, a cleaner at luxurious hotels with a peculiar habit – she cannot resist taking small items left by the guests. Her (perhaps harmless) thievery, has resulted in her working at twenty different hotels, and she now embarks on her twenty-first as she begins a new job at the Magnolia Hotel.
While the novel is mostly light-hearted and sweet, it also delves into Noelle’s past, particularly her challenging childhood, providing some serious undertones to the story. Her past also explains, to some extent, why she behaves the way she does. However, the book predominantly focuses on Noelle’s relationships with her new colleagues, as she becomes close to her new team and develops a close friendship with them – the kind she has never really had before.
The plot is incredibly readable and full of humorous and heartwarming moments, which makes it a quick read that is difficult to put down. Furthermore, the characters are well-developed and diverse, with a range of backgrounds, traits, and sexual orientations. I liked that none of the characters felt one-dimensional.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this charming novel and would gladly read more works by Senta Rich in the future.
Hotel 21 is out now – buy online from Waterstones or bookshop.org!
about the author:
Senta Rich began her career as an advertising copywriter. During this time she also wrote radio plays and articles for magazines. As soon as she could she left advertising and moved into the world of film and TV. She currently writes for TV shows in Ireland and the UK, including drama and animation. Her work has featured on RTE, BBC, CBEEBIES, Amazon Prime and other international and European networks. She also has a feature film in development. Hotel 21 is her first novel.
Senta has a BA (Hons) in Philosophy from Liverpool University. She has a strong background and interest in psychology with a particular emphasis on Jungian psychology. She is originally from London but now lives in Dublin with her husband and son.
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