About the Book:
When the lives of four very different women become entangled in a boutique Venice hotel, dark secrets unravel and not everyone who checked into the hotel will check out again.
Signora Loretta Bianchi, the world famous cook at Venice's Hotel Il Cuore, is forced to choose between once-in-a-lifetime passion and her devoted husband.
Sophie, on assignment in Venice as a food writer, finds a lot more than Signora Bianchi's secret recipes to love, but what is the charming Rocco hiding?
Law graduate Elena is sinking just like the endangered city she's returned home to, and she'll stop at nothing to be free from her marriage.
Grandmother Gayle's dream Venetian holiday turns sinister as she finds herself embroiled in a life or death escape.
Set against a backdrop of the romance and tragedy of magical Venice, The Venice Hotel explores the powerful bonds that develop between women in times of crisis, and the healing power of female connection.
Published by Penguin Books Australia
Released 3 September 2024
My Thoughts:
The magic of sinking into a big book, reading for hours into the dead of the night, only the words for company and the imagery conjured by those words dancing in your head, jostling for your attention even when you aren't reading it because of, well, real life things. Characters that are so real, you find yourself thinking about them as if you know them. And a place so beautifully realised on the page you feel as though you are there, right there, whenever you go back to reading about it. I don't read big books very much anymore. And this is why. Because almost every time I pick one up, it just doesn't deliver. But this one...this one...be still my reading heart.
The Venice Hotel, by the remarkably talented Tess Woods, is THE book you want to rush out and buy right now. Think Maeve Binchy meets The White Lotus, warm and engulfing, yet with a contemporary edge of intrigue and drama. The food, oh my goodness! THE FOOD! And the beauty of Venice and the heartbreaking reality of a sinking city. Venice itself was undoubtedly my favourite character in this story. The setting was so atmospheric, so immersive. Full disclaimer, I do love Italy and books set in Italy, but even so, this was glorious.
The story is told from the perspective of several characters and split cleverly into twelve parts to mirror the twelve days of Christmas. There are some serious themes woven through this story, characters who are carrying heavy burdens, facing huge choices, finding themselves at a crossroads, and coming to the realisation that they need help, they need to lean on someone, reach out to another, and embrace a sense of community that is all too often absent from our lives today.
What a glorious, brilliant, compulsive read this was! I was fully prepared to bully my book club into reading it next but they all just agreed and saved me the effort.
Thanks to Penguin Books Australia for the review copy!
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