Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan

QUEENIE MALONE'S PARADISE HOTEL by Ruth Hogan (The Keeper of Lost Things) has a really beautiful cover and a quiet storyline. The main character, Tilly/Tilda, has returned as a grown woman to a happy place from her childhood: Queenie Malone’s fabulous Paradise Hotel in Brighton, England. Flashbacks give the reader perspective from Tilly as an innocent child narrator: “having ‘mysterious ways’ gave God quite a lot of chances to get away with things that he didn’t have to explain, but then he was God, after all, and in charge of everything, so she supposed you just had to trust him.” When older, Tilda reads her mother’s diary and learns some surprising news about her dad, Stevie, and her grandparents. It changes her feelings for her mother and helps her to reach out more to others, like Miss Dane, an older neighbor, and Daniel, a café owner who accepts and encourages her. As Tilda reflects, “my mother’s words are rewriting the childhood that for so long I have claimed as my own. The people and the places are still there, but the perspective has slipped so far out of focus that I barely recognize the story that was once, and ought to remain, so familiar.” Although not especially memorable, QUEENIE MALONE'S PARADISE HOTEL is more about how readers will feel as they enjoy the escape of an endearing, charming, heartwarming, feel-good story – enjoy!