It’s been a long, tiring day and my nerves are shot, but I must write, even though every part of me wants to sleep.
Outside, night fell, and stars flashed in the inky sky as Hilary congratulated herself on the way she’d handled the devastating end of her marriage. Now, all she had to do was figure out where to hide the body.
Hide the body?
I closed the laptop. Tomorrow is another day.
Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel is delightful and oozes the Paris charm I love.
Turn a tumbledown Paris hotel into a perfect boutique, bookish retreat, and have it open for Christmas? What could possibly go wrong?
When Anais receives a near-derelict Paris hotel in her divorce settlement, her first thought is to tidy it up and sell it immediately. All she wants is to move on and forget her disaster of a marriage ever happened.
But selling it proves impossible, so she has only one option: to make it gorgeous and open by Christmas… when her funds will almost certainly run out.
She’s not counting on the grumpy American bar-owner next door, Noah, coming and interfering at every moment though. Nor is she expecting to find a mysterious room – which holds the key to a one-hundred-year-old secret – about a woman who chose love against the odds.
One thing’s for sure… as the fairy lights twinkle all over the city of lights and the first snowflakes start to fall… this will be a Christmas in Paris to remember.
It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of Rebecca’s writing. Anytime anyone is looking for a charming, heartwarming romance, her books are always the first ones I recommend. There is just something so wonderful about Rebecca’s writing that brings me comfort and joy. In this book, Rebecca transports her readers to a charming Parisian neighbourhood, where a down-on-her-luck heroine is tasked with renovating an old hotel. I fell in love with the setting in this book, and I adored the literary elements that Rebecca added to the story. It was like she wrote a love letter for those bookworms who adore the bookish side of Paris. The story itself is bursting with warmth, laughter, and heart. I am a sucker for a good home/business make-over story, and Rebecca nailed all those qualities that make that sub-genre so amazing for me. There is plenty of chaotic energy within this hotel as it is being renovated. Anyone who has done renovations knows that nothing ever goes as smoothly as you would like it to. What made this renovation story even more special was the mystery around the mysterious writer who lived in the hotel many, many years ago. It was an interesting side story that helped to bring Anais and Noah closer together. I love a good mystery, and Rebecca did a great job incorporating this story element into the plot.
Anais was delightful. She is a romance author who suffers writer’s block after discovering her husband in bed with another woman. Her divorce was long and awful, and she no longer believes in love; anytime she attempts to write a romance, the poor male hero finds himself dismembered in the most gruesome way. I thoroughly enjoyed reading her attempts at writing; they were highly entertaining. Anais’s relationship with her cousin Manon was what really stood out for me. Anais and Manon are very different from one another, but they have a solid and supportive relationship with each other. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them as they renovated the old hotel. The sisterly, witty banter that went on between them was perfection.
This is an excellent romance for those bookworms who are looking for something that is on the lighter end of the romance scale. There isn’t an overwhelming amount of romance in this book. The “romantic-ish” moments are scattered throughout the story, and it isn’t until near the end that they increase in number. If you like, dislike to lovers and neighbours to lovers tropes, then you are going to enjoy the romance between Anais and Noah. Noah doesn’t give a great first, second, or third impression. He is a bit of a bossy know-it-all, and definitely rubs Anais the wrong way. He’s not my favourite Rebecca hero, but he does grow on you as the book goes on. What I liked about their relationship was that sharp, witty banter and how they constantly kept each other on each other’s toes.
Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel is a holiday story and is easy to love.
