The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick

 

The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick.

Published 20th July 2023 by HQ.

From the cover of the book:

Ginny Splinter, acclaimed radio host and relationship expert, prides herself on knowing what’s best for others. So, she’s sure her husband, Adrian, will love the special trip to Italy she’s planned for their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. But when Ginny presents the gift, he surprises her with his own very different plan: a divorce.

Beside herself with heartache, Ginny impulsively goes live on air to invite four heartbroken listeners to join her instead. From hiking the hills of Bologna to sharing a gondola in Venice and dancing until dawn, Ginny and her guests embark on a holiday of full of fun, hope and healing.

Sunny, tender and brimming with charm, The Little Italian Hotel explores love, the importance of friendship, and reclaiming the present moment – even if it means leaving the past behind.

***********

Agony aunt Ginny Splinter loves helping people work out their issues on her radio programme, drawing on experience from her own marriage to give them advice about creating a happy home life. However, Ginny is forced to rethink her seemingly picture-perfect existence when she surprises her husband with the holiday plans she has made for their 25th wedding anniversary... and rather than being delighted, he tells her that he wants a divorce.

Ginny is devastated, and at a loss to explain how her marriage could have broken down without her noticing, especially as she is supposed to be a relationship expert. On impulse, she confesses her heartache live on air, and invites four heartbroken listeners to share her holiday instead. Ginny and her eccentric group of guests settle into the shabby Hotel Splendido in the hills of Bologna to embark on three weeks of shared activites to help them all work through their heartache. Can their time at The Little Italian Hotel help them find a way to heal?

Phaedra Patrick takes us to the beautiful Bologna hills for a touching story about love, friendship, and finding a way forward when life gives you lemons, that curiously blends the concepts of Deborah Moggach's The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel with Willy Russell's Shirley Valentine.

Radio relationship guru, Ginny Splinter is in for a shock when she realises that her marriage is not quite as perfect as she thought. Unable to cancel the dream holiday she planned with her husband, she ends up in Italy with four strangers: elderly Edna, cheery teacher Heather, awkward carpenter Eric, and businessman Curtis. At first it is not easy to tell what has brought them on this holiday, but over the course of the story they open up to share their poignant tales of tragedy and loss, which tug mercilessly on your heartstrings. With a heartwarming twist or two, Patrick uses their developing friendship to help them to accept their situations and move forward. Interestingly, this healing also extends to the owner of Hotel Spendido himself, who it turns out has significant worries of his own.

I did find Ginny a tricky character at times, and am in two minds about the direction in which her story ultimately goes, but I enjoyed how her journey combines with those of Enid, Heather, Eric and Curtis - and the way this tale pokes fun at the smugness of the celebrity self-help set is amusing. There are lots of touching and humorous moments, and Patrick brings in many different facets of loss, heartache, and expectation through the stories of the characters. This makes their heartache widely relatable, and I shed more than a few tears as they each told their stories. The simple moments of friendship and fun they spend with each other are really lovely, and the locations are simply beautiful.

I came to this book expecting a story full of romantic suspense, and although there is an element of that here, this really is more about friendship and acceptance. Patrick throws in quite a few knotty issues to add depth, which makes this a good option for a book club read - as an added bonus there are some questions at the end of the book to provoke discussion about many of the themes that arise too. There is hope and an uplifting vibe, but be prepared for bitter-sweet feelings amongst the warm and fuzzies.

 The Little Italian Hotel is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to HQ for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Phaedra Patrick has always wanted to write books but came to it the long way around. She originally studied art and marketing and then worked as a stained glass artist, film festival organiser and communications manager. She won several awards for her short stories and has now written six novels, four of which became USA Today bestsellers. 

She lives with her family in Saddleworth, UK, where she writes full time.

Her debut novel, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, was translated into twenty five languages worldwide and was optioned by a major Hollywood film studio. Her second novel, Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone (named Wishes Under the Willow Tree in the UK), was made into a Hallmark movie in 2021. Her third novel, inspired by her love of stories, is The Library of Lost and Found. It was selected as ’The Great North West Read,’ to be read across 300 libraries in the UK in 2019. Her fourth is titled The Secrets of Love Story Bridge (The Secrets of Sunshine in the UK) and her fifth, The Messy Lives of Book People (titled The Book Share in the UK) was the Barnes & Noble fiction pick for June 2022 in the USA. Her sixth novel is The Little Italian Hotel, a warm, uplifting escape about the power of love, friendship and following your dreams.