Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel
2 journalers for this copy...
Tilly was a bright, outgoing little girl who liked playing with ghosts and matches. She loved fizzy drinks, swear words, fish fingers and Catholic churches, but most of all she loved living in Brighton in Queenie Malone's magnificent Paradise Hotel with its endearing and loving family of misfits. But Tilly's childhood was shattered when her mother sent her away from the only home she'd ever loved to boarding school with little explanation and no warning.
Now an adult, Tilda has grown into an independent woman still damaged by her mother's unaccountable cruelty. Wary of people, her only friend is her dog, Eli. But when her mother dies, Tilda returns to Brighton and with the help of her beloved Queenie sets about unravelling the mystery of her exile from The Paradise Hotel, only to discover that her mother was not the woman she thought she knew at all ...
Mothers and daughters ... their story can be complicated ... but it can also turn out to have a happy ending.
From: www.fantasticfiction.com
QUEENIE MALONE'S PARADISE HOTEL by RUTH HOGAN (2019) | ISBN: 1-4736-6906-5 / 978-1-4736-6906-2 (UK PB - FEB 2019) | Publisher: Two Roads
Now an adult, Tilda has grown into an independent woman still damaged by her mother's unaccountable cruelty. Wary of people, her only friend is her dog, Eli. But when her mother dies, Tilda returns to Brighton and with the help of her beloved Queenie sets about unravelling the mystery of her exile from The Paradise Hotel, only to discover that her mother was not the woman she thought she knew at all ...
Mothers and daughters ... their story can be complicated ... but it can also turn out to have a happy ending.
From: www.fantasticfiction.com
QUEENIE MALONE'S PARADISE HOTEL by RUTH HOGAN (2019) | ISBN: 1-4736-6906-5 / 978-1-4736-6906-2 (UK PB - FEB 2019) | Publisher: Two Roads
Read quite a while ago now, and it's details are a bitty vague. Slow to warm to this but as ever with Ruth Hogan's novels it's worth holding on, letting the journey unfold, and appreciating the thought-proking insights as they wash over you in their own time. Lovely evocation of another another time, fascinating characters, mesmerising narrative. Tilda's alteration in her understanding of the challenges driving her mother did feel genuinely plausible and at the outset that wasn't an outcome I could see the shape of. Interesting!
Actually ought to mention some quibbles... Early on I felt this was disorientating and twisty in that it read like an adults account of how a child may think but it didn't quite hit a reality mark.
Then there was the improbable time period, reading initially as if Tilly is growing up in the 1960s or 1970s but then has a job working from home using a laptop, what? Could be 2000or late 1990s, but then wouldn't their be a time discrepancy of almost 20 years?
All that confusion tore my attention away from the main story line. Not till around page 100 did I get the feeling these are people living in a realistic time line!
Incidently, I missed understanding why Tilly was sent away from her mother.
Clearly, I would have found a re-read rewarding but the next reader was selected when I bought it and it was beyond time this travelled on!
Actually ought to mention some quibbles... Early on I felt this was disorientating and twisty in that it read like an adults account of how a child may think but it didn't quite hit a reality mark.
Then there was the improbable time period, reading initially as if Tilly is growing up in the 1960s or 1970s but then has a job working from home using a laptop, what? Could be 2000or late 1990s, but then wouldn't their be a time discrepancy of almost 20 years?
All that confusion tore my attention away from the main story line. Not till around page 100 did I get the feeling these are people living in a realistic time line!
Incidently, I missed understanding why Tilly was sent away from her mother.
Clearly, I would have found a re-read rewarding but the next reader was selected when I bought it and it was beyond time this travelled on!
Apologies a long overdue parcel and hastily packed with items barely padded and little wrapping paper to mention. My fingers crossed that the breakable bits of Easter fun & Birthday trinkets, edibles, books and a DVD also, arrive intact! Kind regards, rainbow3
These two books travelled together:
Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan
Death Wears a Mask (Amory Ames, 2) by Ashley Weaver
● CONTROLLED RELEASE:
Please do, while on your travels, BookCrossing book check in from time to time. A wee journal note will do the trick. Cheers rainbow3.
These two books travelled together:
Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan
Death Wears a Mask (Amory Ames, 2) by Ashley Weaver
● CONTROLLED RELEASE:
Please do, while on your travels, BookCrossing book check in from time to time. A wee journal note will do the trick. Cheers rainbow3.
Arrived safely today carried by a delighted postman who declared "you don't want this 2 but this is a real package" as he handed over 2 rubbish mail letters and a very varied surprise package from rainbow3.
This keeps making its way into my hand but I must put it down and complete that which I am just finishing first (I have 5 half read books at present!! so must get something completed). I cannot see this being long on tbr though, looking forward to this book already as I know I like this author.
This keeps making its way into my hand but I must put it down and complete that which I am just finishing first (I have 5 half read books at present!! so must get something completed). I cannot see this being long on tbr though, looking forward to this book already as I know I like this author.
Yep, this did not stay long to tbr as it is now read!
I do like Ruth Hogan's books and this is yet another study of the mother - daughter relationship that she likes to explore. I spent far too much of this book wondering what was happening with the young Tilly (was it autism, was it an exaggerated child's imaginary world, what?) and not focussing on the other external characters to Tilly/Tilda herself. I actually re-read some chapters of the book as I thought I was missing the point of it all. However, I ended the book still thinking there was something in Tilda's personality that I was missing and that was suppressed all the way through the plot. Personally, I thought not enough was made of the Brighton (it could have been any of the seaside towns really) setting but of course it helped with the reasoning of why so many 'music hall' type of characters were the peripheral cast of loving misfits from society in general. An intriguing set of people, not least Queenie herself, and an interestingly told tale. Personally, I could have done without Daniel's presence but I see others have found him useful for helping to guide the storyline through to conclusion. The end does tie up all the loose ends from the earlier story and was a satisfactory ending for such a surprising cast.
I now only have Madame Burova to read and I will start that before Christmas I think. I have no immediate plans for this book but will make it available for now, but it will probably go into a bookbox in time!
I do like Ruth Hogan's books and this is yet another study of the mother - daughter relationship that she likes to explore. I spent far too much of this book wondering what was happening with the young Tilly (was it autism, was it an exaggerated child's imaginary world, what?) and not focussing on the other external characters to Tilly/Tilda herself. I actually re-read some chapters of the book as I thought I was missing the point of it all. However, I ended the book still thinking there was something in Tilda's personality that I was missing and that was suppressed all the way through the plot. Personally, I thought not enough was made of the Brighton (it could have been any of the seaside towns really) setting but of course it helped with the reasoning of why so many 'music hall' type of characters were the peripheral cast of loving misfits from society in general. An intriguing set of people, not least Queenie herself, and an interestingly told tale. Personally, I could have done without Daniel's presence but I see others have found him useful for helping to guide the storyline through to conclusion. The end does tie up all the loose ends from the earlier story and was a satisfactory ending for such a surprising cast.
I now only have Madame Burova to read and I will start that before Christmas I think. I have no immediate plans for this book but will make it available for now, but it will probably go into a bookbox in time!