Customer Reviews

The Grand Hotel

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"The Background Man" by Carla Kelly. Charles Mortimer had a varied background, son of a vicar who went to India as a clerk, pressed into service as a temporary soldier during uprisings, and home to England as an assistant manager for a line of prestigious hotels. As acting manager for the opening of the Grand Hotel in London, Mortimer discovers love when vicar's daughter, Millicent Carrington, comes to stay while looking for employment. How wonderful to see a romance with working people in Regency London. My favorite in this collection.

"Love Will Find the Way" by Elisabeth Fairchild. Lt. James Forrester fell in love with Mrs. Annabelle Grant while reading her letters to her dying husband, Captain Archibald Grant. Now he was in London to deliver Archie's belongings to his widow. Forrester worries that Archie may always be between them. Heartrending tale of loss and new love.

"The Castaway" by Anne Barbour. Martha Finch had been found on the beach when she was six years old. Raised by a hardworking fishing family, Martha never knew who she really was. She worked at menial jobs, married a man 40 years her senior and, when he died, made her way to London. Having heard of a long-lost heiress still being sought by the child's grandfather, Martha is determined to become that person, craving security and a family. Then she meets her "grandfather" and his younger friend, Gabriel Storm, Earl of Branford. A good story, but no one blinks at Martha's lower class upbringing or how she worked for a living. Still a lovely read, if you can ignore the inconsistencies.

"The Management Requests" by Barbara Metzger. Wounded Captain Arthur Hunter, Viscount Huntingdon, had been given the hotel manager's office to avoid the stairs leading to his suite. When Hope Thurstfield sees Huntingdon going into the office, she mistakes him for the manager. Hope is in London to find her almost intended, but "Mr. Arthur" is all she can think about. Slight humor but little depth.

"Promises to Keep" by Allison Lane. A deathbed promise to her father has brought American Maggie Adams to London to repair an old family rift. She runs into Marcus Widmer at the Grand, discovering he is her second cousin and a man of many interests. Maggie's attempts to contact her father's family leads to danger. This interesting premise deserved a longer format. The plot was uncomfortably compressed in spots, giving the flow of the story a certain jerkiness.

I almost gave this 3 stars because it's one of the weaker Signet Regency anthologies I've read. But I'm a Regency addict and I enjoyed it but it's not a keeper. It's appropriate for light summertime reading. I liked the common plot lines that ran throughout each story, although characterization is still the most important thing in a romance. I enjoyed the first 4 stories but I could never really get into Allison Lane's story because the hero had no character development to speak of. I can recommend this book for the truly dedicated Regency reader!

The only reason it rated as high as 3 stars is due to Carla Kelly's short story. It was fabulous. She has a gift for opening a window to the lives of ordinary people - proving that ordinary romance can be the most magical of all. However, the rest of the stories were sadly flat and shallow by comparison. Still it's worth buying just for the Kelly story.

I was very dissapointed. Not a decent story in the bunch. I like all of these authors. Especially Carla Kelly has always been my favourite. These stories feel like they were written over a weekend and not given much thought besides the common theme.

The book contains many short stories which are a delight to read with a bit of twist in their plots and a bit of romance also.
A pleasure to read this book.
Maria

The Grand Hotel is an anthology based around a single setting: a hotel in London, where the various characters either work or are guests. It's an interesting concept, and one which should, in theory, make the stories appear less as unconnected vignettes and more as 'chapters' in one longer story. But in practice, The Grand Hotel didn't turn out that way. It's something which could have been achieved quite easily, had the authors been given a plot thread which would weave throughout the individual stories and be resolved in the final one. As it was, the stories were very much stand-alone, with only brief references to common characters.

Carla Kelly's The Background Man is probably the best of the bunch, which is hardly surprising. Charles Mortimer, the assistant manager, is rarely noticed, because of his ability to blend into the background. However, substituting for his superior, he comes to the notice of Miss Carrington, a somewhat unusual guest. He falls in love with her immediately, and barely dares to hope that she will return his feelings. She does... but she's hiding a secret from him. Will this destroy any chance for them? My problem with The Background Man was mainly that it was too short, a common problem with anthology stories. The relationship really didn't have enough time to develop, and I wanted to see more of Charles and Millie together.

In Elisabeth Fairchild's Love Will Find A Way, Lieutenant James Forrester is about to meet, for the first time, the widow of his late commanding officer. Yet he feels as if he's known Annabelle Grant all his life. (Incidentally, Annabelle is a widow. Why does Fairchild refer to her as 'Miss'?). James, we see, had to read all her letters to Archie, her late husbamd, and once Archie was too ill to respond on his own, James wrote to her. He fell in love with her from her letters. Now, he has a few days only to get to know her and persuade her to consider marrying him. This is an interesting idea, and a nice, gentle love story - but again rushed by the pressures of coming in at under 65 pages.

Anne Barbour's The Castaway is the most disappointing, given Barbour's undoubted talent. A woman called Martha Finch arrives at the hotel to keep an appointment with Lord Branford, acting on behalf of the Marquess of Canby, the man whose granddaughter she claims to be. The reader is shown very soon that Martha is lying about her claim, and Barbour does not give her particularly sympathetic motives. I was hoping throughout that she would be exposed and that Branford, the hero, would reject her. Her lie is, of course, found out, but a far too convenient solution then emerges. This is one heroine I did *not* want to see end up with the hero.

Next, we have Barbara Metzger's The Management Requests. Captain Arthur Hunter (who should, in fact, be Captain Viscount Huntingdon, if Metzger paid proper attention to protocol) needs a room on the ground floor because of an injury. None is available, so he persuades the manager to let him have the room behind the reception desk. Because of this, a guest - Hope Thurstfield - mistakes him for the manager, a misapprehension Arthur chooses not to correct. (Why?) The secondary characters in this vignette almost drove me crazy, and I didn't especially care for Hope. Another miss.

And finally, we have Allison Lane's Promises to Keep. Maggie Adams has arrived from America to try to make peace with her father's family, from whom he was estranged after eloping with her mother. She bumps into a Marcus Widner at the hotel, who just happens to be related to her mother's family and who offers to help her in her quest - but who warns her off making immediate contact with her father's family. Lane lives up to her usual standards here by inventing the usual crop of one-dimensional villains, completely unbelievable in their audacity and villainry. I liked Marcus, but that's about all I can say for this story.

All in all, not worth the new purchase price, unless you're desperate to complete a Carla Kelly collection. My copy is going to the next charity shop collection.

Although I'm not terribly found of anthologies because the brevity of the format inevitably results in shallow, partially-drawn characters, I found myself enjoying this one more than most. Why? Mostly because it included the romances of some ordinary people, not just those who are rich and titled. Also because it was (for the most part) the heroes who fell in love first and "loved from afar," instead of the women. And because some of the characters and events were intertwined in other stories and gave the impression of a single book instead of an anthology by five different authors. I'd like to see more anthologies like this one!

I agree that Anne Barbour is the star of the book but I also enjoyed Barbara Metzger, whose wit charms. Carla Kelly surprised me with her humor, including more than usual. And Allison Lanes contribution of an American finding her way in London was very good. All in all I must say I enjoyed the book very much.

Cupid comes calling in this anthology with London's luxurious Grand Hotel as the constant setting.

Like many anthology series, the stories are hit and miss. But strangely, the only one I enjoyed (and that remained in my memory) was the contribution from the popular Anne Barbour. Her characters were charming and was a very enjoyable read. Other than that I have trouble picking out any one story that stands out in my memory. They all ran together in a blur for me without any notable distinguishing features. I guess I didn't enjoy it very much as a whole, preferring to settle on one story I can sink my teeth into.

Anthology series are indeed hit or miss and the stories in The Grand Hotel are a miss all the way around. Romance and humor was seriously lacking in this book. There was little to recommend or differentiate one story from the other. If I had to pick one story that was at least semi-enjoyable, I would choose Barbara Metzger's story as there was at least some attraction and humor between the love interests, though not as amusing as amusing as Ms. Metzger can usually be. Why does Carla Kelly always right such somber romances? For me, somber and romance are two adjectives that should not mix in a romance novel.