Book Details
Description
It's the busiest season of the year, and Forest Manor Hotel is quite literally falling apart. So when Izzy and Lucas are given the same shift on the hotel's front desk, they have no choice but to put their differences aside and see it through.
The hotel won't stay afloat beyond Christmas without some sort of miracle. But when Izzy returns a guest's lost wedding ring, the reward convinces management that this might be the way to fix everything. With four rings still sitting in lost property, the race is on for Izzy and Lucas to save their beloved hotel - and their jobs.
As their bitter rivalry turns into something much more complicated, Izzy and Lucas begin to wonder if there's more at stake here than the hotel's future. Can the two of them make it through the season with their hearts intact?
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Where do I start with this?When Beth O'Leary manages to turn out such original, well-crafted books as The No-Show, it's hard to believe this book came from the same author. This book is one massive miscommunication trope, in the most annoying way possible. Coming it at about 350 pages, it somehow felt 500 pages long. Izzy is an embarrassment of a main character, completely unable to have a real conversation about anything. The hatred between her and Lucas felt forced and so weird, all the time, but particularly when she realised she was starting to fall for him. They would have the nicest time together and he would say THE NICEST THINGS TO HER and her narration was still solely focused on how much they hated each other. Like he VERY OBVIOUSLY did not hate her and explicitly told her he did not hate her and she still was like "Lucas has no heart, we hate each other." Just fucking grow up, please. I also had issues with the writing, and I can't tell if it's the book's fault or if the audiobook narrators were really that shit. At one point, Izzy is ruminating (again) about how much she and Lucas hate each other and she says: "No matter if he speaked up for me." ????? That's just.... what? And further on, Lucas and Izzy have a date set up for that evening, but it sounds like she's also supposed to be meeting Louis that night. The audiobook narrator says, in Lucas's voice, from Lucas's perspective: "She can't be seeing Lucas tonight." Like buddy, that's you. I dunno. I just found this so sloppy and unromantic. There was no chemistry beyond the physical - Izzy constantly describing Lucas as a giant wall of hulking muscle (which, by the way, conjures up THE MOST ridiculous images) and Lucas focusing on how small and cute Izzy is - and the whole thing felt forced. Both characters were SO immature. I know the romance genre often hinges on a miscommunication breakup 60% of the way through, but this entire book exists because of a miscommunication that both parties are too fucking childish to address. Rant over, it's a no from me. The only reason it isn't getting one star is that the side characters are all really fun and make good contributions to the story.