Christmas at the Island Hotel (Mure)

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Finally, the fact that all the characters seem to have no understanding of media, let alone social media, is baffling. The new hotel’s impressive kitchens throw together two unlikely new friends: Isla Gregor is the hardworking young girl who has been a waitress in the island's cafe, dreaming of a bigger, better life now that she’s at a proper fancy hotel. Flora is clearly jealous of the close bond her husband appears to have with their newborn, but her focus, despite this worry, is still on opening her brother's dead husband's hotel, because, you know, reasons.

Flora is meant to be on maternity leaving having had Douglas, but instead finds herself helping out at the Rock more and more, given Fintan is of course still grieving for Colton, but also finding himself whether he wants to be or not, in charge of seeing Colton's dream come to fruition.The Rock – the rambling, disused hotel on the tip of the island – was Colton's passion project before he died. I really enjoyed both getting to know the new characters, the disastrous early services in the restaurant, as well as catching up with all the regulars from previous books.

There are the stereotypical characters—a temperamental, abrasive French chef, a rich spoiled twenty-something, a bratty child whose parents think she’s just adorable, an ambitious London journalist and, of course, the sweet local girl, Isla. Siblings Fintan and Flora are trying to get the hotel ready for opening at Christmas, while Fintan battles grief and Flora adapts to the new world of motherhood.And then he reappears to somehow kiss the chef after a brief and inconsequential disagreement starting the second baseless romance of the novel. Especially when their motley staff includes a temperamental French chef, a spoilt Norwegian kitchen boy who can't peel a potato without mutilating his own hand and a painfully shy kitchen assistant who blushes when anyone speaks to her.

Things like this just weren't necessary and were confusing to me as a well-established reader of the series. Just like her writing, details and descriptions are kept to a minimum leaving the choicest words to tell the story.Door de beeldende schrijfstijl waan je je volledig op het eiland, voel je je onderdeel van de gemeenschap en is tussendoor stoppen met lezen vrijwel geen optie.

We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. There are a plethora of characters and relationships that have been developed over the past three books, and starting here would be like joining a family reunion where everyone knows each other except for you. The plot involved major suspension of disbelief (a spoiled, lazy foreign prince is forced by his father to get a job in the kitchen of a hotel on a small Scottish island). Jenny Colgan will deliver her trademark HEA ending, but the road there wasn’t as enjoyable as I’d hoped.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.