Love Strictly so I thought it would be interesting to see how Anton fares as an author. This book proved to be a lot more than a tale of dancing. The story is set in London in 1936 and references the Spanish Civil War as well as the rise of Fascism, Hitler and Moseley. In addition, there are characters from different strata of society as the setting is a posh hotel. All in all it proved to be much more than I was expecting.

A wonderful debut novel which sweeps you into the world of the five star Buckingham hotel where the upper echelons of British society live and play.
Set in the lates 1930’s where the rich were ignoring the gathering war clouds with Germany whilst carrying with them the scars of the previous war.
It has a very Downton Abbey feel combining the stories of the guests of the hotel with the people who work to look after them as well as entertain.
The book deals with several social issues of that time which include the class system ,inter race relationships, and homosexuality.
It also deals with a darker aspect of British history of that time the rise of the Facist movement and how it insidiously permitted itself into the upper echelons of society.
Of course it being Anton a lot of the story was situated around the ballroom and it’s professional dancers and I absolutely loved it.

An enchanting debut novel by the lovely Anton Du Beke.
Set in London in 1936 and centred around the events at the Buckingham Hotel in London, with their exquisite grand ballroom, it covers romance, relationships, dance, music, gossip and, surprisingly, more serious topical issues such as class, poverty, race and espionage.
The main male character is dashingingly handsome, extraordinarily charming and has changed his name from something quite normal to Raymond De Guise (remind you of anyone? 😉)
Highly recommend as a good read.
With thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Anton Du Beke has his finger in many pies, professional dancer, singer, entertainer and now he can add novelist to the list.

One Enchanted Evening is set in the ballroom of a London hotel in the 1930s and tells the story of Raymond De Guise, the principle dancer, chambermaid Nancy, and porter Billy who all work downstairs, behind the scenes of the hotel. As you would expect dancing is a big feature in this book, but also surprisingly was the politics of the time, which I found added another dimension to the story.

If you like Downton Abbey or The Halcyon (the ITV drama set in a hotel) or Upstairs Downstairs, you will love this book. An enjoyable debut novel from Mr Du Beke.

Charming book set in 1930's London. Loved the whole tone of the story, whisked you back to the elegance of the ballroom in a prestigious London hotel but also told the human stories of the characters living in that era. The author allowed the story to develop through the lives of the staff and guests of the hotel and their interaction with one another. I felt more development of some of the characters would have added to the overall feel of the story.

As to be expected from Anton du Beke, the book is based on professional dancing. Based in a London hotel in the pre- WW2 days when the Duke of Windsor and friends were associated with fascist Nazi sympathisers. A good insight into the running of a top class hotel, and the lives of professional dancers in those days .

A delightful story about life in the 30s In a Top London hotel. Full of glamour and glitz and of course ballroom dancing. This book swims with nostalgia for a bygone year and I got swept away with the story. It’s a great first book from Anton.

Don't normally read historical novels but thought I'd give this a go it's set in a hotel and obviously has a ballroom element seeing as it's Anton but it's much more than that there are some great characters who all have a story to tell the description of the hotel is beautiful and you can really see all the characters in their own roles Raymond is definitely king of the ballroom but finds love where you'd least expect it and can certainly see Anton in him which I'm sure was his intention a good debut novel

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
What this novel has in spades is humanity, glamour and glitz. The setting of a top London hotel and the people who make it work, mixed with the glitterati who walk through its front doors gives a great recipe for a story. There are simple plot lines and it was a very easy book to read demanding little effort from the reader. This is no great work of literary fiction and I doubt that will become a ‘classic’ to be read two hundred years from now. But the world of the Buckingham, of Nancy, Billy and Raymond De Guise offers a few hours of pleasant escapism. It was easy to immerse yourself in this other world, it offered a glimpse into a time long past and was very entertaining.

Set against the backdrop of 1930's London, the Buckingham is the hotel to be seen at. For it's guests, it's managers, it's employees, there is something magical about the place, particularly the ballroom... With tensions rising across Europe and the threat of another war looming, not everyone can play nice with those they encounter in the halls and dance floors of the Buckingham.
I first read an excerpt of One Enchanted Evening over at Readers First, and it blew me away. Every detail was just the right amount of description and insight into the ballroom, and I was so fully immersed into the grandeur and the glamour of the dance floor. I was honestly so impressed with the writing and the enchantment of the opening pages that I was thinking about this story for ages, until I got my hands on a full copy.
Unfortunately, when I reread those opening pages, the magic didn't hold. I just wasn't as captivated as I was the first time around, and I was waiting for that to grab hold of me all over again throughout the whole novel.
On the plus side, I did thoroughly enjoy it despite that though. I loved that it focused so much on what was happening outside the hotel and the ballroom - yes, it was a captivating social hierarchy within the hotel, but that was wholeheartedly influenced by life outside. The war - past and upcoming - and political attitudes to different races and classes added depth and realness. I also fell greatly for each character - very well rounded and wholesome, each has a diverse back story and real drive behind their actions.
One criticism I have however, is that I wanted more from other characters. Tell me about Maynard Charles and the secrets he's keeping up in the Park Suite - tell me about their life together. Tell me about Helene and Sybil and the Archers, and what prejudices they would face and overcome. I want more about Vivienne and cocaine addiction in that time of history, and for someone of her social stature. Yes, I enjoyed the characters we do focus on, but I would have loved some more diversity in the stories we were told.
Aside from that, the ending left me wanting more. There are time when I finish a book and I know without a doubt that I want more either because the book was just so damn good that I want to never stop reading it, or it had a bit of a shoddy ending that didn't wrap things up properly. In this instance, I'm not sure which it is. A bit of both, maybe, if that's possible?
Overall, a really enjoyable read. There just... could have been more to make it really enchanting.

This was a charming story set in the 30s which revolves around the staff at a London hotel. Specifically the ballroom dancers; very apt considering the author! It really does have it all, glamour, glitz, scandal and more than enough secrets to keep a reader going, oh and a bit of romance thrown in for good measure! Some of the secrets are a bit obvious from the start, others creep up behind you and slap you in the face. It's really a book to escape into, delve into other people's lives, a bit voyeuristic at times but perfect satisfying. Yes, Ok the ending is a little cheesy but that fits with the tone of the book as a whole.
The book has a veritable cast of extremely interesting and, on the whole, likeable characters. From Nancy, a new addition to the housekeeping staff who, despite her affliction, really wants to get on in her life, maybe a bit too enthusiastic at times, but her heart is in the right place. Raymond, the house main dancer has a past he wants to forget but at the same time, that past is still important to him. His partner, Nancy, has a whole secret of her own to keep hidden. Every hotel has its "facilitator" and here we have that in Billy who runs errands for all and sundry, some on the level, others definitely not, but all the time, he is helping his own family, that's OK, no?! Then we have the owners of the hotel and the secrets they have to keep and, with war looming, some of them are not so palatable. The characters in the book are what really makes it, and they do! They are all well described and congruent within their own story arcs, some were obviously more likeable than others but all were easy to connect to / emote with on some level at least, and all were very believable. I was especially impressed with the portrayal of some of their vulnerabilities and how they were misunderstood.
Yes, a lot of the action is centred around and about the ballroom and its dancers but I guess that goes hand in hand with the author's own experiences and loves. But it never overshadows the rest of what is going on, and there is a lot going on!
If you want a nice easy read which is very character driven, set in the past with all that goes hand in hand with that, you could do much worse than try this book. Yes, there's been speculation as to how much is actually written by the author, and he does in fact thank his collaborator in the acknowledgements but, you know what, I don't care about that stuff, I just want a good read and this book definitely ticked that box for me.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

The Buckingham Hotel and ballroom, in 1936, is like a micro-society, with lives and secrets overlapping and threating others and possibly the country. I loved this book about the glamour of ballroom dancing contrasted with the work of the staff below the stairs, with romance and betrayals. I would highly recommend it.

This debut novel showcases the authors’ love and knowledge of dance. After a faltering start, the characters grew on me and the atmosphere and setting of 1936 provided a glittering backdrop for the secrets, intrigue and subterfuge of the guests and staff of the Buckingham Hotel, London.
With the threat of war looming, knowledge is power, and where better to find gossip and information than the hotels and ballrooms of London.
This is very readable novel but with some predictable storylines hence only 4 stars.

I was waltzed away to the Buckingham Hotel from the very first page of this well written and captivating story. I didn't want to put it down and had to know what happened next. I was so involved in the story that I felt the anticipation of the events as they unfolded.

There is an intriguing wealth of well-developed characters in this book. Slowly you are introduced to the staff and patrons of the Buckingham as their personalities, lives and their stories are told. I was immediately drawn to the main characters, Raymond de Guise and Nancy Nettleton. They are very believable, well, all the characters are, and you can't help but like them. There is such a wealth of interesting people in this story.

Set in a London on the edge of great change and a looming war, there is a historical background to this book which I found wove through the story really well making it very believable. Add to the human stories to this and you have a really good read. I would highly recommend this spellbinding book and will definitely read any more stories by Anton d Beke. I feel there may be a sequel lurking here.

Not surprisingly, Anton du Beke’s debut novel has dancing at its heart. Its set in the glamorous Buckingham Hotel, which is patronised by royalty. Raymond de Guise is the principal professional dancer there, dashing and handsome (‘rather like myself’ as Anton modestly puts it in an afterword), together with his dancing partner Hélène. These are the principal characters, with Nancy, who has left an impoverished country home to become a housemaid and a poisonous poor little rich girl called Vivienne.
Behind the scenes, all is not well at the hotel. The new proprietor Lord Edgerton and his friends are anti-semitic Nazi sympathisers and followers of Mosley. Edgerton is Vivienne’s stepfather and her bad behaviour is explained by the fact that she’s forced to live in a suite at the Buckingham because nobody cares about her.
Needless to say, Raymond’s name is not really de Guise and he’s not the only one at The Buckingham with a secret he’d like to keep quiet; Hélène has a secret life, too. Nancy has a secret desire to dance, in spite of a damaged leg. Can Raymond really teach her to dance and will it lead to more? Will the sinister plotting of Edgerton and Co. be uncovered? This is a heady mix of high society, social issues, impossibly smart, rich people and the real world outside the hotel. I rather liked it.
I read the book thanks to NetGalley.

A lovely first novel that has you following the story easily. You can imagine the settings described and the contrast between homelife and work of the participants. Definitely recommended.

Not the best book of the summer but certainly by no means the worst. The story ambled safely along making a pleasant read but did not set me alight. A steady story that was fairly predictable but none the less an enjoyable read

I had an idea I would struggle with One Enchanted Evening, but curiosity got the better of me.
The best thing about it is the writing, especially the dialogue. It must be difficult to write a book based in 1936, with a big black line drawn between the have and have-nots, without descending into East end pastiche, but Anton Du Beke manages it very well.
However, the story and characters contrast considerably with the writing. Nancy and Raymond are hybrid creatures, sometimes naïve, sometimes gutsy, but difficult to stay in tune with. It is not until the last third, starting with the engaging Christmas day section that the action accelerates to a worthy conclusion.
Many will love this.
With thanks to NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre for this read.

A great debut novel from Anton. I’ve loved watching Strictly Come Dancing and when I saw my favourite dancer had written a book well, I jumped at the chance to review it. From the first page you are thrown into the world of glitter, glamour, gossip and intrigue. Everything that you would imagine in the world of ballroom. Set in a smart London Hotel with believable characters every sentence is described perfectly and why wouldn't it be, it’s written by someone who knows the world of ballroom. For every Strictly fan and anyone who likes a turn on the dance floor. Fab...u...lus!

I absolutely love Anton De Beke. He is a beautiful dancer and seems on television to be a very kind and lovely man. With this in mind, I was really looking forward to reading the book and I wanted to like it. It is a charming tale., set in a bygone era and like Anton, the story itself has a great deal of charm and flair. Sadly I struggled with reading it. I found it hard to get beyond the poor grammar and poor editing. Sentences were over long and needed more punctuation. I know this sounds as though I am being pedantic but the book would have benefitted from more input from an experienced writer. I do believe that this book will sell well and I am sure that many of Anton's faithful fans will buy it and possibly enjoy it. However, if like me, you prefer reading well-written novels then this is one to avoid. I am truly sorry as I wanted it to be good.