Set in Brighton (which is an automatic win for me), this novel takes place at a quirky hotel (which you'll wish you could visit) and is full of fun and eccentric characters, who are total misfits but you'll wish were you best friends. The writing is lovely and light, but at the novel's core is a lovely, tender story of a mother and daughter that will make you shed a tear for sure!

I loved the premise of this book, although I felt it slightly slow-going for my taste. Great for readers looking for a good family tale with a little mystery and eccentric characters. Thanks NetGalley!

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed Ruth Hogan’s ”The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes” I was keen to read this.  This is the story of Tilly, or Tilda, and is told in an alternating narrative between Tilly as a child and Tilda as a grown woman, returning to the Brighton home of her recently deceased mother to sort through her belongings.  Tilda has OCD and memories of a poor relationship with her difficult mother, coupled with a sad longing for her beloved father who left the family home when Tilly was just 7.

As the story progresses Tilda learns more and more about her mother from a box of diaries she discovers beneath her mother’s bed, giving her a much better understanding of her parent and the reasons behind her mother’s behaviour and their brittle relationship.  

Ruth Hogan obviously likes the theme of the paranormal as Tilly and Tilda have the ability to not only see dead people (and dogs) but to interact with them too.  The Queenie of the book title is one of them, and whose somewhat unorthodox and eccentric friends, family and hotel business provided a much needed home and solace to both Tilly and her mother.  It is she who encourages Tilda, as an adult, to unravel the true history of her childhood and to find the courage to face life and begin a relationship with Dan, the proprietor of a seafront cafe. I did find myself wondering who was a ghost and who wasn’t at times though.

Queenie’s Paradise Hotel, in common with Ruth Hogan’s other books, is a quirky and heartfelt read, but perhaps I was hoping for something a little more, something to show a development in style instead of more of the same.  I guess publishers are keen to propagate repetitive successes if they have hit on a for,at which works and sells books but I’d like to see something different as the author is obviously a talented writer.

Being of a particular age, I liked and recognised a lot of the nostalgic references to popular culture during Tilly’s childhood.  However, I did have issues with the endless misunderstanding and muddling of words by the young Tilly.  No doubt they were meant to be endearing and funny, but I just found them plain irritating and very false.  Nor do I understand what Tilly’s father has done that was so bad to trigger the whole saga, so feel that should have been better explained.  

Overall, this was a warm and enjoyable read.  I’m sure serious fans will love it, but I’d like to see Ruth Hogan take a risk and experiment with a detour from the trued and trusted.

What an emotional, very well-written book dealing with OCD (or autism/aspergers), family traumas and a totally unexpected ending.  I was hooked and could identify with many of the characters from my own family experiences.  Brilliant and highly recommended.

I REALLY loved this book! I started with mixed feelings (not my normal sort of book) but was totally hooked by page 2! It's a really brilliant story, beautifully told and with characters so well drawn that you become totally involved with their lives. I'm not going to spoil it for prospective readers but suffice to say that I laughed and cried throughout and will definitely be buying Ms Hogan's other novels (I was given Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by NetGalley  for review purposes). A truly remarkable talent!

I was disappointed with this book. I absolutely loved ' the keeper of lost things' but I just couldn't get into this. I found it very slow to start and didn't feel gripped enough to continue.

Superb. Absolutely loved it. Well written and entertaining. Highly recommended for all types of reader..

What a truly beautiful book this is. 

After Tilda's mother dies, Tilda goes to sort through her things, leading her on a journey down memory lane which uncovers secrets hidden for years. Split between Tilda as an adult and Tilly as a child, we see her past as she experienced it, and the contrast when she learns what was really happening years later. 

The title's a little bit of a misnomer. While Queenie is an interesting character and the hotel somewhere Tilly lived, the focus is more on Tilda/Tilly's perceptions and her different way of viewing the world. 

Filled with quirky individuals and a slowly unfolding tale of tragedy, Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel will leave you more than a little misty eyed.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

Well written sweet story that didn't go the way I though it would. I enjoyed it very much. Thanks you to Netgalley and the publisher!!

Thank you NetGalley and John Murray Press for this book.
This was my first Ruth Hogan book an I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I loved it.
Lots of vibrant, interesting and different characters and a young woman coming to terms with the death of her mother and wanting to know more about her life and her father. 
I would highly recommend this book and it is a delightful summer read.
I liked it so much I have just bought Ruth’s other two books. 
Review also posted on Amazon

Tilda  has returned to her mothers flat to clean it out after her death, a bit of a loner with her own secrets, Tilda  finds her Mums diaries, hoping to find out why her Mum sent her away to boarding school even after Tilda  had begged not to go, more secrets are revealed. 

The book switched between Tilda the adult and Tilly the child. 

A lovely book which I really enjoyed.

I really enjoyed this book much to my surprise. Surprised as it’s not my usual genre when it comes to novels but Ruth Hogan was recommended to me so when I spotted a review copy available on NetGalley I decided to give it a try. I’m so glad that I did. Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel is a superb read, a bittersweet tale of a childhood  of love , loss, deception and curiosity which leads to an adulthood overshadowed by misunderstandings and strange rituals until Tilda finds ‘the diaries’ . I especially loved the part of her childhood spent at Queenie’s , such fabulously colourful characters all under one roof, my only criticism, and it’s in no way meant to be detrimental, is that I would have loved more of Queenie...she’s divine! Highly recommended.

This wonderful story is told in alternating voices, Tilly as a child, and Tilda, adult Tilly.  Tilly's childhood is shattered when her father leaves her and her mother.  Tilly's mother, suffering from mental illness and a problem with alcohol, eventually tells Tilly that her father died in an accident.  Moving to Brighton and living in Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel becomes a paradise for Tilly and her mother.  They both find acceptance, friendship and support from the staff at the hotel.  

Years later, after her mother's death, Tilda returns to her Brighton apartment and tries to make sense of the difficult relationship they had.  She finds the diaries her mother kept for years, and learns that things were not what they had seemed to a young and vulnerable Tilly.  As she stays on in Brighton, Tilda makes some new friends in the area, including a love interest, and eventually solves some painful riddles from her childhood.  

Beautifully written, heartbreaking and funny, this is a book that will grab you the instant you begin reading it and it will stay with you long after.  

Many thanks to Netgalley, the author Ruth Hogan, and the publisher John Murray Press for the privilege of reading an ARC of this exceptional book.  This is my honest opinion.

Ruth Hogan's third novel is a bittersweet delight.  A young woman mourning the death of her mother returns to her childhood home in a sleepy seaside town seeking answers to the mysteries that haunted her upbringing.  Filled with vibrant and interesting characters this is a perfect summer read.

A sadly-funny, quirky book about love, loss and memory. I enjoyed it, but for me, this is the least successful of Ruth Hogan’s books to date. For those of us no longer in the first flush of youth, there was a deal of pleasurable nostalgia, beautifully, at times lyrically, described, but for a book of this type, there was far too much of it. Descriptive passages should be the seasoning; they frequently threatened to become the meat and potatoes. The illustration got in the way of the flow of the flow of the tale, and I found, as the book wore on, that I started to skip more and more. I’m not averse to a deeply descriptive, slow moving tale, but this book isn’t literary enough for the weight of the writing in it. It didn’t seem to know quite what it wanted to be, a quirky, lightly supernatural story like Keeper of Lost Things, or something bigger. I would have been happy with either, but Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel is neither. It seemed to me, that a more ambitious, literary manuscript had been energetically edited to suit the author’s established audience; that Ruth Hogan would like to spread her wings and move into a different, more expansive style, but her wings have been clipped by her publishers. I would say, let her fly, but wonder if she’ll be allowed to.

I was excited to pick this book up after reading The Keeper of Lost Things, which I got totally drawn into. However, Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel, didn’t quite do it for me. It was a nicely told story, however this time the slow pace made it tiresome, where as with The Keeper of Lost Things, it allowed you to enjoy the story that much more. I kept waiting for a revolutionary moment as I felt that what the story was leading up to, but that never actually came. I thought there would be more, but there wasn’t it was what it was and no more, and the left me feeling quite disappointed.

The book is the story of Tilly in her childhood growing up and then once again Tilda in her elder years returning to Brighton after her mothers death. Tilly has a troubled start to life with her Dad leaving the family home when she was very young and was told by her Mum that he had died. Her Mum is also a troubled lady and ups roots and takes Tilly to stay at Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel where Tilly’s Mum ends up getting a job and they live in. This is perfect for Tilly and she loves this more than anything until she is sent away to boarding school, which when returning years later she searches for the answer as to why she was sent away from the place she called home and the place she loved so dearly.  Tilda finds a set of her Mum’s diaries which give her the answers to her childhood and much more.

The then and now timelines work ok, but I just kept expecting a story to unfold and it never did. Tilly / Tilda wasn’t really a hugely likeable character I didn’t’t think. She was very cold and oh yes, she see’s dead people. I kept expecting the something about the ghosts to be the twist. The book does become an easier read in the middle section and drifts off a bit again towards the end. 

I would like to thank Net Galley for my pre published copy in exchange for this free and honest review. Not anywhere near as good as her first book for me which is the reason I give this 3/5.

I am now definitely a Ruth Hogan fan. I have enjoyed all her books so far and I loved this one!

In this novel, Ruth Hogan beautifully writes of family, mother and daughter relationships and the importance of friendships. She covers the difficulties and challenges of marriage, being judged by family members and touches on mental health issues with great insight and compassion. With additional humour and charm, "Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel" was an absolute joy to read. 

I really liked the author's writing style and the use of the dual narratives made the story all the more interesting.  The characters were great fun and very likeable and there wasn't anyone that I particularly disliked. If you are in the mood for reading something lovely and heartfelt then I highly recommend "Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel".

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, John Murray Press via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher Two Roads, John Murray Press for an arc of this book. 
"Sometimes good people do terrible things because they truly believe it's the only thing they can do". This book explores the life of Tilda/Tilly. The same person but two different timelines, one, the present day (Tilda) and one when she was a young girl (Tilly). It tells the story of a fraught relationship with her mother and also the best time of her life, staying at the Paradise Hotel.

For me this was a slow burner. We don't even get to the aforementioned Paradise Hotel until about two thirds of the way through the novel. Queenie, who owns the hotel is a larger than life character and there is a revelation about her at the end of the book that made me smile. 

In the present day, Tilda's mum has died and it is her job to clear out her flat and find answers to why they had such a difficult relationship. It is a bittersweet book and deals with mental health issues. If you like quirky characters like Eleanor Oliphant, then I think you'd like this book. Give it a try. 3.5 stars.

Did not finish at 30%

The premise of the synopsis sounds great. Unfortunately, I just didn't enjoy the writing style or the fact the chapters jump from present time to the past. It just wasnt for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers nonetheless.

Another great book by Ruth Hogan, it is the second I have read and will definitely read this author again. Her stories are bitter sweet, her characters are often damaged but they can still love when given the chance. They sound very real although they often are people that are living their lives hidden away from the rest of society. 
In this case we have Tilda who does not trust people anymore, the reason we come to understand was that she lost her beloved father at a young age and her mother (who had mental health issues) sent her away to boarding school from where she was happy. She only has a  dog that follows her everywhere but no one else can see. 
The book is seen from two points of views, that of Tilda as an adult trying to empty her mother's flat following her death and that of Tilly, Tilda as a 6-7 year old child mostly living in the hotel run by Queenie Malone. There with Queenie and other eccentric characters Tilly feels at home and misses her father a bit less. 
When Tilda cleans her mother's house finds a box containing a diary obviously left for her to read. Here she finds some of the answers that explain things that happened to hear in the earlier part of her life and have also affected her adult years. But it is not just shock and regret, there is also hope.  There are no big surprises in this book, but the beauty of the book lies in how the characters develop and how interesting and full of life they are. Definitely a writer to follow.