I loved the characters in this book, particularly Queenie and Tilda, so much so that I wanted more about the paradise hotel.
The first half of the book is quite heavy going, but once we met Queenie I couldn't put the book down.
A well written story about a topic that fascinates me

Really enjoyed this book and it made great holiday reading. Tilly was a little girl that a lot of things happened to that she did not understand when she was growing up - she saw ghosts and loved to play with matches. She had a reserved mother and her dad disappeared when she was about seven and she ended up living at the Paradise Hotel owned by Queenie Malone and her assorted friends and family.
It is only when Tilly's Mum dies much later that Tilda as she is now called looks back at her life and makes sense of it all. Great follow up to The Keeper of Lost Things and Sally Red Shoes both of which I really enjoyed.

Really enjoyed this story. It was very emotive yet enjoyable with highs and lows. It made me laugh and cry at different points throughout.

Gently uplifting story of Tilda thinking back to her troubled childhood as she’s sorting through her late mother’s things. When she finds a box of diaries and a note from the mother she’s always blamed for the death oh her father asking for forgiveness she begins to wonder if her childhood was really as she remembered it. Some wonderful larger than life characters and lots of 7s nostalgia for those of us who remember ladies drinking cherry brandy and babycham. The only character who didn’t ring true for me was the lovely cafe owner Daniel who takes on the role of her saviour just as cafe owners have done in several other similar novels.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest, independent review.

A fantastic read about relationships, friendships and secrets, and full of emotions! I was pleasantly surprised by the magicalness of the story too. The book is told from two perspectives of the same character: Tilly age 7 learning to cope with the announcement that her beloved daddy has died, and as a grown-up Tilda, sorting through the home of her recently deceased mother and uncovering the secrets she didn't know were buried there.

This is the second of Ruth Hogan's books I've read and I find her writing really appeals to me - easy to read but very descriptive. I loved how surprises and revelations to the reader were not dropped in like a bombshell but hinting at gradually, rather than being full of shocking twists and turns.

A brilliant book and an author I will now be watching out for more!

A wonderfully quirky read, brimming with larger than life characters and a pinch of other worldly magic. Totally immersive. Delightful from beginning to end.

I laughed and l cried but boy did l enjoy this book different from my usual genre but having read Ruth Hogan before l was looking forward to a welcome change - thoroughly enjoyed

What a delightful book, mingling sadness and restitution together. Two souls, one young Tilly, one older Tilda, but the same person. Two perspectives, two life discoverers.
Tilly was gorgeous, loved the way she looked at life. Just so sad for Tilda to discover too late all the emotions bound up in her mother., all the love that had been hidden. It just takes one to a point where one starts to question one's own maternal abilities.
Thank you to NetGalley for a review copy. It's left me with a lot to think about.

What a lovely story, though rather bittersweet. Ruth Hogan has a delicate touch when it comes to writing about mental illnesses and depression, which is dealt with very sensitively here.

The story made me feel rather sad at times, on how little Tilda/Tilly really knew about her mum and vice versa.

Thank you to the author, John Murray Press and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review.

I really enjoyed this authors two other books so I was interested to read this new one. I thought it was brilliant, maybe her best yet :)

As soon as I received this novel I read the first chapter, as I always do, to decide when and where I would want to read it. I have learnt not to read sad books just before I go out....red, swollen eyes, not a good look! However, I was unable to stop reading and many hours later, when I finished it, I got out of bed and then had to reassign my to do list to the following day. This is a great indication of just how gripping a storyline it is and how poor my willpower.

Anyhow...a good story covering mental health, relationships and family and the way in which these can impact upon lives, with a fair bit of clairvoyance thrown in. I found the characters well written and believable at the time of reading although now a day later a bit less so. Often a sentence would make me laugh out loud...“These grand gestures of rant and rage are all very cathartic and gratifyingly theatrical at the time, but if you have to do your own clearing up afterwards, it’s very tedious and completely ruins the effect.” Bringing to mind an incident of mine with a metal colander of peas that I once threw across the kitchen...my husband has since bought me a plastic colander but still won’t clear up after me!

In respect of the writing style I have never liked anything written in the first person ..until now, I usually stop reading after the first page. However this is used to perfection, keeping now and then in alignment, so I kept reading. All in all a very satisfying read from this author, thank you Ruth Hogan for time out from boring day to day stuff.

I really, really enjoyed this book. I find Ruth's style of writing really appeals to me, and this book was just lovely to read.
The best parts, for me, were young Tilly. She's brilliantly written - very much alive as a character in your mind as you read, and so funny and sweet. I loved her take on the world, and her mishearing & misunderstanding of words was very funny (and realistic!) Older Tilly (Tilda) took longer to grow on me, and initially felt like an entirely different person, but I began to see the two as one as I continued to read.
Some of the other, extra characters are also wonderful, even with just very small roles & I particularly loved Mrs O'Flaherty.
The only character who didn't quite feel right was Tilly's mother, Grace. I did feel she began to be explained a little more as the book went on, but her diary entries were just missing a little something for me - I'm not sure what - but perhaps it was just that she was such a complex person, and suffering so very deeply, that it's hard to convey that through just a few diary entries.

I found myself slowing my reading pace, because although I wanted to race to the end, I also didn't want the book to end. It felt very nostalgic, as the time period for Tilly's childhood felt familiar to me, and it was also very emotional because there's a lot of darkness within the story. But it remains uplifting and funny, with a great balance. The piecing together of the puzzle of Tilly's childhood is really well done, drawn out slowly (but not painfully so) and gently written. Definitely one I'd recommend, and a lovely book to start the year with.

Tilly moves into her mothers flat in Brighton after her mother passes away and she finds a box containing her mother’s diaries from when Tilly was a child.
Reading the diaries she discovers that her mother wasn’t the person she believed her to be. Moved from her childhood home to her mother’s friend Queenie Malone’s hotel in Brighton, missing her father who she believed dead, Tilly finds some new friends in the characters who live and work in the hotel.
The book is split between present time and Tilly’s childhood, and describes how Tilly’s ability to see ghosts, a skill inherited from her missing father, impacted on both her and her mothers lives.
I particularly enjoyed the light relief of young Tilly’s misheard words - Is Bermondsey really that bad?
I enjoyed the book, but felt that the story came to a very abrupt end.

I was very happy to be sent an ARC of this book by the publisher through NetGalley,as I had really enjoyed both of Ruth Hogan's last books.This is quite a poignant story of a complex and difficult mother -daughter relationship,told by the main character( Tilda as an adult but also as a child,Tilly )when she has to sort out her mother's affairs following her death.
The book contains the usual cast of eccentric and warm hearted characters and emotional wrenches,and ultimately deals with the sacrifices some people choose to make for those they love.It is very sad in parts,as Tilda finds out why her mother behaved in ways she found hard to understand both as a child and as an adult,and learns to forgive her.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes uplifting and emotional books about unusual characters.I enjoyed it very much.

January is always a dull month following the high of Christmas, so I picked up Queenie Marine's Paradise Hotel as I was looking for a book full of feeling after reading Ruth Hogan's previous books.

Tilda is in the process of sorting through her Mum's belongings and this story navigates the difficulties of their relationship from when Tilly was a young age and how she embarks on a journey of discovery when she finds her mother's diaries.

I really enjoyed this book it was full of diverse and wonderful characters some of which were alive and influencing Tilda and some of which were there in spirit. I loved that this book was full of surprises and it dealt with a lot of emotive issues in a society where being different wasn't accepted.

A wonderful read to start 2019 and I can't wait to follow this books success throughout the year!

A beautifully written story. I laughed and I cried and I loved everything about it. Tilda finds out about her mother's life and thoughts after her mother dies. Tilda finds out why her mother made the decisions that affected Tildas life. The story is beautifully written and well thought out. This is definitely a gem of a story.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

My first book by Ruth Hogan, and I really enjoyed it.
A tale of a mother and a daughter, told by one person, but two perspectives.
Tilly the young girl, and Tilda the adult.
Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel is a story about ghosts. Past and present, and the ability to see them. Their ability to help a confused young woman to see her past more clearly, and her present and future with no regrets.
A touching read that made me think a little of Sixth Sense!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Two Roads books for allowing me to have an arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

A lovely character driven novel about mothers and daughters. The city of Brighton is the backdrop but the focus is on the fictional Queenie's Paradise ?Hotel which seemed so real I might try and find it next time I'm in Brighton.

Chocked full of emotion this one. Keep the hankies at the ready. But through the tears, it was the laughter that really shone for me and the lovely descriptive writing. Describing the grey sky as being ' the colour of old men's underpants' for example made me chuckle as did thinking of a chair ' designed by Cath Kidston on LSD'

A favourite line however (and there are many) is this one: He came from a country called Newcastle and Tily would never understand a word he said either. I'm from Newcastle and this set me off, laughing and crying in equal measure.

This novel is sad, uplifting, charming and so much more

A gem of a book, full of pathos, humour and great characters. I laughed out loud, I cried and I thoroughly enjoyed a remarkable story.
Ruth Hogan has the ability to make you live her stories and really identify with the characters.

What an utterly FANDABBIEDOZIE book
I laughed and cried this is a Truely magical book I can highly recommend this book it deserves more * than I can give
Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review