It's described as a novel of mothers and daughters, families, secrets and the power of friendship. It's set in Brighton and begins as Tilda returns to clear out her mother's flat after her death. That precipitates a number of memories of her childhood, which we learn about in the alternate narrative by Tilly, her child self, whose story is told from the moment her father has disappeared, the beginning of her obsession with matches and our realisation that some of the characters she sees and interacts with can't be seen by others.

As an adult, Tilda is wary of people, not certain who to trust and not entirely comfortable with who she is. While clearing out her mother's home, she comes across a box containing diaries, which may finally explain some of the mysteries surrounding her childhood, in particular her absent father and the reason her mother sent her away from the only place she ever really felt at home and loved, Queenie's Paradise Hotel in Brighton.

It's in Part Two that we discover who Queenie is and the role of the Paradise Hotel, it is here we are introduced to an eclectic cast of characters, almost pity we didn't meet them earlier on, as they provide much of the entertainment, colour and humor in the novel.

It's an entertaining read, a dual narrative of Tilly and her grown up self Tilda, where one attempts to fill in the gaps of the other, so we spend half the novel not quite knowing what happened to Tilly, her father, her mother, why they had to move, and who Queenie was.

Eventually the mysteries are resolved and there is also a love interest, though the character development of Daniel is the weakest of the cast. One of the more endearing characters is Eli, the dog. It's not difficult to know who the inspiration for this was, as Ruth Hogan revealed in an interview:

"I believe in ghosts. When my first dog died, I know that his spirit stayed with me for so long as I needed him. I also know how ridiculous that sounds, but you’ll just have to take my word for it. My family background is Irish on my dad’s side, and he says that my writing, love for tea and potatoes, and believing in ghosts is his legacy."

I found it hard to be as drawn into this novel as her previous work due to the child narrator, there was something too naive about her that made her more of a construct and less of an authentic character for this reader.

I liked the premise of the story, and the exploration of a character that was herself afraid of showing her authentic self to people because of her differences. It made me wonder how many people really do go through life like this, having experiences outside of what is perceived and accepted as being normal while they are young, whether it's hearing voices, seeing things others don't, or just possessing knowledgeable beyond their years, and how it stunts their growth to have that denied or suppressed, told it's wrong, or worse medicated or locked up for it. It's what made the Paradise Hotel so special and had the potential to have made this an even more poignant read.

Thought provoking and well intended, even if it didn't quite reach the same level of satisfaction for me as her earlier work, her love of Brighton, the pier, which she describes as her happy place, is evocative and endearing.

This is Ruth Hogan's wonderful 3rd novel, and like her previous books, there are two storylines but unlike the others, here we are given the perspective of young Tilly, whose life is shaped by her close relationship to dad, Stevie, which comes to an abrupt end when he is killed, and then splintered irrevocably apart when for some inexplicable reason, her mother sends her to boarding school. This was despite the brief period of greatest happiness that Tilly had ever experienced living at Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel in Brighton and her close relationship with the eccentric and loving misfits that worked or stayed at the hotel. Tilly's mum, Grace, is not the mother she wanted, she is no washing powder mother but scares Tilly with the kraken inside. Queenie Malone filled that huge mother shaped hole in her, the type of mother she was so desperate for, loving the young girl unconditionally, but Queenie had no more idea than Tilly as to why she was sent away.

The other perspective in the narrative is that of Tilda, the now older Tilly, living with the dead and ghosts, protected by the dog, Eli, a lonely woman defined by her inability to connect with others or to trust, and her ingrained OCD behaviours, the charms and rituals that are essential for her to feel safe. Her mother, Grace has recently died and Tilda is clearing her flat when she finds a box containing her mother's diaries, which her mother obviously meant her to read. At long last Tilda will find out why she was so cruelly sent away from everything and everyone she loved. However, is Tilda strong enough for the truth? It is not easy for Tilda to work her way through her mother's diaries, and she is confounded to learn that all that she thought as certain turns out to collapse as secrets emerge into the light of day. Grace's neighbour, Penelope Dane, talks of Tilly being the love of Grace's life, this is not a mother that makes any sense to Tilda. The older Tilda finds herself drawn to Daniel, but having felt unloved and unwanted for most of her life, can she risk exposing herself and her vulnerabilities to another human being?

Ruth Hogan writes of family, mother and daughter relationships and the capacity of friendships to knit hearts back together. She writes of the difficulties and challenges of marriage, being ostracised by judgemental families, and covers mental health issues with compassion and insightful observations. There is charm and humour in the manner in which the young delightful Tilly misunderstands so much around her, from a God that sends sinners to Bermondsey to her perception of perverts, not to mention the utter joy she finds in dancing. Hogan is skilled in and excels in the enticing and damaged characters she creates, so compelling, with their bittersweet life experiences. Hogan weaves in finding the potential for hope after the experience of fraught lives whilst blending in the fantastical with aplomb, where the dead permeate the lives of the living. This proved to be a novel that was a pure joy to read, emotionally heartwrenching, of grief, loss, love and a childhood in a world where adults struggle to cope. Highly recommended. Many thanks to John Murray Press for an ARC.

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