Genre: Historical Romance
Published: March 28, 2023
Pages: 411
Diana Biller's Hotel of Secrets is chock full of banter-filled shenanigans, must-have-you kisses, and romance certain to light a fire in the hearts of readers everywhere.
During ball season, anything can happen— even love.
It’s ball season in Vienna, and Maria Wallner only wants one thing: to restore her family’s hotel, the Hotel Wallner, to its former glory. She’s not going to let anything get in her way - not her parents’ three-decade-long affair; not seemingly-random attacks by masked assassins; and especially not the broad-shouldered American foreign agent who’s saved her life two times already. No matter how luscious his mouth is.
Eli Whittaker also only wants one thing: to find out who is selling American secret codes across Europe, arrest them, and go home to his sensible life in Washington, DC. He has one lead - a letter the culprit sent from a Viennese hotel. But when he arrives in Vienna, he is immediately swept up into a chaotic whirlwind of balls, spies, waltzes, and beautiful hotelkeepers who seem to constantly find themselves in danger. He disapproves of all of it! But his disapproval is tested as he slowly falls deeper into the chaos - and as his attraction to said hotelkeeper grows.
During ball season, anything can happen— even love.
It’s ball season in Vienna, and Maria Wallner only wants one thing: to restore her family’s hotel, the Hotel Wallner, to its former glory. She’s not going to let anything get in her way - not her parents’ three-decade-long affair; not seemingly-random attacks by masked assassins; and especially not the broad-shouldered American foreign agent who’s saved her life two times already. No matter how luscious his mouth is.
Eli Whittaker also only wants one thing: to find out who is selling American secret codes across Europe, arrest them, and go home to his sensible life in Washington, DC. He has one lead - a letter the culprit sent from a Viennese hotel. But when he arrives in Vienna, he is immediately swept up into a chaotic whirlwind of balls, spies, waltzes, and beautiful hotelkeepers who seem to constantly find themselves in danger. He disapproves of all of it! But his disapproval is tested as he slowly falls deeper into the chaos - and as his attraction to said hotelkeeper grows.
"I can hardly see a doctor every time someone shoots me—"
"Well! Did you want to be discovered stealing into a linen closet to stimulate my clitoris with your tongue!"
I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. This is my honest review.
I was sucked into this story pretty early on. The varying levels of intrigue present in the Hotel Wallner were fantastical and yet the story made them feel quite mundane. The hotel has been temporary home to loads of spies through the years, and everyone just knows that they're spies and nobody cares. But it makes it the perfect landing place for Eli, who is also on a somewhat secret mission of his own.
The way he ends up being drug into protecting Maria over and over again really indicates what a genuinely good guy he is, even though he believes the exact opposite of himself. And the ways he justifies following her around even though that's NOT what the state department sent him to Austria to do were rather humorous. And it felt like everyone and their dog was out to get Maria at one point or another.
I did not see the twist at the end coming, at least not the mastermind behind the major attacks. While it came out of nowhere for me, it did still track with the other things I'd learned about the Wallner women throughout the book. And it made me feel really sad for Maria, more than if it had been someone else that I'd originally suspected.
Overall I give Hotel of Secrets 3.856 out of 5 stars. - Katie
Diana Biller is the author of The Widow of Rose House and The Brightest Star in Paris. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys snuggling her animals, taking “research” trips abroad, and attending ballet class. She lives with her husband in Los Angeles.
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