Twin Beds: Christmas at Heartbreak Hotel by Deborah Moggach
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
'Christmas should be a joyous occasion filled with peace and love, but the looming prospect of the festive season fills Russell 'Buffy' Buffery with dread. Retired actor, thrice divorced, hapless father - Buffy is well versed in the complicated family Christmas, shuffling between exes and children.
Except this year will be different. He has inherited a B&B in rural Wales, and can finally escape the nearest and dearest, and play 'Myne Host' to a group of paper-hatted strangers, on escape-routes from their own clans. But when the strangers check in with their emotional baggage, and the Cab Sav begins to flow, Buffy soon realises that Christmas is never without its little complications.
Join the gang at Heartbreak Hotel as they run riot, and celebrate Christmas the Buffy way.'
I downloaded this short story as I had just finished Heartbreak Hotel and thought I would give this a go. I must say that I am so glad I downloaded it, it is very short but I actually found it better than Heartbreak Hotel.
The story is obviously very quick and did feel a little rushed, I feel it could have been a tad longer to allow the reader to immerse themselves in the story.
This story I actually found funny, this was something Heartbreak Hotel promised but I felt let down by it and I didn't find it funny at all, where as this in a few pages did have me laughing.
This story follows characters who check into the hotel over Christmas, for all sorts of reasons, their families spend it with others, they are single etc. I felt that at the end of the story I was left wanting more and a question was unanswered which in this case I liked.
This is great for a quick read (and I mean quick) running up to the holiday season.
I would recommend this.
Heartbreak Hotel by Deborah Moggach
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
'When retired actor Buffy decides to up sticks from London and move to rural Wales, he has no idea what he is letting himself in for.
In possession of a run-down B&B that leans more towards the shabby than the chic and is miles from nowhere, he realises he needs to fill the beds - and fast.
Enter a motley collection of guests: Harold, whose wife has run off with a younger woman; Amy, who's been unexpectedly dumped by her (not-so) weedy boyfriend and Andy, the hypochondriac postman whose girlfriend is much too much for him to handle.
But under Buffy's watchful eye, this disparate group of strangers find they have more in common than perhaps they first thought..'
I have had this book sitting on my shelf for some time and finally got round to reading it.
I had high hopes for this book as I loved the Marigold Hotel and thought this would be on the same wave length. Unfortunately I was quite disappointed with it, this also claims to be extremely funny but I didn't laugh at all.
This follows Buffy a retired actor living in London, who has a friend in Wales who runs a B and B. He gets the news that she has passed and he has been left her B&B, Buffy sums up his options and deciding that there is little keeping him in London, decides to make the move to Wales and give it a go.
Once in Wales Buffy realises that there is more that he originally thought to do to the B&B and he is unsure at his age if he can cope. He employs Voda who worked for his friend when she had the B&B. She takes a more important role with Buffy and practically becomes his partner, without her Buffy couldn't have coped.
To help get the B&B off the group Buffy introduces courses for divorces to enable people to gain skills that their partner once sorted out. There are many characters in this book and at times I felt I had to go back into the book to work out who was who. This was something I wasn't keen on as I wanted to be able to have an easy read, something that I thought this book would have given me.
I found it hard to connect to the characters, this I am unsure of why, it could be that I found it a bit old for me, I had little in common with them. I actually enjoyed Amy's story line the most, I am guessing this is because she seemed to be closest to my age and I could relate to her slightly.
The story was written well, but unfortunately as I said before I found the story disappointing, I think I had high hopes for this and it just didn't live up to my expectations.
I would like to thank the publisher for sending me the copy to review.
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