Thursday 11 September 2014

Review: Love Me Or Leave Me by Claudia Carroll

Welcome to the Hope Street Hotel – where you check in married, and check out single.’

Two years ago Chloe Townsend was dumped at the altar and had to leave behind everything that mattered to her. Even now she’s finding it hard to move forward. That is until she lands an incredible job, running a brand new boutique hotel. Suddenly she’s starting to put her life back together, and, apart from the fact that her hard-to-please new boss is breathing down her neck, things are looking good.

But what goes on in the Hope Street Hotel is a far cry from anything she’s ever dealt with before. This is a pioneering ‘divorce hotel’ designed to make every aspect of breaking up efficient and pain-free. In one single weekend, Chloe’s team promises to take care of everything – legal, technical, emotional – and guests check out carefree and single.

No one is better qualified than Chloe to understand what couples need when their relationship is at breaking point, but she soon finds herself having to tackle the heartbreak she’s tried to bury. In particular three couples need her help – Jo and Dave, Lucy and Andrew, and Kirk and Dawn – and the opening weekend is full of revelation, trouble, memories happy and sad, facts that need facing, and some very big surprises.

It’s time to move on. And it soon becomes clear that some endings are, in fact, very exciting new beginnings …




Review: what a fabulously original storyline! I love when a book throws up something completely different, but the idea of a divorce hotel? Amazing! I really liked the structure of the book as well. Each couple is dealt with from an individual perspective but then we get to see everything through the eyes of manager Chloe as well, and boy does she see more that goes on than the guests really think. She can't seem to see what's right in front of her nose though and this is a whole other storyline-just wonderful. 

The different couples in the book mean that there are plenty of people to root for. Some to love, some to hate and its interesting how this wonderful author changes your opinion of characters as the book goes on. I really felt for couple Jo and Dave, their story really saddened me. The story of Dawn and Kirk was really relatable and Andrew and Lucy were just so sweet and trying  so hard with everything that was against them. I really felt for all of these couple but that didn't mean that I didn't want them to get divorced, that's the beauty of this writing. 

Chloe is a fab character too. She is such a strong person and has really made it for herself. I really admired her and she seemed to do everything with a smile. But then big boss Rob comes along an throws somewhat of a spanner into the works, this provides a whole other storyline as I've said, something to distract the reader from all the bickering couples. 

The writing in this novel is beautiful, everything is described with opulent vocabulary and you really feel that you are right there in the hotel with the characters! The plot keeps you guessing every second page and the structure makes it very clear exactly what is going on! Overall I think fans of Claudia Carroll won't be disappointed with her latest offering and if you've not read anything by this author before, this would be an excellent starting point. It is warm and fuzzy but at the same time very realistic and very relatable. I really enjoyed its originality and would definitely add this to your reading list now!

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