#blogtour – The Thousand Lights Hotel by Emylia Hall @EmyliaHall @headlinepg #bookreview
I am so happy today to be part of the blog tour for this wonderful read. Happy paperback publication day, Emylia!
So what’s The Thousand Lights Hotel all about?
When Kit loses her mother in tragic circumstances, she feels drawn to finally connect with the father she has never met. That search brings her to the Thousand Lights Hotel, the perfect holiday escape perched upon a cliff on the island of Elba. Within this idyllic setting a devastating truth is brought to light: shaking the foundations upon which the hotel is built, and shattering the lives of the people within it.
A heartbreaking story of loss, betrayal, and redemption, told with all the warmth and beauty of an Italian summer.
I must admit that the first thing that attracted me to this book was the stunning cover. Up close you can see the lights that are part of the title, the lights that hotel owner, Valentino Colosimo, has strung up around his hotel on the Italian island of Elba and which he lights night after night. And who wouldn’t want to dive into that beautiful blue, twinkling sea?
The next thing that drew me in was the setting. I’m a sucker for anything Italian and islands, so it was perfect for me. And the final thing, but probably the most important, was the story. We have a young woman, Kit Costa, who has lost her mother and is searching for her father.
When Emylia Hall’s first book, The Book of Summers, was published I was eager to read it but found it very hard to get into and I think it was because I didn’t then have the patience to read her very descriptive style of writing. Now, I can appreciate the sheer beauty of her prose and how measured and thoughtful her words are.
Here’s just one short passage that had me marvelling at the depth of her descriptions.
The day was brazenly beautiful. The breeze in the palm trees sounded like the rustling of dresses. The bougainvillea beamed.
Isn’t that just so evocative? The book isn’t just about the gorgeous imagery but about this sad story of a young woman whose mother, her one constant, has died. Kit is grieving and for the first time she wants to find out about the father she never knew. So she goes to Elba and meets hotel owner, Valentino and Oliviero, the hotel’s chef (who provides us with some wonderful food to drool over). Both of these men are wonderful characters. And we also meet, in a smaller way, some of the hotel guests, all different and all so interesting.
The Thousand Lights Hotel is such a beautiful, glorious read. It’s emotional, moving and written with such feeling. It was a true pleasure to read and it ignited all my senses.
I want to go and stay in the Thousand Lights Hotel!
With thanks to the publishers and Amazon Vine for the review copy. The Thousand Lights Hotel is published in ebook and paperback.
With thanks to Millie Seaward at Headline for the place on the blog tour. Please do have a look at the other blogs taking part.
Emylia Hall was born in 1978 and grew up in the Devon countryside. She is the author of The Book of Summers, which was a Richard & Judy Summer Book Club pick in 2012, A Heart Bent Out of Shape, The Sea Between Us and The Thousand Lights Hotel. She lives in Bristol with her husband, the writer Robin Etherington, and their young son.
