Title: The Wake-Up Call
Author: Beth O’Leary
Publication: September 26, 2023
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Romance, Women’s Fiction
Pages: 367
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SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
It’s the busiest season of the year, and Forest Manor Hotel is quite literally falling apart. So when Izzy and Lucas are given the same shift on the hotel’s front desk, they have no choice but to put their differences aside and see it through.
The hotel won’t stay afloat beyond Christmas without some sort of miracle. But when Izzy returns a guest’s lost wedding ring, the reward convinces management that this might be the way to fix everything. With four rings still sitting in the lost & found, the race is on for Izzy and Lucas to save their beloved hotel–and their jobs.
As their bitter rivalry turns into something much more complicated, Izzy and Lucas begin to wonder if there’s more at stake here than the hotel’s future. Can the two of them make it through the season with their hearts intact?
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
I absolutely adore this author. I don’t remember where I came across her first but since I read her first book every time I see that she has one coming out, I either request to read the ARC or buy the book when it comes out. So when I saw that she had a new book out I was about to get it as an ARC, however, life and my new job got in the way of reading it in time for publication. However, in my mind, better late than never.
Izzy works at the reception desk of a local “mom and pop” hotel in England. With her works the every so annoying and disgusting Lucas, who is from Brazil. The thing is, Izzy had at one point an absolute crush on Lucas until she poured her heart out to him in a Christmas card and he just never responded. What ensues next is a classic enemies-to-lovers scenario. Ok, I will say the beginning is a slowish burn. But once the book gets going it’s a steady clip of a storyline. I will say this author has once again knocked it out of the park for me. It made me giggle, made me ugrrrhhhh out of frustration for Izzy and her weird quirks that she has that hold her back at times.
I loved how she wrote Lucas. It was the fact that she peppered his speech with Portuguese words. Honestly, if that was me I would have swooned and the book would have been over. The way the author wrote the whole misunderstanding was good. Izzy wasn’t willing to talk about it and Lucas had no idea what was going on. It was a classic of crossed wires and it was one of the better ones I have read. I loved Izzy’s friends. They became her family and stepped in when her parents passed away. She had that support system still and it was nice to see. Lucas’s family needed work, the author painted a picture of a family opposite of Izzy’s. It was interesting to see how they interacted with their families. All in all, it was just a good book. I binge-read roughly 45% of it in one night. I will be waiting patiently for the author’s next book to come out, when it does I’ll pounce on it.
