I was so excited to listen to this book, I love Italy, and spent some time living there in my early 20's, I love the 1920's, and was excited to read about something that was Downtown Abby on the Italian Seaside. I haven't read a lot about this time period outside of the United States, so I instantly gravitated to the idea of reading a book set in Mussolini's Italy.

There is a lot to unpack in this book. The characters are complex, and the book itself has all of the elements of a great story, I found that parts of the audio fell flat for me. The book is filled with characters and drama, although I would have liked seeing the author unpack some of the characters a little more. I found that because some characters lacked depth it made them difficult to keep straight.

While I enjoyed listening to the narrator, especially her execution of accents, and characters' personalities, I found it difficult to keep track of so many characters and point of view over audio. I think it will give the print version of this book a try because I really loved the premise, and I can also see how this will translate really well to TV.

I was immediately drawn to this book because of the gorgeous cover!

It's a drama about a family who opens an upper-class hotel on the Italian Riviera during the 1920s.   Hotel Portofino has been open for only a short time, but the problems are starting for its owner Bella Ainsworth. The high class, problematic, guests are demanding and hard to please. 

The description says for those who like Downtown Abbey and the Crown will like this. I think that's spot on! There are tons of characters so it is a little hard to keep straight, I think the audiobook helped with that! But it is also a little slow placed like those shows as well. I found myself wondering when something will happen.

There is a Hotel Portofino TV Series Coming to PBS in 2022! Which is very exciting. I think it'll make for a great TV show!

Thank you to Net Galley and Blackstone Publishing for this Audiobooo in exchange for my honest review!

A new author, my first audiobook and a great story all in one! What more could I ask for. I felt like I was right there with all the characters at the hotel through all their highs and lows. This is a book that I will recommend that yes you should read, you will regret it if you don’t! Thanks J.P. for writing such a great book!

Gosh I wanted to love this for it's Downton-Abbey-on-the-Italian-Riveria vibes but I just couldn't get into it. The characters seemed wooden and unreachable. I just couldn't connect with their stories.

The setting of this book is fantastic and sounds like a dream. But the book jumps between points of view every few pages. I only got to about 40% of the book and decided to DNF. It jumped around so much and with random details, its hard to follow where you are. I got bored and really didn't feel interested to finish the story or feel a connection to any characters.

Hotel Portofino is brand new and already experiencing issues. The owner, Bella Ainsworth, is being black mailed by a politician and her husband is not very supportive. As a matter of fact, her marriage is in danger. Plus, she has some very high maintenance guests which are extremely demanding. So, when events turn again and have consequences for her family, Bella is not sure where to turn.

This is one big soap opera. I guess all books are. But this one really did remind me of a soap opera. You have rich, poor, beautiful, ugly and wicked all staying in this hotel at the same time. So you can just imagine all the happenings and going on! But, because there are so many characters, it’s hard to keep who is what straight. However, the time period and the setting really kept this story moving for me. I mean…how could you not like Italy!

The narrator, Esther Wane, did a great job with all these voices. She was probably the reason I kept listening. She kept it entertaining.

Need a good soap opera to keep you warm this winter…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Hotel Portofino. The description of the novel really drew me in. It is an interesting setting and time period I'd love to know more about and I was very excited to get started.

After reading the story, I really am looking forward to watching this a TV Show, and that is the format I think it is best suited for. The characters were great, the setting was wonderful, but I found myself getting lost jumping between the different storylines and perspectives.

Because there was so much going on and so many viewpoints to consider I didn't find myself getting attached or relating to any of the characters and therefore just found myself reading to finish the story while not super invested.

Like I said, I'm really excited to watch the storyline and think I might be able to become more invested as the show progresses.

This is a mostly enjoyable piece of fluff novel, good for a “beach read.” The biggest problem is that none of the characters are really very likable … mostly rich people whining about rich people things. Anyone who has ever read my reviews knows that I HATE novels that beg for you to read a sequel or prequel. The pandering turns me off and immediately drops a star from any rating. However, in this case, I don’t think I cared enough about the characters, or the story, to become invested enough to care about a sequel. It’s all very benign. The story ends … and there is clearly another waiting in the wings, but it doesn’t have a cliffhanger that you’re dying to see resolved. Promotional material states that Hotel Portofino is a soon-to-be TV movie. It lends itself to that, perfectly. Gorgeous location, lavish setting, rich beautiful people. I’m actually looking forward to tuning in. I found that there were too many characters to keep track if - I had to keep going back and making a point to remember them all when they popped up later - and I’m guessing that will be better in a film version.
Above all else, the voice actor did a fantastic job of narration - I may not have actually finished the story had a lesser performer read it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone for an ALC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I both read and listened to this book. The narrator did a good job. Overall it was an enjoyable read, although there were almost too many characters and storylines going on. It seems to be a perfect fit for a television mini-series (which it is going to be). The ending is left open-ended which leaves it open for sequels or multiple seasons of the television series. I did enjoy the time period and setting in Italy. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy of both the ebook and the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Hotel Portofino by J.P. O'Connell appealed to me based on the time frame and location. I found the author to have written some enticing descriptions. I enjoyed the imagery the author used and the setting. Esther Ware did a great job at bringing the characters to life with her voice. Thank you #NetGalley and #Blackstone Publishing for letting me review this audiobook. I really enjoyed it.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the audio version. Hmm I honestly don't know how I feel about this book. I do love the cover that is what drew me to it. I love that it takes place in the 1920's. I love that it was a lot like Downtown Abbey sort of style. Also the narrator did a wonderful job. I just felt personally that is was so woke and the author was just stuffing everything in it to be politically correct.

My thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to review this audio book.

Unfortunately I only got thru about 60% of the book and was finding it an effort to continue. Some of the dialect and pronunciation of words from the narrator was difficult to connect to . Like migraine was me grain. Had to focus extra. Too my characters and actions to keep track up. Description accurate but can only give 3 stars.

Hotel Portofino is a rich and textured novel that takes place in the 1920’s on the Italian Riviera. It follows the comings and goings of the guests and staff at an English run hotel, and the dramas that ensue. The perfect pacing feels almost languid, but never boring. It perfectly fits the setting and story, truly placing you there. It takes place during the early rise of fascism in Italy, which is was a new setting for me in historical fiction. I listened to the audiobook and the narration was also excellent. I would highly recommend this audiobook!

Thank you @netgalley and @blackstonepublishing for the opportunity to listen to and review this book.

Review posted to Instagram, Goodreads, and Amazon

The English Hotel in Italy

Bella opens Hotel Portofino on the Italian Riviera for English guests. This is something she has dreamed of and wishes to make it a success. It is not going so well for Bella. The guests are demanding and the local policeman, who is one of the black shirt fascists is not kind to the hotel or to Bella.

Money is tight, and the wealthy girl she wishes her son to marry is not working out well. Then she finds her husband owes some gambling debts he cannot repay. Bella is at wit's end, and then more troubles show up. At a time of troubles for Bella's investment in the hotel, her marriage is also in trouble.

This is a picture of a hotel with foreign visitors in a foreign place. It is a place of the different types of people and unfortunately too many different variables to count. Forbidden romances, stolen paintings, anti-fascist groups, then you have the fascist groups.

Set in the rich and beautiful Italian Riviera, with the rich, the want to be rich, the locals and the servants this book is interesting from page one, it does not disappoint.

I listened to the audio book and the narrator was very good, I enjoyed the voice and the narration. It brought the feel and the location of the hotel in forefront and I enjoyed the experience.

I would recommend this book as a good read...or listen whichever you happen to prefer.

Thanks to J.P. O'Connell for writing an interesting book, to Esther Wane for a great job narrating the book, to Blackstone Publishing for publishing it and to NetGalley for making it available to me.

"Set in the breathtakingly beautiful Italian Riviera, Hotel Portofino is a story of personal awakening at a time of global upheaval and of the liberating influence of Italy’s enchanting culture, climate, and cuisine on British “innocents abroad,” perfect for fans of Downton Abbey and The Crown."

This book was well written and the setting had me very intrigued. Being Italian, Portofino is one of my favorite places to visit while travelling through Italy, so reading/listening about a hotel based in this gorgeous location as historical fiction - was what drew me to this audiobook and had me enthralled from the beginning!

Can I just say how much I absolutely LOVED that Bella was the main brain and person running the hotel?!
It just added so much to the story that I connected with and felt strongly about.

An amazing cast of characters, stories, secrets, loves and lies... what a web of storytelling and a fabulous job the narrator did in capturing it all via audiobook!

A huge thank you to NetGalley, J.P. O'Connell and Blackstone Publishing for providing me with an advanced Audiobook version of this publication which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

I started this one in audio. The narrator had a soothing voice and did a great job telling the story. The story overall fell fast for me and didn't really excite me to read. Overall I was disappointed.

🗯Thoughts:

I was supposed to go to Italy in 2020…you can imagine how that turned out. Reading this was an acceptable alternate. I loved the vibrant and colourful characters and setting that were portrayed through this book.

The drama and storyline had me salivating the entire time. The fine details to absolutely exerting were very imaginative and enjoyable!

Overall, a delightful listen. The narrator was superb and the book took me far away from this cold, dark January! Ciao Bella

This book is often described as Downton Abbey set in a seaside Italian hotel in the 1920s, and really that is the best way to describe it. The story is told from the perspective of several members of the family who owns the hotel, as well as several of their guests and servants. It really captured the upstairs/downstairs feel of Downton, plus the vibrant culture of the 20s, and the writing style felt perfectly on point.

I really enjoyed getting to read about what Italian culture looked like in the 1920s. So far, all of the books that I've read set in this era have taken place either in England or America, and so it was really eye opening to see what Italy looked like under Mussolini, and all of the divisive impacts that his leadership had.

This book lost me in two ways. First, none of the characters were truly happy. I've noticed that all of the books set in this era seem to contain at least one extra-marital affair, one friends with benefits/secret relationship, and one suppressed homosexual couple. It really speaks to how empty this decade was, since everyone was chasing something they thought would make them happy, and yet they never actually arrive at happiness. I left this book with the same feeling I had after reading Voltaire's Candide - that life is misery, and we can only try to make the best of it.

The second way it lost me was that it read like season one of a television show. There was no clear overarching plot, there were a lot of main characters (almost too many to really get to know them at all), and the ending of the book felt like it was just setting up for season two. This is being made into a miniseries, and since they are both being released around the same time it makes more sense that it feels like this, but it did feel odd.

Overall, it was beautifully written, but wasn't quite satisfying to read.

The glamorous pre WWII Italian Riviera is the setting for Hotel Portofino. British tourists are right at home at this hotel catering to their tastes in beautiful Portofino. But Mussolini’s brown shirts are coming into power, and while the handwriting isn’t yet completely on the wall, it is clear that life for British expats in Italy is becoming more complicated.

The family dynamics of the owners, Bella, Cecil, Alice and Lucien are less compelling than the social and political interactions between the British and the Italians.

There was no clear conclusion to the book, and it feels like it was deliberately left hanging to be completed by sequels.

I listened to the audio version of the novel, and was really happy that care was taken with the Italian pronunciation and accents.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"Hotel Portofino" starts as a beautiful, sun-drenched romp through the Italian Riviera in the 1920s. The hotel of the title is owned and run by a wealthy British couple who fell in love with the town of Portofino and the coastal locale on their honeymoon. The lovely hotel they have established is filled predominantly with other wealthy Brits, and as the story begins it seems to be a version of "Downton Abbey" transferred to the seashore, complete with picnics on the beach, sight-seeing in local churches, and characters sketching in the countryside. The dialogue includes many delightful "Upstairs, Downstairs" exchanges. The audiobook is well-narrated, and the varied (British, American, and Italian) accents of the characters are performed well. It is an engaging listen. However, as soon as you have settled into the story it slowly becomes much more than a pleasant vacation, as the rise of Fascism penetrates the plot in multiple ways The hotel owners are caught up in local politics, and most of the guests are eventually as well. Ultimately, this is an intriguing story of how life is transformed in the period between the wars. Although I found the ending a bit unresolved I enjoyed "Hotel Portofino" a great deal and would recommend it to other readers.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!