I enjoyed several novels from Francesca Capaldi’s Beach Hotel series, and this one didn’t disappoint. What a believable and enjoyable love story. It was a book I got lost inside from the very first page. As much as I enjoyed catching up with all the hotel staff, I thoroughly enjoyed the developing romance between Hetty and Victor. This tale will have you keeping the kettle ready and reading deep into the night. I felt as if I had leaped inside a time portal, able to walk side-by-side with Hetty, the hotel staff, and guests, with a first-row seat to the electric attraction between Hetty and Victor, an almost impossible love between a working-class girl and an upper-class man, unheard of in WWI England.

The entire setting pulled me in, transporting me to the era as if I knew all the characters personally. I couldn’t put this tale down. As Hetty worries about Lorcan, a soldier she met briefly at the start of the war, she feels responsible for remaining beside him. However, Lorcan doesn’t spend his leaves at the hotel with her, making her question her feelings for him. While Hetty grows closer to Victor, Lorcan’s letters cease, and she worries the slaughter across the channel may have claimed him. As she listens to the big guns from the distant battlefields across the channel, Lorcan suddenly returns, throwing a blanket at her increasing feelings for Victor.

This is a love story set during the horrors of WWI. It is a book with a tale that enlightened me in an era I wanted to learn more about, all the while rooting for the love affair between Hetty and Victor, hoping the war would tear those class restrictions down once and for all.

So, put on the kettle, cozy up in your favorite chair in your PJs, and read from dusk until dawn. It is a 5-star read from one of my favorite new authors, well,… new to me. Enjoy!

I want to thank Net Galley, Francesca Capaldi, and the publisher for the opportunity to read this as a free ARC. My review is voluntary and mine alone.

I have read and enjoyed all the novels in the Beach Hotel series but perhaps enjoyed this one the most. With no big mystery or crime this time, I felt able to just sit back and sink myself into Hetty's story and wallow in the romance. With the hotel and its staff as the backdrop to the story, it was great to revisit characters from the earlier books and find out what they were all doing, while following the slowly growing love between Hetty and Victor, crossing the class divide. The authenticity of the storm and the flood, the position of women, the food shortages and the news from the war (I had no idea you could hear the guns from across the channel) added a touch of history that highlighted the daily lives and problems of ordinary people during the First World War. A lovely read that I devoured in a couple of days.

I loved this book it was such an interesting story. It conjured up lots of pictures in my mind and I enjoyed it immensely. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

What a brilliant love story.
I'm so glad I get to read this series it's one of the best ones I've read this year. Definitely in my top 5.
I love how it does revolve around the hotel and staff so much so that the real story seems to be in the background which gets you hooked and wanting to finish the book quicker than normal, so the reader finds out what happens, but also not wanting it to end.
Im really glad/happy/over the moon about the happy ending and can't wait to see if there's anymore to this series.

This book in the Beach Hotel series tells the story of Hetty Affleck head still room maid and daughter of the Headmaster of the school . Hetty's young man Locan is away in the war when she meets Victor Perryman son of the local shipyard owner.Both Hetty's mother and Victor's mother are trying to get them married off by setting them up with different people.This is not going down very well with them both.As time goes by Hetty and Victor start a romance that neither family would be very pleased about.Victors mother would think that Hetty would be below them, her working in a hotel.Hetty finds that she is not in love with Locan and doesn't no how to tell him..Will things work out for Hetty and Victor.Thank you to Netgalley and Hera books.

Thank you for the chance to read this ARC in return for my honest opinion.

I had looked forward to this instalment of the Beach Hotel story and I was not disappointed.
This centred around Henrietta - or Hetty - a stillroom maid who actually had no need to work being a headmasters daughter. But she wanted more from life.
She was already friendly with Lorcan who worked at the hotel - but wasn’t sure she wanted more than that.
Then she met the local shipyard owners son.
What developed was a story of love, social divide, and class differences - interspersed with life in Littlehampton and explosions to widen the river mouth of the river Arun.
A late January flood added to the story

All the while WW1 was carrying on, food rationing was biting but life had to carry on in the Beach Hotel.

It was great to meet old characters again and hear about their lives some in the War and some who led a privileged life in the Hotel away from warfare.
It certainly touched to read that the guns in France could be heard from Littlehampton, perhaps more poignant as I read this in the week of Remembrance Day.

Once again a well researched and well written book by Francesca Capaldi - a joy to read such that I didn’t want it to finish.
I hope there will be more

Can true love win the day...?

What a delight it is to return to the prestigious Beach Hotel in Littlehampton and the flurry of staff and guests there! And who doesn't love to be by the seaside? Even in a storm?

I have delighted in this series since it began following the stories of first Edie, then Lili, then Helen herself and now Hetty. I also enjoyed seeing some of the regulars continue to pop up such as the Major, a resident at the hotel, as well as much of the staff and those guests who pop in from time to time.

The focus of this fourth installment is Hetty Affleck who works as head stillroom maid (I was most interested in what that actually entailed, having never heard of it before). She and one of the other staff members, Irish lad Lorcan Foley, had only just begun stepping out together when he enlisted thus joining the fight at the front. Their relationship had barely begun but Hetty agreed to write to him and he her.

After three long years, despite early forecasts predicting it would be over by Christmas, Hetty began to wonder if she was merely writing to keep his spirits up as what they had barely constituted as anything but friendship. Besides, any leave he had he'd returned home to Ireland rather than return to the Beach Hotel to see her. Didn't that say something about their relationship, such as it was?

Then his letters seemed to have stopped. Even on her birthday he failed to send her something as he usually did. Did that mean something had happened to him? Or had he simply decided to end their friendship? Hetty isn't sure how she feels.

When she meets wealthy shipbuilder's son Victor Perryman, they exchange greetings and pass the time of day but nothing more. And yet she feels a connection to him, like a bolt of electricity every time she is in his company. But she is just a maid serving him and his family whilst he is upper middle class, certainly not for the likes of her. Besides, she has Lorcan to think of. But the more she sees of Victor, the more she is charmed and intrigued by the handsome young man. And the more time they spend together the more the pair realise how alike they are and it soon becomes difficult to deny the growing attachment between them.

And then Lorcan returns suddenly on leave and Hetty is forced to face her true feelings. Who does she truly love? And can love conquer all the obstacles thrown in their path?

A truly delightful, heartwarming and emotional wartime saga that is such a wonderful read that I devoured it in one sitting, not wanting to leave Littlehampton and its inhabitants for one minute. I can't wait to see whose story we get to follow next and what the author has in store for us.

A heartwarming 5 stars!

I would like to thank #FrancescaCapaldi, #Netgalley and #HeraBooks for an ARC of #LoveAndLossAtTheBeachHotel in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

This story concentrates on the social divides, whether it’s status, wealth or class.
Hetty Affleck is a stillroom maid who is unsure of her feelings for Lorcan Foley when he decides to enlist and agree to see how they feel on his return. Victor Perryman is son of James who is owner of two boatyards working for the war effort. When Victor and Hetty first meet on the passing they feel something, but no that’s not the done thing, so think now more about it, or do they!
One thing they do have in common is their mothers who have great aspirations for their offspring, always arranging dinners, chance meetings with prospective partners. The worst one had to be the rev.

I enjoyed hearing about old characters, the major, Edie , Phoebe etc. The descriptions of the explosions and why was quite interesting given it was true. Look forward to the next book.

Firstly thank you Netgalley for this Arc

Wow what another brilliant book on the series . Family saga wartime what more could I ask for