My enormous thanks to the author Helena Fairfax for a copy of Felicity at the Cross Hotel in return for an honest review. I have been privileged to host Helena on Linda’s Book Bag in the past and you can read her guest post all about fairy tales and trickery here.

Felicity at the Cross Hotel is published today 7th July 2017 and is available for purchase in e-book and paperback here.

Felicity at the Cross Hotel

A quaint hotel in the Lake District. The Cross Hotel is the perfect getaway. Or is it?

Felicity Everdene needs a break from the family business. Driving through the Lake District to the Cross Hotel, past the shining lake and the mountains, everything seems perfect. But Felicity soon discovers all is not well at the Cross Hotel …

Patrick Cross left the village of Emmside years ago never intending to return, but his father has left him the family’s hotel in his will, and now he’s forced to come back. With a missing barmaid, a grumpy chef, and the hotel losing money, the arrival of Felicity Everdene from the notorious Everdene family only adds to Patrick’s troubles.

With so much to overcome, can Felicity and Patrick bring happiness to the Cross Hotel … and find happiness for themselves?

My Review of Felicity at the Cross Hotel

Coming from the Everdene family international hotel chain, Fliss’s arrival at The Cross Hotel in the Lake District is viewed by many with suspicion.

What a lovely, lovely story Felicity at the Cross Hotel is. It’s so well written that it feels effortless to read, but that isn’t to say it feels frivolous and insubstantial. There are some weighty themes behind what it a gorgeous, gentle romance. Helena Fairfax explores parental relationships, grief, friendship, guilt, rivalry and our treatment of those who are different, as natural parts of her story so that there is much to ponder as well as to entertain. I thought her writing was very skilled.

The characterisation works brilliantly. I loved the concept of Felicity as one who lives up to her name by spreading happiness. The attraction between her and Patrick is naturally and convincingly displayed so that I was desperate for them to have a happy ever after ending – you’ll have to read Felicity at the Cross Hotel to find out if that happens! Unlike other similar romances, this doesn’t just focus on two people with a cardboard cut out supporting cast. All those in the story felt real and genuine to me; even Agnetha the car.

Similarly, I loved the depiction of the Lake District with its capricious weather, lowering lakes and changeable skies. I felt truly transported to the setting so that I could imagine staying at the Cross Hotel.

I thoroughly enjoyed Felicity at the Cross Hotel. It had exactly the right tone, depth and level of sophistication to transport me to another place with other people. I loved it. Felicity at the Cross Hotel is an ideal summer read that I recommend wholeheartedly.

About Helena Fairfax

Helena Fairfax writes engaging contemporary romances with sympathetic heroines and heroes she’s secretly in love with. Her first novel, The Silk Romance, was a contender for the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme Award and a runner-up in the Global Ebook Awards. The Scottish Diamond was a finalist in the I Heart Indie Awards. Helena Fairfax was shortlisted for the Exeter Novel Prize in 2014.

When not writing, Helena walks the Yorkshire moors near her home every day with her rescue dog, finding the romantic landscape the perfect place to dream up her heroes and her happy endings.

All of Helena’s lovely books can be found here.

You can find out more about Helena by visiting her website, finding her on Facebook, or following her on Twitter.