Hotel 21 by Senta Rich

 Hotel 21 by Senta Rich

Will the women at Hotel 21 give her the courage to claim the life she deserves, or will her old habits come back to haunt her?

Hotel 21 by Senta Rich was published on 27th April 2023 by Bloomsbury.

My thanks to the author and publisher for sending me a copy to review and to Random Book Tours for inviting me to take part on the tour.

Synopsis

Noelle is an efficient and friendly hotel cleaner, a model employee. Or so she'd have you think. The trouble is that she can't help taking little 'souvenirs' as she cleans. Nothing of value, just tokens of happy, normal lives: a lipstick, a hair clip, some tweezers. And by the time the guest has noticed, she's long gone.

As she starts at her 21st hotel, she's determined to beat her record of one month in a five star hotel before suspicion falls on her. But when she meets her new colleagues, her plans are complicated. These women aren't just hands pushing carts down lonely hotel corridors: they are women with lives full of happiness and worry, pain and joy. The kind of lives Noelle has never known how to live. They make her wonder what it might be like to have real friends, people to stick around for.

My Review

This is a funny story about female friendship and how Noelle goes from being alone in life, taking little souvenirs from guests, and moving on before anyone becomes suspicious, to realising that friendships can be important and that, maybe, just maybe, you do want to stick around and have proper friendships.

Noelle has had a hard life starting with an abusive mother and consequently  was the victim of child abuse ( parts of this make for difficult reading). This manifests itself by Noelle starting to steal little things from the guests in the hotels she cleans in . Small things  such as make- up , nail scissors, tweezers - things that are not generally missed!. Because she is good at her job if anyone complains she is backed up by management - and she always makes sure she gets on well with management !!!  Soon afterwards she will give an excuse  and leave to move on to the next hotel - until she arrives at Hotel 21 !!!!

Hotel 21 shows Noelle that people can form close friendships and support each other through thick and thin and this is something she has never experienced before in her life. Friendship with a group of women who make her feel as though she belongs and is wanted is not something to throw away easily.

The style of writing in this story makes for compelling reading though at times it is blunt and emotive.

About the Author

SENTA RICH began her career as an advertising copywriter.

During this time, she also wrote radio plays and magazine articles, before moving into the world of screenwriting.

She now writes regularly for film and TV.

She lives in Dublin with her husband and son.

Hotel 21 is her debut novel.