Stepping Up
All Change At The Beach Hotel by Francesca Capaldi is a comprehensive account of life at the beach hotel during World War I.
War removes so many men from their places of work. The women have to step into their shoes. They are all very competent and prove their worth.
We see the plight of an unmarried mother who believes she is alone in her shame. However, the women rally around her and see the baby as a gift and a blessing, as they offer their love and support.
The reader hears a little about life at the Front. My heart sank as the offensive at the Somme was mentioned as there was only one way that was going to end.
A character has broken free of the hold of her family over her. Jealousy and lies pull her back into the fold until the truth is laid bare.
The women prove themselves to be true in comparison with the men. Some were absolute cads.
I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at the beach hotel and look forward to return visits.
I received a free copy via Rachel’s Random Resources for a blog tour. A favourable review was not required. All opinions are my own.
JULIA WILSON
All Change at the Beach Hotel
Can she choose between her duty and her heart?
While World War One changes the country beyond measure, with food becoming scarce and Britain’s young men being called up to foreign battlefields, it is harder than ever to keep the grand Beach Hotel in Littlehampton running smoothly.
Waitress Lili Probert, a young woman who escaped her demanding family in Wales in search of a new life in Sussex, has seen her hard work rewarded at the Beach Hotel, but hides heartbreak behind her sunny personality. Her sweetheart, Norman, is missing in action and has been presumed dead, but she cannot give up hope that he may be found.
But when she meets injured soldier Rhodri, a fellow Welshman now living near Littlehampton, she fights hard to ignore her growing attraction for him, torn between her feelings for him and her loyalty to the man she thought she’d spend her life with.
But her emotions run ever higher when she suddenly receives a call from home; her mother is gravely ill and Lili is needed for her care. Returning to Wales, Lili must make a difficult choice. Follow her dreams and make her own life, or return to the place she tried so hard to escape?
Torn between her duty and her heart, Lili faces her own battle far from the conflicts in Europe…
Purchase Link
Amazon: https://amzn.to/40AuFWR
Kobo: https://bit.ly/3HhxBkC
Apple: https://apple.co/3oISBKC
Author Bio –
Francesca has enjoyed writing since she was a child. Born in Worthing and brought up in Littlehampton in Sussex, she was largely influenced by a Welsh mother who was brilliant at improvised story telling. A history graduate and qualified teacher, she decided to turn her writing hobby into something more in 2006, when she joined a writing class.
Writing as both Francesca Capaldi and Francesca Burgess, she has had many short stories published in magazines in the UK and abroad, along with several pocket novels published by DC Thomson.
Her Welsh World War 1 sagas were inspired by the discovery of the war record of her great grandfather, a miner in South Wales. Her latest series, The Beach Hotel, is set in her own childhood town, where her Italian father had a café on the riverside.
Francesca is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Society of Women Writers and Journalists. She currently lives on the North Downs in Kent with her family and a cat called Lando Calrission.
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