Looking For Stars

The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick is the most delightful contemporary novel that will warm your heart and make you smile.

The little Italian hotel is a place where strangers go to heal and leave as friends. It is a place to rediscover the little things that make you smile and bring you joy. And it is a place where friends encourage each other to face their darkest hurts.

Everyone has things that hurt us – from bereavement to illness to relationship breakdowns. Everyone experiences pain differently and everyone heals differently.

We meet a group of five strangers plus the two who run the hotel. The pain of loss is tangible. “Without Daisy in her life, Edna’s loneliness felt like an unwelcome house guest that wouldn’t leave.” Loss consumes, threatening to drag us down into the depths. We need to find a reason to smile again. “Losing her was like an eclipse of the sun.” The days feel so dark. We need others to help to lift us up. Sometimes we just need someone to sit in the silence beside us.