The Heartbreak Hotel by Ellen O’Clover

A bed-and-breakfast for the brokenhearted might hold the key to another chance at love in this achingly hopeful debut romance.

Louisa Walsh emerged from a tumultuous childhood with a degree in counseling, a wealthy boyfriend, and her sunny outlook on life mostly intact. But that optimism is tested when she’s dumped and left unable to afford rent on their gorgeous house in the mountains of Colorado. Even with her life in disarray, Lou knows losing the one stable place she’s ever called home is not an option.

Her plan: ask her reclusive landlord, Henry Rhodes, to let her stay for free in exchange for renting out the house’s many rooms as a bed-and-breakfast. She’s shocked when he agrees to her terms, and even more surprised to discover Henry is a handsome thirtysomething veterinarian with silver at his temples and sadness in his eyes. One who does not take it well when Lou starts marketing her B and B as a retreat for the recently heartbroken.

But as the Comeback Inn opens its doors to its weary, hopeful guests, Lou and Henry find themselves dancing around both their undeniable connection and the closely held secrets that threaten to topple this fragile new start. A chance at love, here, could be too close to home…or it could be exactly where their hearts finally heal.

My Review

The first chapter begins with Louisa being dumped by her long-time something, Nate. He is a rockstar, and all she cares about is the house. Then we time jump back three years to the moment her golden life changed. I understand her wanting the house; it is a majestic retreat.

Her tragedy of a relationship is what inspires the change of heart from losing it all over a guy to having an idea because this Home is worth fighting for. It is kinda strange to think of a house like this, even a rental, but I understand having roots in a structure and it being your escape from reality.  I love how this evolves into the Heartbreak Hotel with her and her best friend Mei fighting their own sorrow but also supporting each other.

The landlord is interesting, uncaring in person, but then does little things that make your heart sing a little, despite the sorrow of Mei and Louisa.  This book has a lot of grief processing from past experiences and relationships to current events. Our characters are working through the mess of their own lives at this mountain home.

This mountain retreat seems to help the landlord, too, as he is always around, but also they seem to be circling a nice, slow-burning friends-to-lovers. Henry is sweet, gentle, and very interested in Lou.

Henry has some healing too, but when his secrets are revealed, things get hot and heavy at the same time. The outrageous guest antics make the story move along and add a lighthearted twist to the deeper dynamics.

There is some autumn vibes in the book with the holidays mentioned, and I do love the mountain descriptions they do as a place of serenity. 

Despite the MC moving on, Louisa and Henry are both damaged and looking for healing . Their broken hearts seem to find solace in one another, and just for talking, as this book gets steamy a time or two.

Wow, I don’t expect that, but then maybe the clues were there, but now the connections are made, and it says so much more about the house and past lives . I wouldn’t call this a third-act breakup, more like third-act honesty as secrets are exposed on both sides and their new romance is put to the test.

Her mom’s stress is kinda out of this universe, and her boundary issues seem to come into play a lot.  

The story ends okay, but overall, it was a good read, albeit without many tropes I enjoy, and perhaps too psychology-inclined for me. I couldn’t relate to a lot of what the characters went through, but I enjoyed the descriptions and the Heartbreak Inn.

The story is more of an ode to the history of the house and its past occupants, with a mix of grief, recovery, and rebound. I love a great damaged MC story, but this one just didn’t do it for me. There was simply too much drama. The FMC character gets stronger, but still can’t draw hard lines to protect her newfound strength and cherish the simple joys she has found. Instead, she gets sucked into not only her drama but Nate’s as well. Overall, the back and forth from strong to broken to strong to broken was not as interesting. I did enjoy the scenery and how it was incorporated in the story and the healing.

If you want to read The Heartbreak Hotel by Ellen O’Clover, it is available on Amazon. I got my paperback from my Book of the Month Club box. BOTM, and I get a free book credit for the referral. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualified purchases.

If you like this book, you may also enjoy books with these tags and categories: Women’s fiction, Friends to Lovers, and Slow Burn