This novel started out grabbing my attention immediately.. our main characters Eli and Maria are thrown together as Eli saves Maria from a runaway carriage.. This is the first of a string of assassination attempts Eli foils. tpThey head for the third main character, the Havner Hotel, Maria is in the middle of renovating the hotel to its prior glory but has run out of money. Her mother, Elizabeth, has let this place deteriorate into calamity during the eight years she was in charge using money on herself and not the business. , during her reign the banks collapsed and the wealthiest residents lost their money. The hotel was handed to her by her mother Josephine, handed to her by her mother Theresa. One daily habit the original owner practiced was to always take a moment to write in her journals the daily activities some of which could be used as bribes in the future if necessary. News such as which married man had a mistress in tow. Eli, an American has been sent undercover to find who has been stealing the secret codes.. The only clue he has to go on is that a message was sent from that hotel on their letterhead so he must get in there undercover and investigate. Maria as the central criminal. She has gone to at least five banks all telling her no. Maria pushes forward and plans to host the ball of the century which will place her hotel back into it’s rightful place. I felt like Vienna, at that time, everything moved in three quarter time. I thought it got bogged down in waltz time until thesecrets littering started falling out of mouths in the end. I would still recommend for a worthwhile read.

Thanks to the following for allowing me to review early in exchange for my personally honest review.:
#NetGalley
#macMillanPublishing #StMartinsPress
#Diana Biller
#HotelofSecrets
Pub. Date: 28 Mar 2023

Lovely storytelling and descriptive - I felt like I was in Vienna during Ball Season. And the found family that Biller created within the Hotel Wallner was superb. I loved all the supporting characters, but Maria and Eli were obviously the stand outs. Their romance was meet-cute, while also being very passionate.

The Hotel Wallner has been in Maria’s family for four generations, gifted to her great-grandmother by the Emperor himself. However, in recent years, it has fallen to disrepair, but Maria wants to return it to its former glory. This is hard, however, when it seems Vienna itself is conspiring against her. But Eli, an American foreign agent, seems to be there to help her at every turn. They both have reasons for avoiding relationships, though and despite the clear chemistry they each strive to push each other away - until that becomes impossible. Will they be able to overcome all the obstacles in their way?

I wish to thank NetGalley and St Martin’s Press – St. Martin’s Griffin for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A beautiful setting in Vienna in the 1870’s during the festive Ball season when an American Treasury Agent is tasked with solving the problem of who is stealing the US codes. When he arrives in Vienna he stays at the Hotel Wallner where he meets Maria the beautiful hotel keeper. Maria is trying to rebuild the hotel to its former splendor and gain back its elite status. The hotel has been in the family for several generations and was allowed to fall in disrepair by her mother. This is an enjoyable read for the most part. The author includes lots of intrigue, flirtations, family dynamics and clever bantering. The book has lots of explicit sex scenes which I must admit I found myself skimming through. The descriptions of life in Vienna at the time are really lovely and the work involved in reinstating the hotel to its former glory on a limited budget is well described. The author includes humor, mysteries and lots of great characters to keep you reading to see what will happen next.

Romance, intrigues, spies, assassination attempts, all set in the gradiosness of the late 19th century Vienna. Occasionally it felt like a comedy of errors but it kept me wanting to read further. Various plots and intrigues, trying to figure out if they were separate incidents or some how connected. The only thing I didn't like was the sex scenes.
I received an ARC copy through NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

This was my first read by this author and I really enjoyed it!

Maria, the main character, was easily like-able and I really admired how strong and hardworking she was (without being annoying like how so many female MCs can be when written as “strong”).

I was really charmed by this book and will definitely check out other works by this author.

𝘗𝘭𝘰𝘵 - This was the perfect blend of romance and mystery. Who wants Maria dead? How did she get involved in some grand political scheme? When will Eli admit he had fallen for the independent and sassy hotel owner? I loved the blend of genres and felt that the two main plot points complimented each other perfectly. I had some unanswered questions at the end, but all in all I think the mystery was wrapped up nicely.

𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴/𝘙𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘴 - Maria and Eli were great together. I loved the role reversal in terms of the sexual relationship between the two. One of my biggest gripes with historical romance is that the female is always this innocent, inexperienced virgin while the man is a rake, but Diana Biller took that stereotypical trope and turned it inside out. Maria got to teach Eli the ways of the bedroom, but don't worry. Eli is very competent and a fast learner 😏

𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦 - Diana Biller's writing style could only be described as quirky and fun. Her way of writing from both Maria and Eli's perspective both drew me into the story and added a fun and lighthearted element. Was the writing historically accurate? I couldn't say, since I'm not sure about the events and societal expectations of 19th century Vienna, but it was still enjoyable to read.

𝘖𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘖𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯 - All in all, I really enjoyed this book! It was a fun, quick read and a solid historical romance that I'll be recommending to my friends.

Diana Biller took her work to a high and unachievable level, this one written definitely with love for the period era. Her piece gives the reader something they were not expecting in the most precise and perfect way possible; she carried her characters with flawless authority, which made me want them here in 3D. This one is definitely for the shelves.

This is the first book I've read by Diana Biller and I was impressed! The storyline is intriguing and engaging, the descriptions of the Carnival are so vivid, the characters are well crafted and interesting and the romance is spicy!

Maria is a hotel keeper trying to bring her family hotel back into positive views after her mother ran it into the ground. Eli is an American sent to Vienna to help solve a crime. While he is staying at the Hotel Wallner, he learns there is a much more going on than he expected - and meets Maria.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review. It's a wonderful historical romance that I enjoyed reading.

Oh the romance, sophistication and intrigue of 1878 Vienna. This book does a wonderful job of setting that scene. Maria is the latest in a line of female owner/managers of the grand Hotel Wallner. Well, it was grand, Now it is Maria's task to restore it to glory. As she embarks on this mission, secrets, spies and intrigue get in the way. Particularly an extremely competent but clueless American treasury agent on a mission of his own.
This is a review on an eGalley provided by NetGalley.

I most definitely enjoyed Hotel of Secrets. It's the story of the Wallner family, specifically Maria, her mother Elizabeth, and her grandmother Josephine. They owned the Hotel Wallner. A man named Eli went from the United States to Vienna to the Hotel Wallner to solve the mystery of stolen codes. He met Maria when she wandered into the street half drunk and he saved her from being hit by a carriage. And he saved her life on three different occasions.

Maria, her mother, her grandmother and her great grandmother had kept journals of all of the happenings in the hotel. They were a security blanket and could be used for blackmail if need be. Elizabeth was in a 30 year relationship with Count Heinrich who was married and happened to be Maria's father. He found himself in financial trouble with the Russians. He stole the journals in hopes that the contents could solve his problems. He'd set fire to the hotel's kitchen to create a ruse. Maria realized he'd stolen them and went to his home to retrieve them. But the 1875 journal was missing.

The Hotel Wallner was commissioned to do host the ball of the season. The hotel had been going downhill when Elizabeth had taken over, but with Maria in charge she was working on a revival and the ball was just the ticket.

During the ball, Count von Kaufstein told Maria that there was a problem in the fourth floor bathroom. When she went to inspect it she was accosted with chloroform. She was kidnapped and taken into the woods. It was the count who'd taken her. It turns out that the 1875 journal had information that was detrimental to him.

If I say anymore it will give everything away. But suffice it to say that Maria and Eli had agreed to a love affair with no strings attached. To learn the end of the story you'll have to read the book. There's a bit of suspense and intrigue. It was somewhat difficult to put down. It is worth the read.

Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller

Thanks to @NetGalley I received an eARC of this book.

Hotel of Secrets provided hours of delightful escape to the Vienna of the late 1800s, of which I knew nothing about! Likable characters combined with an intriguing storyline of returning a faded hotel back to life despite numerous & daunting challenges added to the intrigue!

This was my first introduction to Diana Biller. I enjoyed her combination of historical mystery with romance added in for extra enjoyment. I suspect that I will be checking out other titles by Diana Biller!

#NetGalley

I had a difficult time trying to get into the writing style here given the time the story takes place. The behavior and attitudes in the novel was so foreign to my limited knowledge of this time period and this is what most affected my enjoyment.

I wanted to enjoy this one more than I did but it just never engaged me.

Genre: historical romance
Vienna, 1877

Maria Wallner, manager and owner of Hotel Wallner, has been slowly revitalizing the hotel her mother drove into near oblivion over the last ten years while caught up more in her own affairs than the management of their beloved property. But 1878 will be their year. Maria has the opportunity to host one of the grander balls of the winter season, and she’s determined to make it perfect. Eli Whittaker works for the American Department of the Treasury, and is stationed in Vienna to track down stolen codes. He’s worked his whole life to create order out of chaos and to rely on no one but himself. Their paths cross on New Year’s Eve when Eli saves Maria from an assassination attempt…and then from another attempt on her life shortly thereafter. Unsure of the source or motive of these attempts, Eli sticks by Maria’s side, only increasing the attraction between the two.

It’s always a refreshing delight to step outside of England in historical romance, and VIenna during Ball Season is a magical delight. While Hotel of Secrets got off to a little bit of a slow start while Biller lays out the genealogy - which is important! - by about halfway, I could not put the book down. I was swept off my feet by both continental political intrigue, spies, secrets, and as utterly romantic relationship between Eli and Maria. The atmosphere felt bright and sparkly, shining under a glistening chandelier and with a glass of champagne in hand.

I love a competent hero. Eli is competence-manifested in a gorgeous male form. He’s starchy, cold, and determined to do his job and move back to America and on with his life. Maria is also incredibly competent - the hotel is beginning to thrive under her creativity - but she’s also warm and friendly, which provides a beautiful balance between our main characters. Their connection to one another, the way they begin to rely on each other, and the way they communicate really worked well for me.

This was my first book by Diana Biller but you can be sure I’ll be going to pick up Widow of Rose House and her other books soon, too!

Thank you to @stmartinspress and netgalley for an eARC for review. Hotel of Secrets is out 3/28/23.

4.5 stars
3 flames

I enjoyed the matriarchal aspect of this story a lot and passing the hotel down to the daughter. Maria was proud to run the hotel and wanted to bring it back to its splendor of the past. The question remained as to who did not want her to succeed. Maria was definitely tenacious and very good at getting others to help her out. Eli came in the middle of all the machinations, plans, and danger. The attraction between Maria and Eli had him helping her out. There were moments I felt the story dragged, too much repetitive description, but overall, it was an interesting tale.

I received an ARC through Netgalley, and this is my unsolicited review.

Hotel of Secrets was wonderfully written. It captures you from the first chapter by taking you back to 1800’s Vienna. Dazzling you with mystery, unexpected twists, history, and romance- this book really has it all.
The characters in this book are brilliant and Diana Biller reveals pieces of each character throughout the book, making them engaging and interesting. She truly captures historical realistic fiction.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced e-copy of this book. It will available for purchase on March 28, 2023. Go preorder it- it’s worth reading.

I seem to absolutely love Biller’s writing style. The picturesque imagery that she depicts makes me live vicariously through the characters. Along with that, the plot was pretty interesting and I loved the heroine. She was quite witty and my god if I didn’t love her little banters with the hero. Undoubtedly, it’s a full 5 stars read for me

This book introduced me to a time period and location that I really knew nothing about and I really enjoyed it! The author painted a picture of this lavish city with operated accordingly to well-established social rules and expectations. Even our leading family, the Wallners, had to abide by these dictates, despite being a bit rebellious and independent. I now want to visit Vienna and learn more about its history!

This book focuses on Maria Wallner, who is trying to save her family’s hotel, and her family of strong females. A cast of players related to the Wallner is also at play, including Maria’s half-brother, her grandmother, her best friend, and her father, who is married to someone other than Maria’s mother. The book also introduces Eli Whittaker, an American agent sent to Vienna to try to track down an information leak. Maria and Eli bump into one another, feel the sparks and their stories quickly become intertwined thereafter as Eli attempts to save Maria in a variety of ways, although one could argue Maria also saves Eli.

This book is a historical romance novel and although the romance plays a primary role, as important is the storyline of saving the Wallner Hotel, discovering who is trying to kill Maria and who is up to nefarious deeds. I thought the author skillfully connected all of the storylines at the end in a way I did not see coming. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, given the strong details and plots, and would recommend it to others.

Thank you to Diana Biller and St. Martin’s Press for a digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley and the opportunity to provide an honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.

Wallner women follow few rules, but the ones they have they adhere to strictly. Wallner women fall for one man--'the man'--and have one daughter. Wallner women run the Hotel Wallner, once a glamorous landmark of 19th century Vienna. And Wallner women write everything down.

The once-glorious Wallner hotel went to ruin under the neglect of Elizabeth Wallner, and her daughter, Maria, the new manager, is working hard to bring it back. Her first effort is a New Year's Ball closing out 1877, at which it is predicted that 'the man' for Maria will be tall, dark-haired, and handsome. Tipsy on champagne to celebrate the success of the hotel being almost back, Maria scoffs when she's rescued from the path of a speeding carriage by tall, dark-haired, sternly handsome Eli Whittaker. Maria has a hotel to bring back to life. She's working far too hard for romance.

Eli Whittaker isn't a spy, though these seem to abound in gloriously lavish and highly secretive Vienna, heart of the Austrian-Hapsburg Empire. He's an upright American sent by the U.S. Treasury Department to investigate codes that were stolen from the American Legation--in a letter posted from the Hotel Wallner. Eli's investigation makes Maria a suspect, and he's not entirely unwilling to keep a close eye on the lovely, dark-haired, strong-minded and decisive Maria. But as secrets abound and mysteries proliferate--and it looks like, hotel codes aside, Maria is the target of a determined assassin--Eli finds himself putting both his body and his heart on the line to protect her.

I confess I put the book aside after the "meet cute," at which Maria is decidedly uncharmed. There was nothing wrong with the writing, or the extensive cast of quirky characters, or the hints about the tangled pasts of the various Wallner women, including Maria's formidable grandmother, Josephine. I'm glad I went back to the book, though, because with the introduction of Eli, I was hooked. There was enough fascination and vulnerability to him to interest me. His strict sense of justice, his complete lack of humor, the hints of a troubled past, and his annoyance with the lavish excesses of Vienna were all amusing. And now I'm glad I stayed with the book, because it sucked me in completely and turned out to be one of the most delightful books I've read all year--and one of the few that made the kids keep yelling, "What are you *laughing* about?"

It's absolutely a romance, with Maria the savvy and experienced partner who educates the at-first very buttoned-up Eli. But it's also a mystery, with appearances from members of the Imperial Household and compounding questions that in the end turn out to be delightfully, even brilliantly connected. And at the same time it's a story of a found family, including not just Maria's half-brother (who, unlike Maria, is legitimate) but her friend and hotel cook Hannah, the Brodmaiers, and even the likeable French spy, Claude, who keeps insinuating himself anywhere.

As passion mounted alongside the secrets, I found myself rapt in the clever characterizations, zaps of humor, and lively action. By the end I was reading headlong because I simply *had* to know what happened. And the minute I was done, I went back to the first two chapters and found them absolutely perfect for the rest of the book. An utterly charming love story and a lively mystery. I already can't wait for Biller's next book.

I always enjoy Diana Biller books and this one was no different. The book is set in 1870s Vienna and follows Maria as she tries to bring her family's once prominent hotel back to life, and Eli, an American Government agent tasked to find who is selling American secret codes.

The Vienna backdrop and the chemistry between Eli and Maria makes this book a fun read. One thing I love about Diana Biller's books is that I always learn something new. She puts so much history into her books and it always makes me want to learn more. I would highly recommend this book!

Great story if you don't mind skimming over the unnecessary and explicit sex scenes. I received a copy from #NetGalley for review. It was a REALLY GOOD book. The plot moved right along, the characters were interesting, the world building of 1870's Vienna was awesome. The sex scenes came out of nowhere and were G R A P H I C. I don't think they were necessary and added nothing to the plot other than to shock. The book was excellent until I had to skip over page after page. 3 stars.