Maria Wallner is trying to keep her hotel running while turning it back into the dazzling gem it used to be. Not an easy task since her mother ran it into the ground, focused more on her love affair than the hotel or even her daughter. But sabotage and attempts on Maria’s life hinder her efforts.

Eli is sent from the US to Vienna to find out who leaked top secret codes. A suspicious letter was sent from the Hotel Wallner and so he goes there in an undercover mission to investigate. The codes aren’t the only mystery, though. When Eli saves Maria’s life he is compelled to find out who’s behind the attempts to kill her and rule Maria out as a suspect in the espionage plots, as well.

Hotel of Secrets was magical! The writing beautifully described an old world, glamorous Vienna. Maria and her tribe of friends and family were so much fun. Maria is independent and resourceful, forever working out a solution to the many problems that hinder her goals of restoring the hotel to its former glory. Loved that even though she had a mission, she didn’t forget her family and friends.

Eli was focused and methodical in his job and investigations. It was refreshing that Eli was the inexperienced one in the romance department, but that didn’t stop him from using his attention to details and focus into research and he was a quick, thorough study! Maria and Eli’s romance was fun, open, and honest, but also very passionate and sensual! It was spicy, but not overdone. Also enjoyed Eli’s relationship with Maria’s brother, Mac and the French spy, Claude. They were a hoot!

I alternately read an e-copy and listened to the audio version of Hotel of Secrets, and I highly recommend either version! Carlotta Brentan narrated the story, and her accents were lovely! Her performance definitely enhanced this captivating romance! I listened at my usual 1.5x normal speed.

A captivating story of love, intrigue and history in the 1870’s Austro-Hungarian imperial capital of Vienna. Owned and run by 5 generations of Wallner woman, the grand Hotel Wallner was originally given to the first Wallner as a parting gift by the Emperor to his mistress. Since then, three things are constants, the Wallner women never marry, they discreetly take lovers, and they faithfully write in the hotel’s diary everyday.…recording who they saw, what they heard and all the various goings on of Viennese nobility, wealthy and powerful. Kept hidden for obvious reasons, the content of these diaries protect the Wallner’s and their grand hotel from menace and the ever shifting landscape of Viennese power. But the Hotel Wallner has fallen on hard times. After a number of economic downturns and rebellions in the empire, and the horrible management of the previous Wallner, the current manager, Maria Wallner is struggling to keep her family’s legacy afloat and restore it to it’s former glory. She loves the hotel and is tireless in her efforts, even cleaning rooms herself if needed. Maria’s mother has been mistress to a feckless and weak nobleman for over thirty years and, despite his wife and three children, he is Maria’s father but he has never been in her life. Eli Whitakker is a US Treasury agency sent on a mission to Vienna to sort out the leak the American ligation. He has secrets, a tragic past and a strict “black and white” view of everything. Eli stays at the Wallner and is drawn into Maria’s hotel restoration efforts, passions and attempts made on her life. Sexy and intriguing with a marvelous sense of time and place….I couldn’t stop listening to it…..a terrific audiobook.

This book felt a little confused about what it strived to be at the end of the day, which was very much reflective of the contrast between the title + cover (historical fiction) and book description (historical romance). On one hand, the title + cover illustrated the first half of the book quite well: a glamorous ball, secrets, spies, mystery, and intriguing generational family dynamics set against a late 1800s Viennese hotel backdrop with a dash of romantic flair. On the other hand, the historical romance from the blurb overshadowed the bulk of the second half, with every plot point taking a backseat until the eleventh hour revelations.

Yes, I’m complaining about the romance as a romance reader, it just wasn’t balanced in a cohesive and complementary way. First, I didn’t feel anything in the chemistry department. But mostly, I didn’t like how modern the characterization of the MCs felt. If I didn’t know any better I might have predicted a time traveling plot twist.

To add a few cherries on top: the spies really sucked at the whole espionage bit, the villains were caricaturistic, and there was so much “telling” about the most amazing balls in the entire world but the reader only ever got to experience a tiny snippet at the very beginning and the tail end. Overall this started well but lost me along the way.

Audio: 👍🏼 (liked)
Narrated by Carlotta Brentan

Thank you to the publisher for the advance reader copies via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

Hotel of Secrets is a delightful historical fiction/romance that truly rides the line between these two genres; there's plenty of mystery and drama for the Kate Quinn crowd, but enough swoony emotion for, say, Lenora Bell fans. If anything, the narrative gets a little weighed down by too much family history from the Wallner clan; it's difficult to keep track of everyone until allegiances are made obvious toward the end of Act II.

Carlotta Brentan does a marvelous job with the various European and American accents in this book, particularly given the gargantuan secondary cast. Like Saskia Maarleveld, Brentan brings a certain sensuality to her female leads that, in this case, made Maria all the more delightful.

Diana Biller has already shown us house, renovations in Gilded Age, New York, backstage ballet drama at the Paris Opera House, and now she takes us on a tour of the glamorous Ball Season in 1870’s Vienna!

In Hotel of Secrets, we are introduced to Maria Wallner, the manager of the her family legacy, the Hotel Wallner. She has put everything she has into bringing the hotel back to its glory after an economic, crash and poor management from her mother left it in disrepair. Along with that, she has been actively hiding from “The Man”. The prophesied man who will be the father of her daughter, continuing the Wallner line and will eventually break her heart.

Eli Whittaker has been banished on a mission to Vienna from the US State Department to investigate the theft of sensitive US codes. He works for the Treasury Board and has no idea why he has been sent but when he runs into the enigmatic hotel manager, he finds his own reasons to be in Vienna .

Maria is worried that Eli will turn out to be the man and tries to keep them at arms length. While Eli keeps coming to her rescue as mysterious accidents and attacks start to occur at the hotel auntie Maria!

Eli was the quiet, starchy hero that you just can’t help falling for! He was always there supporting and rescuing when needed. Maria, those strong and independent, really showed her character by excepting that she needed Eli just as much as he ends up, needing her!

Being set in a hotel, this book was filled with fun secondary characters from the guests, to the workers and friends, to Maria’s family. All together with the encompassing Vienna ball scene. This story was so captivating.

One last thought, is that I still don’t know if this book is directly linked to the last two (The Widow of Rose Hall & The Brightest Star in Paris). Those two books had a family relation that was obvious, and a supernatural element. I could not connect a relationship between the books and there were no supernatural elements.

The narration provided by Carlotta Brentan was an excellent match for this book. Her accent work fit the story and characters perfectly. I enjoyed her use of varying accents for the different characters and found at some points I was questioning if we had multiple narrators working on this! Her pacing was smooth, and her transitions between points of view, and characters was obvious and well done. Generation added to the story and created another element to this book.

Overall, this is a delightful, historical escape, with a beautiful and well-deserved romance!


Thanks to Dreamscape Media for this listening copy. Opinions are my own.

Hotel of Secrets by Diane Biller
Historical drama with mystery and romance.
Maria Wallner is third generation owner and manager of the Hotel Wallner in Venice. The hotel has fallen on difficult times and business is down. Maria is trying to get a bank loan to refurbish the hotel but with business down and hard times all over in 1877, they aren’t lending. Strange accidents are befalling Maria and foreign agent Eli Whittaker has come to Maria’s rescue. Eli is smitten with Maria but really just wants to find the spy who is selling secrets and go back home.

An intriguing family drama and mystery with a steamy romance thrown in. It moves quickly as the mystery is drawn deeper and the characters get depth with history and unexpected problems.

🎧 I alternated between an ecopy and an audiobook. The narration was done by Carlotta Brenton who did a wonderful job with voice variances, emotional expression and timing. I especially liked her voice for Maria. It seemed to bring her to life. The passion in the story was done with a breathlessness that truly had me mesmerized.
I listened to the audio at a speed of 1.5 which is my preferred.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley and Dreamscape Media

I wish I enjoyed this more. I have heard good things about the story, but I was bored. I thought this was going to be more of a historical fiction / suspense story with spies, but it ended up being a romance set in Vienna in the 1870’s. Maria is running a hotel that has been passed down from generation to generation. She is trying to restore it to its former glory and status when she comes across the opportunity to host a ball. Eli, an American spy who is staying at the hotel, saves her life and their lives become intertwined. Even with the romance, the spicy parts were not good. I didn’t understand why Maria and Eli were into each other. There was just no spark. This book may be more for those who truly like romance. It just wasn’t for me.

🎧Audiobook Review📘

Happy pub day to Hotel of Secrets! My friend @meggatzabookclub reviewed this ARC a while back and I was able to snag the audiobook when it came up on @netgalley recently. Thank you to @dreamscape_media and Netgalley for the ALC.

I have had the absolute worst reading slump this past month. I can count on one hand how many books I’ve read this month and I’m currently 11 books behind on my reading schedule according to Goodreads. 😜 I needed a comfort book and I needed it fast.

Romance novels always give me warm fuzzies and this one was no different. Let’s set the mood for 1877 Vienna and take an owner/hotel manager plus an American foreign agent that have a crackling chemistry together. Maria is simply trying to keep her family hotel afloat when her mother almost destroyed it. Single-minded Eli only wants to solve who is selling American secret codes across Europe.

This book has a trope you don’t normally see…Eli has never met a woman he has wanted to do more than simply talk to, so he’s a virgin. An extremely attractive and professionally successful virgin. Then, you have the sexually experienced Viennese hotelier who just happens to also be gorgeous.

The dynamic between these two was a joy to listen to, Eli was especially entertaining in parts. The plot was a bit more developed than I had anticipated, which I appreciated. Though, I did like how it was tied up in a nice little bow at the end.

I definitely recommend this one for anyone looking for a good romance novel on audio. Especially an Italian historical fiction, which when it comes to romance historical fiction is always my favorite.

This book put me in such a reading slump because it was so good and I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days after I read it.

I can absolutely say that this is going to be one of my favorite books of the year. It was so different than anything I’ve ever read and I loved every second of it.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator was so good. This is definitely one of the best audiobooks I’ve ever listened to. As soon as I finished it I looked the narrator up so I could find more of her audiobooks. This was also my first book by this author and I’m determined to read her other books as soon as I can.

Maria was hilarious and I loved her and Eli. They were such a good match and the narration made me absolutely swoon over these two and their humor really shone through.

I loved most of the side characters, (there are several characters that are just not supposed to be likable) but even the unlikable character’s provided so much drama and intrigue to the story.

This was the first Historical Romance I have read that has taken place in Austria and I absolutely loved the setting. I really hope there will be more books that take place at the Hotel Wallner because I absolutely need to know what happens with Mac and Hannah.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media for the ALC.

Hotel of Secrets is available today.

Hotel of Secrets had all the right ingredients that should have made me a happy reader. Gran Hotel vibes. Undercover spies. Starchy virgin hero who clenches his jaw and hands around the heroine. The right idea was there, but the execution was ridiculous and chaotic.

I was already feeling discombobulated from the first chapter. It felt like I was dropped in the middle of the story and I was expected to know all the characters and their relationship with one another. It was jarring and it was incredibly difficult to keep track of all these characters dropping on me one after the other. I soldiered on because I had faith the writing would stabilize later on because I did love Diana Biller's previous two books. I was proven wrong LOL.

Hotel of Secrets did not feel like a historical romance. The author has clearly done her research on the history, but history alone does not make a good fiction story. This is just another "historical romance" with a 21st century man and woman in disguise as the main characters 🥱 There is a lot of proselytization of modern values that felt forced and did not fit the historical period at all. You can have unconventional characters in historical romance, while still keeping true to the time period. It's not rocket science 🤡 What do I know? Maybe it is rocket science 🤡 Additionally, it's difficult to get a grasp of the setting of Vienna because it's so flimsy and superficial. The only descriptor we have of Vienna is that it's a city with inhabitants who don't do any work and only party hard. Enthralling 🥱

I didn't find any of the characters likable, including Elijah and Maria. The only interesting character in this book is Johann and he appeared for two sentences only. The spy plot is a total joke—everyone figures out that Elijah is a spy at 22%🤦🏽‍♀️and it's painfully obvious who is involved in Maria's recent brushes with death. By the time the climax hit, I was just shaking my head at the ridiculousness. Listen, I can very well suspend disbelief when it's required. But I need the story and the characters to be interesting at the very least, so I can go along with the ridiculousness. On top of the unlikable characters and ridiculous story, this book glorifies cheating through multiple characters. It left such a bad taste in my mouth 🤮

I started reading this book, but then I switched to the audio at 23% just to see if it would get better. The narration is decent, but the story is still crap. I guess I just prefer Diana Biller's somber and angsty romances with lots of feels and a dash of ghostliness.

Diana Biller can do no wrong. The political intrigue was first rate, encompassing a location and upheaval I knew nothing about. But Biller does romance better than just about anyone. Fierce females and swoony males - sigh and *mwah* - chef’s kiss! And narrator Carlotta Brentan was incredible. The number of different Austrian/German accents she employed was staggering (not to mention Eli and the French spy), and yet she flowed so brilliantly from one to the next.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

I went into Hotel of Secrets expecting a historical fiction and I walked away thinking it's a modern day romance masquerading as historical.

The dialogue was too modern. A woman would not have had that much free reign in the time period; especially in regards to negotiating with banks. Men in that day had very little regard for consent. As a historical fiction snob, this hurt the entire novel.

Also the sex and virginity stuff was so cringey. I mean, it distracted from the mystery and investigation and the main plot became secondary to a guy, with a dark backstory, losing his virginity.

I wanted to love this book. I tried so hard to love this book, but it was just all wrong. Take out the abundance of sex scenes, modernize the time era and it would have been a winner. As it stands, it's not hitting the mark.

I did feel the narrator did a great job.

Thank you for access to this ARC.

It's ball season in Vienna and after having thrown a successful New Year's ball, Maria Wallner is finally starting to pull her family's legacy, the Hotel Wallner, out from the brink of ruin. And when she's offered the opportunity to host the Hotelkeepers Ball, she cannot turn it down.

Eli Whittaker is in Vienna from Washington DC to investigate whomever is selling American codes across Europe. His one lead has brought him to the doors of Hotel Wallner. Vienna is a city that is always bustling. It's too much for Eli who enjoys his easy life back in the states. He's determined to wrap this investigation up as quickly as possible.

When Eli ends up saving Maria's life on more than one occasion, he becomes intrigued by not only Maria herself, but the possibility that she has some connection to his investigation.

I thought that the narrator did a great job of bringing Maria, Eli, and the Wallner family to life. I thought the inflection on emotion throughout was done very well. Part of me wishes that we had a dual narration considering that fact that the story is told from both Eli and Maria's points of view. But really, I thought that Carlotta Brentan carried the narration really well and gave everyone their distinct voice and / or accent. With all the moving parts of the story and all the characters that interact with each others, I was never left trying to figure out who was who. This is a good one to listen to on audiobook.

I have come to highly anticipate Diana Biller's releases. She has this way of writing these engaging historical romances with often thrilling/mysterious plot points to solve, but also includes such quirkiness and levity to the characters that her books are fun. The balance between the fun and the serious is on point.

I loved the setting. In this Hotel that has been passed down through the women in the Wallner family for generations. Each chapter begins with a snippet of a journal entry from a previous Wallner matriarch and it's fun to see how these spirited women live their unconventional lives.

Maria being the newest manager of the Hotel Wallner has her work cut out for her. In her mother's hands before, the Hotel did not thrive. Her mother wasn't as interested, coupled with the political climate of the past few years, and the Hotel started to decline. Maria wants to make the Hotel Wallner the place to be and be seen. Of course, just when she thinks that she's on track to bring the Hotel back to glory, Maria is attacked and a series of terrible events befall the Hotel. Through all of this, I liked Maria's strength and determination. She's not one to get flustered easily and when one obstacle presents itself, I loved seeing her pivot to another direction. I'd call her unflappable.

Eli is a slight opposite of Maria's. He's never had the family or friendship loyalty that Maria has. He has little life beyond his work. Being in Vienna, in the middle of ball season no less, is throwing him for a loop. He used to relying on himself alone. Some of the best moments of the book are seeing him like a fish out of water being put in situations where he has to work with others or rely on someone else for information.

Honestly, I think this is the steamiest book from Diana Biller. The attraction between Eli and Maria jumps off the page and each of their interactions are perfect. I really love how they each take the other as they are. There's nothing that they try to change about each other. Instead they fit as they are into each others lives.

I liked the twisting of the mystery in this one. Diana Biller balanced everything well enough to keep the momentum going in the story, while also providing a satisfying ending.

Overall, another good read from Diana Biller. You can go wrong with her blend of historical romance.

I received an advanced listening copy of Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review, and here it is.
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☆☆☆ ½ - rounded up to 4
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Maria has brought her family's hotel back to its glory just in time for ball season in Vienna. Her family is prominent in their own way, but Maria is also the product of her mother's affairs with a high-ranking man. During the busy ball season, a mysterious American shows up, the secrets start to unravel, and romance ensues.
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I really loved the setting of Vienna in the 1800s, the mysteries, and I wasn't expecting the story to be centered on the main character's romance, but it was a happy surprise. I especially liked the spicy scenes!
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I really appreciate the strength and independence of the main female character, Maria, but I didn't connect with many of the other characters. I wish we got more information about the other women in Maria's life, I feel like there was so much to them.
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I really liked the narrator of this story! Her accents were great and very distinguishable to each character.
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Thanks to DreamscapeMedia, NetGalley, and author Diana Biller for this ALC to honestly review. Hotel of Secrets is out TODAY (March 27th, 2023)!

Happy Almost Pub Day to this beauty!

The audio book for Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller publishes TOMORROW, March 28, 2023!

Thank you to @netgalley for an ALC of this book.

Sometimes picking up a book can be like starting a relationship, and part of the way through it turns into a “it’s not you, it’s me” situation. That’s where I’m at with this book.

The story is fantastic. The narrator is stellar (those accents 😍) and I can tell when different characters are speaking, but because this is a 3 person POV split narrative, I am having an impossible time following along with the audiobook. I can’t do it. Despite the different tones and slightly different accents I just can’t keep track of it. I know what’s going on, but my brain just wants to tone it out because it can’t follow who the what is happening to.

Which is OK.

So unfortunately this audio book wasn’t a hit for me, but the story was. So I’ll be grabbing a physical copy to finish up the story.

If you can follow audiobooks, I do still highly recommend this one -the narrator is one of my favorites I’ve listened to in a long time (despite my problems with this particular format) and from what I can remember hearing the story is fantastic.

If you've been looking for a historical romance in a beautiful setting with espionage, assassins, strong female main character, grumpy/sunshine, and spicy scenes in linen closets - this book is for you!

Hotel of Secrets transports us to ball season in 1870s Vienna, Austria. The Hotel Wallner is currently managed by Maria Wallner, who wishes to bring the hotel back to its former glory. After a bit of luck, Maria's hotel is asked to host one of the biggest balls of the season. A successful ball would be just the thing (and possible last chance) she needs to revive the failing hotel.

Unfortunately, a successful ball is harder to pull off than expected due to multiple attempts on Maria's life, sabotage, and family drama. Luckily, Maria meets hotel guest Eli Whittaker, an American sent to Vienna to investigate the theft of secret codes. Eli is quiet but proves himself very useful when he starts starts saving Maria's life. Maria and Eli are opposites in many ways but prove to be the perfect pair in solving the mystery of who wants Maria dead, saving the hotel, and more.

I loved this! I really enjoyed it as an audiobook but there are a lot characters and I wish I would have had a physical copy too so I could go back and reread things easier. I still recommend as audio but keep it mind it's one that you really need to pay attention to. I LOVED Maria and Eli had been added to my list of book boyfriends.

{Thank you to @netgalley and @dreamscape_media for providing me the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.}

Wow, I loved this story! Diana Biller knows how to craft a story and make us as readers love the main characters and the side characters as well. I was hesitant to dive in when I saw the book is 13 hours long via audio and which is about 3 hours over my normal limit but the story never slowed down. It wasn't full of historical details that didn't matter. Everything we learned was important to the story and that isn't always true in historicals.

Eli Whitter is a grumpy, sad boy done right. The found family might be my favorite part of the story.

Diana Biller makes consent very sexy in this book. The way they navigate sexual experiences and conversations were done so well!

The narrator did an amazing job, she switched voices with ease and each character sound distinct.

CW; violence on the page

I really liked the narrator. They did a great job with the voices of the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC.

What a ride!

This was a fantastic historical romance woven with a mystery.

Things I loved:
GIRL POWER! Maria is a woman who knows what she wants and she works for it. She’s also not afraid of having lovers and it is refreshing!
The American. Smart, capable, but with a darker secret history.
The Hotel Wallner. A beautiful, though slightly decrepit hotel that is at the heart of the story.

Maria’s family, both blood and by choice is beautiful. Such a wonderful enjoyable book.

I kept on going back and forth if I wanted to read this book in case it was too much of a historical fiction novel, until a bookstagramer sold me on the slow burn romance and the character of Eli. So I picked up the audiobook and I was so glad I did. Eli and Maria were so swoon worthy and she for sure is an unconventional female character in the late 1800's. The mystery and espionage and Maria's family were a delight. I highly recommend.

Narrated by Carlotta Brentan I think she did an excellent job with the diverse character's voices, emotion and story telling. I enjoyed it.

I received this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this unbiased review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.