The Thousand Lights Hotel

Kit has lost her mother. She was the only person Kit had in the whole world, she was the focus of everything and it was always them against the world.

With this tragedy still very much in her mind, Kit suddenly decides that she wants to find out more about where her mother came from and more importantly who her father was or is.

This sudden need to hold onto something and ground Kit has brought her to the island of Elba and The Thousand Light Hotel, so-called because of a local legend which is celebrated in the year. It is this which gives Kit, a travel writer the opportunity to actually have a valid reason to be there and not to be just looking for something she has lost.

I was transported to Elba, to the beautiful hotel, the intense heat and warmth of the sun. The sea as it was calm in the morning as Kit went to break the surface, to wake herself up, to find what she was looking for. Even down to food and the welcome that hotel gives. It was liking reading a holiday brochure but one with depth, feeling and so much of a back  story. That is the beauty of the author's writing, you are immediately transported to wherever she chooses to take you and she weaves a story that I knew was going to capture me just as the heat of the island itself.

This is a book which is gentle, meandering if you will, in the heat of the day as you cool off in the pool, enjoy aperitif before dinner and beautiful fresh food to round your lazy day off.  However it delivered some unforeseen twists and turns which is why I kept reading the novel, I knew that this could not possibly be the end of the story for Kit.

A lovely read which transports you and also one that made me go and read more about a place. If there was ever a book that seriously made me want to go and visit a place, this was it.

Interestingly enough, I have covered very little about the plot in this review. I think that is because you need to know that Kit goes to Elba, to find out about her father, if I say any more I feel that the prior knowledge you have will impact your actually enjoyment of the book. Like an unknown destination when you go on holiday, I think this is a book where you need to discover as you turn the page with nothing to influence you.  

Enjoy as I did.

The tangled webs we weave …

Kit has been led to believe her father is dead and yet finding the courage to ask her mum Rosa one more time about him as her mum lies terminally ill, she finds out he didn’t. Leaving the hospital with the letters, she is able to trace him and using her job as a travel writer as a screen, travels to Elba to see if she can piece things together.

Valentino has been on Elba for nearly 30 years, in the beginning renovating a building that becomes the popular Hotel Mille Luci. His reason for being is looking after his guests. Knowing before they do what they want and then doing his utmost in providing it. His son, 30 yo Oliviero creates amazing dishes in the kitchen using local produce. He’s popular with guests but always keeps his distance.

There is so much to enjoy about this story. The setting is magnificent. The food, customs and guests of Hotel Mille Luci all combine to make you feel as if you’re pace of life has slowed down, having escaped from the daily routine. Fabulous characters and the intrigue and mystery … trying to figure out what Valentino and Oliviero are hiding and not acknowledging but powerful enough to have shaped their lives. And then there’s Kit with the legacy from her mum who didn’t believe in love and reinforced the message that they didn’t need a man in their lives. A lonely character who is trying to find roots and who needs to belong, to know the truth. Who needs that connection to ‘other.’

There are a couple of twists in the story too! The first one I didn’t see coming and to be honest, I only realised the truth of the second because of Oliviero’s dilemma. It wouldn’t have crossed my mind otherwise!

Emylia Hall’s writing is powerful – not the words themselves but how she uses those words. They give a reader everything they need to build that image, to become that person, to experience whatever it is alongside the characters. Effortlessly it seems I become involved with the story from the beginning until I am the story. That’s powerful. That’s what I call magic 🙂