by Anita Hughes
Publisher: St Martin's Griffin
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
Buy the Book: Amazon
Goodreads: It’s Christmas week when 26-year-old Sabrina Post knocks on the door of the Vanderbilt suite at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, ready to accept the ghostwriting position for the memoir of Grayson Westcott—a famous art dealer.
A struggling journalist, Sabrina can't believe her luck: a paycheck and six nights in her own suite at the Plaza. She feels like Eloise, the heroine from her favorite children’s books. To make the job even more exciting, Grayson recounts how he worked as a butler at the Plaza sixty years ago for none other than the author of the Eloise books, Kay Thompson.
What promises to be a perfect week is complicated when Sabrina meets Ian Wentworth, a handsome British visitor, at the hotel bar. When Ian assumes Sabrina is another wealthy guest at the hotel, she doesn’t correct him —a decision she doesn’t regret after learning that Ian is a member of the British aristocracy. But, things are not what they seem. The truth is: Ian is not a wealthy lord; he’s actually the personal secretary of Lord Spencer Braxton.
As the week unfolds, will Sabrina and Ian learn the truth about one another?
Kritters Thoughts: Sabrina Post is an aspiring writer. She enters the Plaza Hotel to be a ghost writer for Grayson Westcott who is a famous art dealer, but there is more to him than his current job description. While at the hotel, she runs into this guy who intrigues her, but the reader of the book knows the truth behind this guy that she is spending her time with. Ian is at the Plaza hotel with a college friend who has also become weirdly his employer as he works for a foundation that is in the name of his friend's last name as he is an European Lord.
Both Ian and Sabrina don't know the truth about each other and this goes on throughout the whole book and while that got a bit old for me, it was entertaining. Their story had great ups and downs and was quite the journey throughout the book. While there may have been a moment or two where I sweetly rolled my eyes as I knew the truth that neither of them did, it never made me want to put the book down.
There is another storyline going on as Sabrina is meeting with Grayson and hearing his stories, so she can write his memoir. I loved how seamlessly the book moves into his stories and of course, I loved that they were labeled, so the reader knows when we are headed into the past. Grayson's stories were so great to go back in time in the Plaza hotel as he tells his story and I loved reading his origin story.
While I loved this romance book, for me it honestly could have taken place at any time of the year and I didn't see as much holiday seasonal spirit as I would have hoped. There was some chatter about the holidays and some activities, but when I read a holiday romance, I like the holiday cheer packed in every page!
Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row
Ebook 2021 Challenge: 148 out of 100
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of this book free of charge from HarperCollins. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.