The weakest of the three but still entertaining....
Anton Du Beke, King of the Strictly ballroom, television personality and now best selling author, continues his elegant Mayfair based, Buckingham Hotel series with “A Christmas to Remember.”
London 1938. As the threat of war looms ever closer, the Buckingham Hotel's difficulties grow. Still reeling from the events of last year, the staff of the Buckingham will have to struggle to keep up the hotel's glamorous reputation. However, beneath the glitz of the ballroom lies a thousand secrets and some are about to be revealed.
I’ve loved this series since the first one back in 2018 and fell in love with the wonderfully endearing characters. Anton’s passion for the 1930’s and his love of dance, glitz and glamour shine positively throughout the series and really does transport you to a completely different era. If this is your first visit to the Buckingham Hotel, I’m sure that you could quite easily read this as a stand-alone. However, due to the many diverse characters private lives and their past histories, I do believe more enjoyment would come from reading the books in order. In particular this book “A Christmas to Remember” follows Raymond Du Guise and his wife to be,Nancy Nettleton and also Vivienne Edgerton (step daughter to Lord Edgerton) and her activities at the ‘Daughters of Salvation’ homeless shelter. Both of these threads featured throughout the first two books and in my opinion the reader would benefit from starting them in order to understand the situations they are in now or how the relationships have developed.
If I was to be critical however, this was for me the weakest story of the three books and a little disappointing. Although the character development was still strong, the ambience I felt previously didn’t exist this time and I felt slightly let down by it.
Saying this, I’m sure Anton’s legion of hard core fans will love it and older readers who enjoy a gentle, heartwarming tale set in the 1930’s but on this occasion it didn’t hit the mark for me. I can only hope, if there’s a next instalment, we return to the Buckingham with its flamboyancy once again next year and the Grand Ballroom ignites with the passion and the exuberance it deserves.
3 stars
London 1938. As the threat of war looms ever closer, the Buckingham Hotel's difficulties grow. Still reeling from the events of last year, the staff of the Buckingham will have to struggle to keep up the hotel's glamorous reputation. However, beneath the glitz of the ballroom lies a thousand secrets and some are about to be revealed.
I’ve loved this series since the first one back in 2018 and fell in love with the wonderfully endearing characters. Anton’s passion for the 1930’s and his love of dance, glitz and glamour shine positively throughout the series and really does transport you to a completely different era. If this is your first visit to the Buckingham Hotel, I’m sure that you could quite easily read this as a stand-alone. However, due to the many diverse characters private lives and their past histories, I do believe more enjoyment would come from reading the books in order. In particular this book “A Christmas to Remember” follows Raymond Du Guise and his wife to be,Nancy Nettleton and also Vivienne Edgerton (step daughter to Lord Edgerton) and her activities at the ‘Daughters of Salvation’ homeless shelter. Both of these threads featured throughout the first two books and in my opinion the reader would benefit from starting them in order to understand the situations they are in now or how the relationships have developed.
If I was to be critical however, this was for me the weakest story of the three books and a little disappointing. Although the character development was still strong, the ambience I felt previously didn’t exist this time and I felt slightly let down by it.
Saying this, I’m sure Anton’s legion of hard core fans will love it and older readers who enjoy a gentle, heartwarming tale set in the 1930’s but on this occasion it didn’t hit the mark for me. I can only hope, if there’s a next instalment, we return to the Buckingham with its flamboyancy once again next year and the Grand Ballroom ignites with the passion and the exuberance it deserves.
3 stars