A beautiful and captivating sequel!
I adored Anton Du Beke’s debut novel and couldn’t wait to venture once again in to the world of The Buckingham Hotel. The beautiful and detailed descriptions make the hotel and all of its incredible characters come to life. I really loved the setting of 1937 in London and learnt so much about the historical climate at this time.
The lives of the much loved characters from Anton’s debut are cleverly interwoven with some new additions, some of whom are not quite as charming as they first seem. I found this really added to the drama and intrigue of the story. I also particularly liked how the prologue in only two pages set the scenes of a fire in the famous Grand Ballroom with a call for help being made to Raymond de Guise, the lead male demonstration dancer at the Buckingham Hotel. It was very clever having a final cliff-hanger sentence of “So he plunges into the fire...” before rewinding eight months earlier to April 1937 for Chapter One.
The developing world of dance really shone through too, especially when Raymond returns from America having learnt of the Jitterbug and the Jive during his time across the pond. The joy and freedom of these dances was so clear to see and I loved how one of the new characters really took to the world of dance and learnt so much from Raymond.
Once again, I have really enjoyed my time at The Buckingham Hotel and cannot wait to return to this magical world after learning that a third book is on the horizon!
The lives of the much loved characters from Anton’s debut are cleverly interwoven with some new additions, some of whom are not quite as charming as they first seem. I found this really added to the drama and intrigue of the story. I also particularly liked how the prologue in only two pages set the scenes of a fire in the famous Grand Ballroom with a call for help being made to Raymond de Guise, the lead male demonstration dancer at the Buckingham Hotel. It was very clever having a final cliff-hanger sentence of “So he plunges into the fire...” before rewinding eight months earlier to April 1937 for Chapter One.
The developing world of dance really shone through too, especially when Raymond returns from America having learnt of the Jitterbug and the Jive during his time across the pond. The joy and freedom of these dances was so clear to see and I loved how one of the new characters really took to the world of dance and learnt so much from Raymond.
Once again, I have really enjoyed my time at The Buckingham Hotel and cannot wait to return to this magical world after learning that a third book is on the horizon!