 Characters and settings that enchant! |
| Review Date: September 18, 2003 |
| Reviewer: S. Gould, Woodmere, NY United States |
| Elizabeth Adler has once again created a story that vividly transports its reader to an exotic site allowing one to believe they've actually visited. "The Hotel Riviera", an aging eight room villa, sits nestled on a sandy beach near Saint Tropez. Its proprietor and chef, Lola Laforet, quietly caters to the needs of her small but adoring group of guests while her personal life unravels. Her husband, Patrick, has gone missing and the police suspect her of offing him. Several unscrupulous people have approached her claiming to be owed large sums from her missing husband and seeking ownership of her beloved Hotel Riviera. Just when she thinks things can be no worse help comes in the form of an enigmatic but handsome drifter and sailor who has dropped anchor in her bay. Jack Farrar seems too good to be true but he is always there when Lola needs him, and along with her assorted guests they tackle the problem of finding Patrick and saving the Hotel Riviera. Adler skillfully develops her plot and characters, slowly revealing small histories and traits until you find you have grown thoroughly attached and entirely too fond of them. It is almost as if you are leaving friends when the story has ended, but the trip is truly worthwhile. |
A Lot of Vacation for Your Buck
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| Review Date: March 9, 2004 |
| Reviewer: Mamalinde, Dallas |
| Where else but in the wonderful world of books can you escape the wintry world and stay in an intimate hotel on the coast of France, where the sun shines and the moon glows over the cove? The guests might arrive by dinghy, or motorcycle or more conventional transportation. Lola, transplanted American hostess welcomes her guests and treats them to culinary wonders each evening on the terrace over looking the shimmering sea. But all is not well at the Hotel Riveria, Lola's husband Patrick having disappeared without a trace and the police (who were initially reluctant to investigate the missing husband) are now eyeing Lola suspiciously. Add to this a Queenly British guest, a naked man from an anchored sloop, a greedy millionaire on an enormous yacht, and a sleek and sexy "childhood friend" of the missing husband - as well as a couple of loving pets and the formula moves from languid vacation to international intrigue. A delightful escape/fairy tale and an author who knows how to bring a beautiful painting to life. |
Revel in the Sensual Pleasures of the Riviera
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| Review Date: November 5, 2003 |
| Reviewer: Antoinette Klein, Hoover, Alabama USA |
| Elizabeth Adler has penned one of her warmest and most sensual novels and set it in the exquisite south of France. Lola Laforet, the endearing heroine, has been desserted by her handsome husband and left as the gourmet chef of a quaint Riviera auberge they had owned. Things become increasingly intense when police suspect Lola of her husband's murder, a handsome American ex-patriate docks his boat in her harbor, and a very Miss Marple-like guest takes a motherly interest in Lola. If you like your wine cool and your men hot, you will thorougly enjoy this romp through a maze of ex-lovers, people with secret agendas, and endearing pets who settle comfortably into your heart. Beyond all the romance and intrigue we have come to expect from Elizabeth Adler, it is the utterly delicious descriptions of the food that will delight the reader. Mouth-watering recipes will leave you wishing for your own romantic getaway to the Riviera. But beware, once you meet the delightful characters in this one, you will be sad to say au revoir. |
A cozy book with a very apt depiction of the south of France
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| Review Date: February 26, 2004 |
| Reviewer: N. Cox, |
| The Hotel Riviera is a wonderful read. The author's descriptions of the south of France are very accurate. I live in Europe so I can say that! Her descriptions of gourmet foods were wonderful and mouthwatering so I was enjoying this book before I ever got to the romance. However, I was not let down by the romance between Lola and Jack or the mystery surrounding her husband. An excellent and fun read. Better than comfort food! |
What Fun
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| Review Date: April 3, 2008 |
| Reviewer: A. Roberts, Wyoming |
| If you're looking for a book just to read for fun, this is it. The characters are great (even a villainess you'll love to hate). There's a fun romance between Jack and Lola. You will love the older lady, Miss Nightingale. She is just a delight. There is humor, the mystery of a missing husband, lots of good food (I know I gained a pound or two just reading the menu's)and of course the romance. We musn't forget the animals; a pet chicken named Scramble and then there is Bad Dog and at the end a kitten named Chocolate. I found the whole book just great entertainment for a few hours. If you're feeling down and need a lift, pick up "The Hotel Riviera" at your library or order it off of Amazon. Enjoy! I did! |
One of Adler's best
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| Review Date: May 12, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Carol J. Schweitzer, California, KY USA |
| I've read quite a few of Adler's books and I really liked this one a lot. A novel idea was having Lola narrate the story occasionally, as if she were talking to us. Made it seem personal. Of course, I love the beautiful scenery and interesting characters, too. If you're wanting to transport yourself to somewhere warmer, sunnier and lovelier, you can't go wrong with one of Adler's books. |
Loved it!
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| Review Date: July 29, 2010 |
| Reviewer: M. C Gillette, Johnsburg, NY |
| This is the book that made me fall in love with the author! Her rich descriptions made you wish you were there.I just love it when she goes into exquisite detail, whether describing an evening menu or the interior of an old hotel. |
Curly, Carrot-Top Chef With Jasmine & Cream. Beauty I Dream.
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| Review Date: December 6, 2005 |
| Reviewer: Linda G. Shelnutt, Hotchkiss, CO USA |
Dis iz da place if you want to explore:
Sensitive, sauntering sensuality, babbling beauty (as in the symbolic brook, not the flapping mouth)... globetrotters taking up residence anywhere around or in (Yacht) the Mediterranean. The "Home" in your feet baring beaches in Saint-Tropez.
At the end of last August I began reading my first Elizabeth Adler novel, THE HOTEL RIVERA. Most reviews of Adler's novels praise them as pleasantly fluffy, romantic suspense set in exotic getaways. To me, THR definitely has an artistically melancholy, literary feel. I was happy to discover that it didn't down-track into the typically dark or depressing enhancements of "lit-er-a-ture." It edged there at times, with good taste, but thankfully it never fell torturously into the sordid, sourest swamps of despair which too often permeate a book touted as "A Great American Novel."
Almost didn't pick up the book, even though the beginning pages (Amazon's handy "see inside this book") were a good capture due to the vivid feel of the hotel and the main character being a chef (reminding me of Claire Johnson's BEAT UNTIL STIFF, see my review). It appeared that THR might work easily into a culinary mystery series, though I didn't know if it would manifest a murder in the plot, and, as Amazon's buying pages indicated, Adler's available published works appeared to be single mainstream novels slanted to the commercial literary end.
While pro & conning THE HOTEL RIVERIA, I began getting ideas (oh no, not that surge again) for book jacket blurbs for my mystery pilot, dealing with its mainstream angle. What cinched my "Yes" choice for THR was the picture of Adler on the back flap. She photo shoots as a happy-go-lucky, genuinely warm, unjaded, unhyped person. I thought, "No one can look that honestly, easily happy and write an alcoholic-hazed, classic downer."
At the end of November, I returned to finish reading THE HOTEL RIVIERA, hoping it would ease the escape-fiction-addiction panic I felt after finishing my ARC of Pence's RED HOT MURDER a coup among mystery series, while I was waiting for delivery of Barbara Workinger's SHOOFLY PIE TO DIE (see my review of the pilot, IN DUTCH AGAIN). I had no doubt that Shoofly would fill the Royal Gorge gap of finishing one of those fiction winners so far beyond the best they don't have to race.
I was not in the mood for the typically melancholy/sensual, sing-songy voice with "what-is-this-life" questioned in every other word, which often underlies classic literary fiction. However, I did anticipate pleasantly the globetrotter ambiance of THE HOTEL RIVERIA, with its tangy tinge of "no-place-like-home" underlying the glitz, glamor, and goodies. I knew I would feel pampered to receive, from the cush of my easy chair, travel tidbits like, according to Adler, in France one must arrive at a lunch destination before ten to two; yet, in Italy one (if you're a woman) can get lunch anytime. My eyebrows scrunched slightly as I recalled the seated-through-ages, daily siesta, a religiously rendered habit of a 2-4 pm pause (if my recall is correct on time-frame), when all keepers close shop, as my Italian college prof had confirmed was still a practiced luxury in his country
(Okay already; that particular university sojourn when I was majoring in Foreign Languages occurred at the end of the 60's; I don't know if the afternoon siesta is currently in action throughout Italy. How should I know at this point in my life, in which I'm stuck on a Godot pause, and where/who the Heck IS that guy?)
Actually, it was "Thank God" easy to slip into THR's sauntering, simmering lifestyle. I was intrigued by the contrast in strutting-through-life venues of the good guys Vs the losers (who would kill their spouses to secure a high-life, designer-garbed, jet-setting, globetrotting routine, doing nothing of consequence except beauty maintenance, and wallowing in empty "pleasures"). The losers in THR were so misguided, and edged with such ennui they never developed enough charge to quite feel "Evil," which, from my perspective is a characterization coup for an author to accomplish in this case. Great job getting the dark-side of the jet-set right in their lazy ways, Adler.
Even so, smoky, slithering hints of embedded evil worked through the plot and edged every word and page with a low-ebb, nearly subliminal terror. When that sense of unease underlies a life of "ease"; and when a heightened sensuality is deftly slathered throughout the plot, the effect poofs a feather-tic-bed with tiny pins and nails. I suppose that's why the sensuality in this novel was so melancholically unsettling (which is a good carry-the-reader-onward ploy for escape fiction)... until Lola snuggled into Miss Nightingale's cottage (snuggling is good, too).
Arriving at Mollie Nightingale's classic Cotswold cottage felt like going "heel-clicking" home to Kansas, with The Riviera, Saint-Tropez, and globetrotter "Destinations" contrasting as an off-set Oz. In a way this novel is a kaleidoscope of lifestyles which ooze from more style than life; to life in style; to more life than style; to life, love, and cozy contentment in which style is so natural it would be termed "shabby-chic" in Architectural Digest. I'll take that! Done did.
Of course the kaleidoscope of potent and penetrating edges of this range-of-emotion and scenic rapture richly succeeded in giving a sensually-paced, engrossing read of high entertainment. Please take any bumbling review prose on this novel as high praise (no underhand intended) rather than as subtle intimations of criticism. Adler paints Mona Lisa masterpieces with words. Don't doubt it. Any reader of her work is guaranteed to be immersed in an easy flow around wealth in exotic environments; to wallow in complex emotional fluctuation; to revel in deep, dark mystery; and to take possession of vivid, visceral characters.
One of my favorite lines, due to its cheering effect in context, was spoken by Miss. Nightingale:
"Good riddance to bad rubbish."
I've never read or heard that expression posed or placed more "thumbs up" perfectly.
Maybe one could say that THR is less a story and more a sensual feast. Yum. Its type of sensuality is graceful, delicate, engaging all five senses rather than relying exclusively on simmering, slithering sexuality, as the word has come to mean.
Elizabeth appears to have a sensual soul with Architectural Digest class, dichotomized with a surprising quick-charge capacity to pack the action, as exposed especially through the novel's resolution. Wow. Those spicy-go scenes were hot, fast, gritty, and riveting. Loved the "old" lady speed demon with highly honed driving skill trying to save the day, with a bit of help from unexpected sources.
As an added bonus to the action-packed scenes in the novel's resolution, the reader was given a soothing awareness of the growth and intimacy gifted through the rigors of loss and death. Through the apres-denouement, quiet, wind-down scenes, tentative answers were posed for souls who are so restless any feeling of HOME is fleeting; its seeding flounders on the hard, dry granite of ungrounded pleasure and unearned or un-manifested glory.
Somehow the concluding contemplations in THR reminded me of a short story I wrote in the early 70's (my first rejection from Atlantic Monthly), titled, "I Can Wait."
The story revolved around a 5-yr-old boy, Tommy John, who was the dramatization of an author trying to rid herself of impatience, and playing with literary wings by putting her difficult personality into a young boy instead of a girl. I had asked myself what would be the best "thing" to help slow the restlessness, to release the painful, nervous pushing of time. I wanted to help others, along with me, escape the rush, absolutely, before it was too late. Sadly, I realized what would work in ultimate, final effect.
Throughout the story I spotlighted Tommy's youthful exuberance as it rushed to repeat, "I can't wait `till..." I dramatized his speeding, nervous character by not allowing him to settle into in any single moment. The closest he came to alighting in the present, the warmest spot in the boy's heart was fueled by visits with his bedridden grandfather, who once paused perfectly to say:
"You have to stop once, Tommy John, to start living."
When the grandfather peacefully expired, from one soft breath-to-the-next, with the boy's hand resting in the large, wrinkled palm of his elder, the boy said through tears, "Please stay, Grampa. I can wait."
Adler can do Literary Classic with just the right limelight twists to blend it successfully into the high entertainment sought in escape novels. THE HOTEL RIVERIA got me through the overwhelming grieving process of having finished the intensely satisfying read of Pence's RED HOT MURDER, to be published February, 2006. As noted, blessed with an ARC, I've already read RHM; I'll will post my review as soon as it's finished and Amazon's buying page is set up to receive Customer Reviews. I can wait.
Now I know why I paused in the reading of THR. A time was coming when I would desperately need its final quarter of pages of sensually sauntering style.
Pence, Adler, Workinger, and Johnson. All 4 are authors of consequence with dramatically different literary voices. All 4 know and show where the heart lives, as they reveal a variety of riveting road-maps to The Source.
If the eyes are the window to the soul, the great voices of literature provide gateways there; for a moment in time, between the pages of a novel, words breathe and dance in the fertile mind of a reader.
Ching, ching, ching, ching, clop, clop, clop ...
Iiii''''lllll be hooooommmme for Chriiiistmas ...
In all seasons, I'll be reading good books by the glow of lamplight, or through the perfect slant of sunlight,
Linda G. Shelnutt
P.S. Tis the season; see my review of MISTLETOE & MAYHEM, by Joanne Pence & 3 other fabulous authors. Also, in ironically intriguing contrast to the warmth of lamplight and printed words, see my review of THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE, Marshall McLuhan.
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delightful contemporary romance
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| Review Date: September 4, 2003 |
| Reviewer: Harriet Klausner, |
| American expatriate Lola LaForet manages the eight-room HOTEL RIVIERA located near St. Tropez, France. She also cooks for her guests, many of whom are repeat customers. Six years ago she married Patrick before learning he was a womanizer who enjoyed the nightlife. Six months ago, Patrick left to buy Lola a birthday present, but never returned home. Lola looks out to the sea only to see a naked male with a beautiful woman on his sloop, the Bad Dog. The nude hunk, Jack Farrar realizes that a beautiful voyeur has been ogling him. Unable to resist he comes to the Hotel Riviera to meet his peeping Tomato. From that first encounter, he and Lola quickly find they are very attracted to one an another and begin to fall in love. However, the police find Patrick's abandoned vehicle and believe that Lola killed him. Though the intrigue involving Patrick is fun to follow, readers visiting the HOTEL RIVIERA will enjoy the romantic relationship between the lead duo told in the first person. The cast is a sound substantial group that provides further insight into the prime pair especially guests at the hotel. Fans of a contemporary romance with a relatively late touch of suspense will take much delight with a trip to the Riviera. Harriet Klausner |
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