Hotel Portofino

Hotel Portofino by J. P. O’Connell 376 pages

I don’t remember where I first saw the cover of this novel, but I was intrigued. On learning that it was not only to be made into a six-part PBS series (which is airing now), it also checked all the boxes on why I pickup a book---FABULOUS cover, historical fiction (set in the 1920s) and takes place in Italy (the Italian Riviera to be precise). It’s gotta be great, right?

Wrong! For me, this book was utterly disappointing. I’m enjoy character-driven stories, but each of these characters lacked depth or they were caricatures of what a such-and-such person should be like.

Bella Ainsworth opened the luxurious Hotel Portofino a few weeks ago, and the visitors are beginning to arrive. From their first glances, the guests look down their noses at what is described as a state-of-the-art, modern as possible, hotel.

Besides the hard-to-please guests, Bella is juggling a lot of other physically and emotionally draining events. Her marriage to Cecil is on the rocks. He comes across as slimy and supports Danionin, an equally slimy politician who thinks Mussolini is a rock star.

Their son, Lucian, is recovering from the Great War; I’m surmising that is suffers from PTSD, or shell shock as they would have called it. Bella has a potential bride coming to make his acquaintance.

Their daughter, Alice, is a nervous wreck and a people pleaser. Not sure about her at all.

I had a lot of trouble differentiating between each of the guest; they are interchangeable.

Plus, I would have never truly figured out the time setting as it is never mentioned, except on the back cover

The descriptions of the setting, the Italian Riviera were gorgeous though, which is why “Hotel Portofino” receives 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world instead of one. I’ve been recording the PBS series, and now I’m sacred to watch it, but this might be the one time that a movie is better than the book.