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Hotel Vendome

Review

Hotel Vendome

Heloise Martin had the immense good fortune to grow up in the upscale Hotel Vendome on East 69th Street in New York City with her doting father, Hugues, a staff of workers who took the charming little girl under their wing, and all of the advantages that money could buy.

"Steel has created a fairy tale world where happy endings are requisite, and warm and tender emotions prevail."
 

Even though her supermodel mother, Miriam Vale, ran off with a rock star and divorced her father when Heloise was only four years old, she has adjusted amazingly and loves her life with her father in the hotel. What little girl wouldn't enjoy getting her hair done in the hotel's salon, attending luxurious weddings and receptions that take place in the hotel's ballroom, and eating gourmet food ordered from the hotel restaurant and delivered by room service?

Heloise is an adorable, hardworking little girl who remains unspoiled despite all of her advantages. She walks the dog of an older hotel resident, does what she can to help the homeless, and fills in when and where she is needed at the hotel with no sense of entitlement or demands for preferential treatment.

As she grows up, Heloise knows that there's nothing she wants to do more than complete her education and run the Hotel Vendome alongside her father. As much as she hates to leave the hotel and her father and friends, she embraces the adventure of attending school in Switzerland where she rounds out her hospitality and hotel management education.

While Heloise is away, her father meets a beautiful and charming woman he'd like to share his life with. Unfortunately, he's not sure how to break the news to Heloise. Since her mother never played more than a marginal part in her life, Hugues found himself serving as both mother and father to his lovely daughter. Now he struggles with how to tell her that he's found love again. But Hugues isn't the only one with an interest in the opposite sex, and Heloise has her own romantic adventures as she matures. 

No matter what tragedies and triumphs the two generations of Martins face, they know that they can always take refuge in the one place that opens them with warm and open arms: the Hotel Vendome.

Danielle Steel fans have come to expect a certain standard when reading the novels penned by their favorite author. When they pick up HOTEL VENDOME, they won't be disappointed. Steel has created a fairy tale world where happy endings are requisite, and warm and tender emotions prevail. 

As they turn the pages of this novel with the exquisitely elegant cover, readers will enjoy taking refuge in the high-class world where movie stars, world leaders and other celebrities mingle with warm and friendly staff to create a well-rounded cast of characters who delight and entertain. Who wouldn't want to book a suite at the Hotel Vendome?

Reviewed by Amie Taylor on December 1, 2011

Hotel Vendome
by Danielle Steel

  • Publication Date: October 30, 2012
  • Genres: Fiction
  • Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Dell
  • ISBN-10: 0440245206
  • ISBN-13: 9780440245209