Tilly was a bright, outgoing little girl who liked playing with ghosts and matches. She loved fizzy drinks, swear words, fish fingers and Catholic churches, but most of all she loved living in Brighton in Queenie Malone’s magnificent Paradise Hotel with its endearing and loving family of misfits. But Tilly’s childhood was shattered when her mother sent her away from the only home she’d ever loved to boarding school with little explanation and no warning.

Now an adult, Tilda has grown into an independent woman still damaged by her mother’s unaccountable cruelty. Wary of people, her only friend is her dog, Eli. But when her mother dies, Tilda returns to Brighton and with the help of her beloved Queenie sets about unravelling the mystery of her exile from The Paradise Hotel, only to discover that her mother was not the woman she thought she knew at all …

My Thoughts:

I picked this book up because it seemed fun and I love the vibrancy of the cover. The plot sounded really good too. It is about Tilda and we see her story flit back from when she was a child to her now as a adult. It was a really interesting story that had me hooked the whole way through. Now as an adult and having lost her mother, she is clearing out her house when she discovers things that she never knew about herself and her childhood. It is a beautiful and tender story about a mother and daughter. I really enjoyed this read and need to read more of Ruth’s books now.

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