Lucas and Izzy are receptionists at Forest Manor Hotel & Spa. Bitter rivals, they are forced to work together to try and save the hotel after a disaster.
Having listened to the audiobooks of Beth O'Leary's previous books I was really pleased when The Wake-Up Call became available from my local library on the BorrowBox app. I love becoming immersed in the lives of the characters and the audiobooks are a perfect way of doing this.
If you've read or listened to any of the author's books before then you have a pretty good idea of how they are going to end. What I enjoy is the way the characters and storyline are developed, giving us an insight into the background of each character. This is doubly relevant in this story as Lucas and Izzy detest each other.
From the very beginning, we pick up on the tension between the pair, the hostility is unmistakable. It's made clear that something happened the year before but the author keeps what happened firmly under wraps until the very end. This means the reader/listener joins the duo in their quest to try and save the hotel, and gradually get to know each other better along the way.
The sexual tension between the pair is palpable, which adds an air of mystery as to why the pair despise each other so much. I liked both characters and desperately wanted them both to lower their barriers, and preconceived ideas, and get together. The narrators add a genuineness to both characters, particularly Lino Facioli who voices Lucas, he has an accent I could listen to all day.
I found the conclusion satisfying, with a few different storylines coming together to make a perfect ending, but I was sorry to be leaving Forest Manor Hotel & Spa. It would be lovely if Beth O'Leary wrote a sequel so that we could catch up with how life is developing for everyone.
Author Details
Beth O’Leary is a Sunday Times bestselling author whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. Her debut, The Flatshare, sold over a million copies and is now a major TV series. Her subsequent novels, The Switch, The Road Trip, The No-Show and The Wake-Up Call, were all instant bestsellers. Beth writes her books in the Hampshire countryside with a very badly behaved Golden Retriever for company. If she’s not at her desk, you’ll usually find her curled up somewhere with a book, a cup of tea and several woolly jumpers (whatever the weather).
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