The Wake-Up Call

By: Beth O'Leary

Narrated by: Jessie Cave, Lino Facioli

Two hotel receptionists—and arch-rivals—find a collection of old wedding rings and compete to return them to their owners, discovering their own love story along the way.

It’s the busiest season of the year, and Forest Manor Hotel is quite literally falling apart. So when Izzy and Lucas are given the same shift on the hotel’s front desk, they have no choice but to put their differences aside and see it through.

The hotel won't stay afloat beyond Christmas without some sort of miracle. But when Izzy returns a guest’s lost wedding ring, the reward convinces management that this might be the way to fix everything. With four rings still sitting in the lost & found, the race is on for Izzy and Lucas to save their beloved hotel—and their jobs.

As their bitter rivalry turns into something much more complicated, Izzy and Lucas begin to wonder if there's more at stake here than the hotel's future. Can the two of them make it through the season with their hearts intact?

Something Was Lacking

The premise of this book excited me, but by the end I was left unimpressed. I am currently reading The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary on my Kindle, and so far, it’s a five star read for me. So, I was very excited when I found out about this book by Beth O’Leary. The romance in this book is a slow burn, but even by those standards, it felt like it moved at turtle speed. Also, just a personal preference, but I would’ve liked a little smut in this one. The romance scenes were a little disappointing. Also, I went into this one expecting a Christmas read, and it wasn’t as Christmas-y as it could’ve been. Overall, it was cute, but not my favorite.

Good light romance

Good story, unique. Difficult at times to understand the male character with heavy accent though.

Beautiful

I wasn’t sure in the beginning if I like it or not, but I ended up loving it!

Perfect cozy winter read

Beth O’Leary never disappoints but this one was absolutely perfect for listening on chilly winter nights by the fire and Christmas tree. Loved the long main character development and the hotel characters were so lovable. Highly recommend!

No accent in female narrators narration of Lucas

It drives me crazy when a narrator ignores a character’s accent. But this was so much worse than normal because the male narrator had a very heavy accent. It was jarring every single time the narrators switched.