A bed-and-breakfast for the brokenhearted might hold the key to another chance at love in this achingly hopeful debut romance.
Louisa Walsh emerged from a tumultuous childhood with a degree in counseling, a wealthy boyfriend, and her sunny outlook on life mostly intact. But that optimism is tested when she’s dumped and left unable to afford rent on their gorgeous house in the mountains of Colorado. Even with her life in disarray, Lou knows losing the one stable place she’s ever called home is not an option.
She asks her reclusive landlord, Henry Rhodes, to let her stay for free in exchange for renting out the house’s many rooms as a bed-and-breakfast. She’s shocked when he agrees to her terms, and even more surprised to discover Henry is a handsome thirtysomething veterinarian with silver at his temples and sadness in his eyes. One who does not take it well when Lou starts marketing her B and B as a retreat for the recently heartbroken.
But as the Comeback Inn opens its doors to its weary, hopeful guests, Lou and Henry find themselves dancing around both their undeniable connection and the closely held secrets that threaten to topple this fragile new start. A chance at love, here, could be too close to home…or it could be exactly where their hearts finally heal.
Louisa Walsh emerged from a tumultuous childhood with a degree in counseling, a wealthy boyfriend, and her sunny outlook on life mostly intact. But that optimism is tested when she’s dumped and left unable to afford rent on their gorgeous house in the mountains of Colorado. Even with her life in disarray, Lou knows losing the one stable place she’s ever called home is not an option.
She asks her reclusive landlord, Henry Rhodes, to let her stay for free in exchange for renting out the house’s many rooms as a bed-and-breakfast. She’s shocked when he agrees to her terms, and even more surprised to discover Henry is a handsome thirtysomething veterinarian with silver at his temples and sadness in his eyes. One who does not take it well when Lou starts marketing her B and B as a retreat for the recently heartbroken.
But as the Comeback Inn opens its doors to its weary, hopeful guests, Lou and Henry find themselves dancing around both their undeniable connection and the closely held secrets that threaten to topple this fragile new start. A chance at love, here, could be too close to home…or it could be exactly where their hearts finally heal.
Title: The Heartbreak Hotel
Author: Ellen O'Clover
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Expected Publication Date: September 23, 2025
Review:
Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I always get worried when there are a lot of great reviews on a book. More often than not I've been unhappy with such popular titles. This time is not one of them. Ellen O'Clover too my heart, smashed it to pieces and then slowly put it back together with so much tender care it made me weep. This title is full of some very heavy themes so if you are one who has triggers; cheating, death of a child, death of a spouse, animals in danger/sick animals, mental illness, I do suggest checking the note from the author prior to beginning your read. When I say I was wrecked, that word doesn't really capture how I felt. But also, my connection to the main character, Louisa, and her sister, Goldie, was like a live wire. While I don't have experience with the mental illness their mom has, I do have experience with taking care of everyone around me and how that molded me into the person I am today.
Lousia's (Lou's) character truly captures what it is like to take on the parent role as a child but also what it's like to always be taking care of those around you. To be a fixer. To always be taking care of those who should be taking care of you because they are just unable to care for themselves, O'Clover captured the toxicity that can occur when such relationships exists. I will say I didn't love the relationship between Goldie and Lou, though I am pretty sure that is the point of the relationship as it does help the characters have some growth. Goldie really made me mad. While there was a bit of resolution to this, I didn't necessarily believe it's conclusion. Though, perhaps, that is O'Clover's point: that you have to continue to work on relationships to make then stronger and better. I wanted to see more of a clash and fight from Lou as she stood up for herself with Goldie. However, the complicated family relationships O'Clover built were a big plot point of this book so it's understandable that perhaps not everything will get solved and wrapped up in a neat bow at the end. I appreciated this direction once the book concluded. What I did love about this relationship (and the one with her mother) was Lou's recognition of who she was and how she functioned and that it wasn't something that made her a bad person. It was something she could use to help others.
Henry was a pretty easy character to figure out. He wore his grief right on his sleeve for everyone to see. And, I figured out pretty early on what that grief would consist of so when O'Clover revealed it, I wasn't totally surprised. I also figured out his relationship with one of the characters in the book early on, so that didn't come as a shock when it was revealed, But he was genuine and caring and so much more than what he appeared to be at first. So often I wanted to reach through the page and just give him a big squeeze. He is gentle and kind despite his crushing heartbreak that is revealed. At the same time, I hated the secrets he was keeping. He made me very angry, much more angry than Lou and that surprised me. I'm not sure I could have been as forgiving as she was. And it's never fully explored, It's just kind of forgiven and that bothered me. I needed to see it worked through on the page more than it was.
O'Clover does a nice job with the slow burn between the characters. There is a lot of push and pull as they get to know one another and their attraction slowly ramps up. The chemistry build is tense but also satisfying.
I think my favorite thing of all with this book was the found family in the hotel guests and how they not only come and heal but also help Lou to heal. Not only are they supported but they in turn support Lou. Everyone wins from the situation Lou has created. And so many wonderful friendships are born and nurtured.
The attention to detail O'Clover includes in her descriptions of Colorado and the area where the inn is makes me want to go there and stay (and I hate the cold weather). She sets the scene so serenely, it's hard not to picture it in your mind. The trees, the snow, the mountains, the warmth the house/inn wraps around you. O'Clover captures the beauty of this place so well.
There are a few plot lines O'Clover includes in the book. Each one essential to the growth of the characters she presents. I liked how she tied them all in and made them make sense. It moved the book along. There was never a time she introduced something I didn't see as being an essential part of making the book bloom. It gave the book excellent pacing and made me want to continue to read and find out exactly what traumas the characters had endured and how they were going to deal with them. And there is a lot of trauma in this book. And it is not totally healed despite the HEA you get but something that continues to need attention. This was so realistic because I truly believe trauma can never be fully healed but you can learn to recognize it, work on it, and realize how it's shaped you as a person.
This is probably one of my most favorite books this year. It's beautifully written and poignant. I really wasn't expecting to be so invested in the story or the characters. O'Clover wasn't afraid to introduce some truly hard topics with her characters. And she wasn't afraid to show that healing is a lifelong process. This book made me go and buy her other two, which are YA, but also makes me want to push her right to the top of my list of new favorite authors. I will definitely be picking up anything else she chooses to write. I hear the audio of this book is excellent and have already requested it from my library so I can re-read it when the book is released. If you're a lover of Abby Jimenez or Tarah Dewitt, you'll enjoy O'Clover's writing and themes.
4.5 stars rounded to 5
Author:
Ellen O’Clover writes stories about love, identity, and belonging for both teens and adults. She grew up in Ohio and studied creative writing at the Johns Hopkins University before moving west to Colorado. Her debut young adult novel, Seven Percent of Ro Devereux, was named a Best Book of the Year by The Bank Street Center for Children’s Education and a finalist for both the Colorado Book Award and the Florida Sunshine Young Readers Award. Her debut adult romance, The Heartbreak Hotel, comes out in September 2025 with Berkley/Penguin Random House. Ellen lives near Boulder with her rocket scientist husband and two perfect bulldogs.
