genre: magical realism
The Avallon Hotel and Spa is a special kind of place, it's elegance might as well be a world away from the closest town in the hills of West Virginia. With its' trusty General Manager, June "Hoss" Hudson, it survived the Depression intact and now June is confident it can withstand a world war as well. Until a curveball is thrown at her that she could have never seen coming: the State Department is going to take over her hotel to house Axis Diplomats until they can be repatriated. And there really isn't anything June can do about it - except continue to do her job the only way she knows how.
This was a fast and interesting read for me, a love an upstairs/downstairs story, a hotel story, a wartime story, a love story. Also, I do love some magical realism sprinkled in and in this one, the magic lies in the sweetwater that flows through the pipes and fountains at the Avallon. June knows the sweetwater, can feel what it needs to keep the hotel humming with the kind of happy energy required to make it as special as June knows it can be. I genuinely enjoyed the historical fiction aspect, I've never thought of what America did with all the German, Italian and Japanese folks who were living here as America entered the war. I liked thinking about wealthy versus luxury and how different that can look for every individual. I liked June's spunk and capability and compassion. All the little threads interested me enough that while I can't bring myself to give it 5 stars, it deserves four shiny solid ones.
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