I would like to go to: Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel

I have read and enjoyed every novel that I have read by Sophie Green. She is an author whom I found by chance.

Green is Australian writer who sets her stories in the recent past. Each features a group of women who connect with one another and share their struggles and joys.

This time readers the story takes place in the late 1990s on the Mornington Peninsula. Readers meet Frances, Joan, Kirrily and those around them. The people in their lives include husbands, children, friends and staff at the hotel.

Frances is the oldest of the characters. She had a great loss in her life and the hole that this left has deeply impacted how she has lived. Frances is lonely and has found connection with Sean, the hotel bartender with his own backstory. Readers also meet Frances’s son and daughter. They each have a story. This is emblematic of how Green expands reader’s worlds by involving them in the stories of the extended family of her main characters.

Joan has lived her life as a very traditional wife. One day, she decides that she has had enough. She goes to the Duchess Hotel where she pursues her art and meets the other main characters. Will Joan find herself and the life that she needs? Again, readers get to know others in Joan’s life including her husband, children and at least one of her old friends.

Kirrily has had a lot of responsibility in her life. She has also felt guilt for a terrible event that impacted one of her children. Kirilly works at the hotel. She has been flirting with someone there. Readers meet him along with her family. Will Kirrily find what she is looking for?

These characters all come together in many ways, one of which is at the titular Art Hour where Joan teaches.

Green again creates characters with whom I enjoyed spending time. I have one other of her books to still read. After that, I will eagerly wait for whatever she writes next.

Anyone who enjoys involving women’s fiction would do well to read this and Green’s other titles.

If you have read any of this author’s novels, please let me know your thoughts.

Other books by the author:

A shoutout for Sophie Green

Let’s sing: The Bellbird River Country Choir by Sophie Green