Review - - The Heartbreak Hotel

The Heartbreak Hotel

by Ellen O'Clover

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: September 23, 2025

Reviewed by PJ

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.

Her plan: ask 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.

PJ's Thoughts:

Heartbreak, hope, and healing are the cornerstones of this achingly emotional debut romance by Ellen O'Clover. 

When Louisa "Lou" Walsh's long-time relationship with her boyfriend comes to a screeching - and very public - halt, she retreats to the house in the mountains that they've been renting for years. For Lou, who survived a tumultuous childhood, it's the only place that has ever felt like home and she's desperate to stay but she also knows she has no way of affording the rent by herself. Maybe she can convince the owner to let her take the huge house in a different direction? 

Henry reluctantly agrees to let Lou (temporarily) turn the house into a retreat for the broken-hearted though he has strong doubts about how well that will go. However, it's hard for him to say no to the woman he's been attracted to for years but has kept his distance from...until now. 

Thus begins a journey of growth and healing for Lou, Henry, and the visitors to the Comeback Inn. O'Clover seamlessly weaves characters and their stories into a tapestry of friendship - and romance - as individual stories unfold and new ones are written. The characters, dealing with a variety of realistic and relatable heartbreaks, are vividly depicted as they organically evolve over the course of their time at the Comeback Inn, adding texture, humor, conflict, and hope to the overall story. For Lou and Henry, it's a deeply emotional, ultimately uplifting journey with slow-burn romance, personal growth, intense vulnerability, and complicated family dynamics on the way to a hard-won happy ending. 

I'm looking forward to discovering what Ellen O'Clover will bring readers next.