Review: The Suite Spot

Trish Doller’s Float Plan was a one of my favourite books of 2021 (I had to triple check when I read it because what is time anymore?) so I was SO excited to read The Suite Spot this year, which features the sister of the main character from Float Plan. Rachel’s story has a different feel than Anna’s but was just as amazing. I read The Suite Spot in one sitting because I was so completely invested – but I didn’t want it to end!

Here’s the book’s description:

Rachel Beck has hit a brick wall. She’s a single mom, still living at home and trying to keep a dying relationship alive. Aside from her daughter, the one bright light in Rachel’s life is her job as the night reservations manager at a luxury hotel in Miami Beach—until the night she is fired for something she didn’t do.
On impulse, Rachel inquires about a management position at a brewery hotel on an island in Lake Erie called Kelleys Island. When she’s offered the job, Rachel packs up her daughter and makes the cross country move.
What she finds on Kelleys Island is Mason, a handsome, moody man who knows everything about brewing beer and nothing about running a hotel. Especially one that’s barely more than foundation and studs. It’s not the job Rachel was looking for, but Mason offers her a chance to help build a hotel—and rebuild her own life—from the ground up.

Rachel is a fantastic heroine. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel after reading Anna’s story and was a little wary that Rachel is a mom (I can’t always click with stories about moms – I know I don’t need to “relate to” everything and everyone but this can be a tough one) but I ended up absolutely loving her. She’s pretty accepting of her full bodied figure but struggles with her appearance a little bit, just like most people. It was yet another great reminder that beauty comes in every shape and size and I loved it. I always know I love a character when I wish I could be friends with them and I most definitely wanted to be friends with Rachel!

Mason is a total grump when we meet him but as we learn more about him – and as Rachel and her daughter slowly chip away at his defenses just by being their wonderful selves – the reader learns about his past and his grumpiness all makes sense. He’s not miraculously “cured” by Rachel and their feelings for each other but she helps him open up and gives him the time he needs to work through the issues he has. It was a really refreshing relationship and I was rooting for the pair of them the whole way through the novel.

I found myself really wishing this brewery hotel existed. I don’t live too far from where the book is set so if it was a real place, I could get there pretty easily. Alas, as far as I can tell, Kelleys Island does not boast a brewery hotel as created by Mason and Rachel. Visiting such a place has definitely moved up my travel bucket list and I thoroughly enjoyed the armchair travel part of this book – I appreciated that it was a totally different kind of wanderlust than inspired by Float Plan!

Reading Trish Doller’s The Suite Spot was like getting a warm hug from a book and was exactly what I needed at the time. The novel is well written and full of characters who will feel like friends. I highly recommend reading it!

My review of Float Plan

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, St. Martin’s Griffin, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*