-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Journey to a magical hotel in the Swiss Alps, where two lost souls living in different centuries meet and discover if a second chance awaits them behind its doors.
"Have you travelled a long way?" she asked carefully..
A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. "Well, yes," he said slowly. "Yes, you could say that. But it was worth the wait."
London, 2015. When reclusive art appraiser Eve Shaw shakes the hand of a silver-haired gentleman in her office, the warmth of his palm sends a spark through her.
His name is Max Everly—curiously, the same name as Eve's favorite composer, born one hundred sixteen years prior. And she has the sudden feeling that she's held his hand before ... but where, and when?
The White Octopus Hotel, 1935. In this belle époque building high in the snowy mountains, Eve and a young Max wander the winding halls, lost in time.
Each of them has been through the trenches—Eve through a family accident and Max on the battlefields of the Great War—but for an impossible moment, love and healing are just a room away ... if only they have the courage to step through the door.
"[A] beautiful and bittersweet time travel fantasy...The convincing, emotional love story, lavish settings, and a wealth of spooky side characters make this sing. It's a gem." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A delightful read for lovers of time-slip fiction, vintage aesthetics, and whimsical mysteries." —Library Journal
"The White Octopus Hotel is not like anything you've ever read before. It's a completely fresh, brilliantly imaginative way of welcoming us, with all our fear, grief, and guilt, into a fabulous, unpredictable, enchanting world where love is the magic that transforms us all." —Nancy Thayer, New York Times bestselling author of Summer Light on Nantucket
"An exquisite, fantastical puzzle box of a novel in which love, art, and magic are inescapably bound up with the trauma of childhood loss and war. The White Octopus Hotel acknowledges that life is hard, and grief is real, but it tells us, too, that life is also sweet and contains great mysteries and the possibility of enchantment." —Kelly Link, bestselling author of The Book of Love
"In The White Octopus Hotel, Bell effortlessly weaves mystery, romance, and a hint of magic into a captivating tapestry of love, tragedy, and time." —Cassandra Clare, #1 New York Times bestselling author
This information about The White Octopus Hotel was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Alexandra Bell studied Law at university and signed her first book deal at nineteen. Since then, she has written multiple books for both adults and young people. She works at a legal advice charity and lives in Hampshire with her husband, sons, and Sphynx cats.
If you liked The White Octopus Hotel, try these:
A Short Walk Through a Wide World
by Douglas Westerbeke
Published 2025
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue meets Life of Pi in this dazzlingly epic debut that charts the incredible, adventurous life of one woman as she journeys the globe trying to outrun a mysterious curse that will destroy her if she stops moving.
Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Brokenhearted
by Ben Okri
Published 2025
In this modern fable with the impish magic of A Midsummer Night's Dream, a masked ball makes two upper-class British couples see each other in a new light.
A wise, enchanting novel about love, power, and our many selves—past and future, public and private—from the Booker Prize–winning author.
by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Published 2017
An epic historical tale following the dangerous and passionate love affair between a beautiful high society woman and an elegant thief. A story of romance, adventure, and espionage.
L.A. Women by Ella Berman
Two ambitious writers in 1960s LA face betrayal when one writes a novel based on the other's life.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
