Hotel Sacher

The story begins from the perspective of Death, followed closely by the perspective of Love ... this recurs often throughout this tale of love, loss, longing, troubles, triumphs, pain, longing, family, and expectation. At times this book was wonderful and at other times frustrating as you just wanted it to move along a bit more quickly. All in all a very well written, nicely descriptive book.

I started reading this novel at the end of March and I will admit... it's been kind of a struggle to get through. I felt like the initial description made it seem like it would be more about the life of Anna Sacher instead of Anna, her family, guests, employees etc.

Hotel Sacher takes place in Vienna, Austria during the late 1800's and early 1900's. The novel did actually "inspire" me to look up the history of the hotel itself. The author has definitely weaved reality bits to her fiction together extremely well. What Anna accomplished in the novel was nearly unheard of in that era; she went for what she wanted and won. I was pleasantly surprised to find that some of her odd quirks in the book were real.

I'm not entirely sure if the show more writing style would feel as weird if I were reading it in the books native language or if that's just how it is. It took some getting used to for me and the book jumps seemed a little jumbled to me until I got used to the formatting. It is formed as three books with their own chapters of varying length.

I would say that if you like historical fiction you would more than likely enjoy this book. The book itself is well written and interesting even if the flow feels a little weird. It would be really interesting (for me at least) to visit after reading this, it would definitely be interesting to see and especially to try the Sachertorte! show less

Historical Fiction is a genre that helps history come alive for a reader. My favorite book, Gone with the Wind, made me become interested in the Civil War. Hotel Sacher reveals Europe's Royalty fall from grace after World War I by examining royalty in Austria. This novel is no Gentlemen in Moscow which another novel centered around a famous hotel and both hotels are still in operation.

Before reading this book, I believed that the story would revolve around the owner Anna Sacher, a strong and powerful woman. Instead it about a Prince and his young wife who become involved with a young couple from Berlin.

There are a great many low ratings for this book, which is surprising in some respects. The style seemed to be an issue for many. I agree that it left something to be desired, but didn't find that it distracted from the story.
The lives of the characters portrayed the times well, except for Marie, the girl who spent eight or so years of her life as a prisoner in a crypt under the Opera House. Was that supposed to turn her into the character the author later depicted? It didn't ring true, but she, like the others, was there to portray the social history. They all represented something of Austria's culture in the late 19th and early 20th century, and what led to World War One and the changes that followed.
Concentration on this aspect led show more to other parts of the story being a little thin. For such a sumptuous hotel as the Sacher, we see nothing of it. There are no descriptions, and I got no feel of Vienna.
I can't help remembering that wonderful book, A Gentleman of Moscow, and how this could have, but doesn't, come close to it. show less

The ending leaves one wanting closure

The story is decent, but it's never fully fleshed out. There are hints of more to come, but then it's over and nothing ever really happened. I typically enjoy historical fiction and while I did enjoy the step back in time, I didn't appreciate the lack of a better ending.

The story begins in the very late 19th century with Anna Sacher taking over the Hotel Sacher in Vienna after the death of her husband. From the title, one would think the story would be about her time as manager of this luxury hotel, but it's not. The hotel and Anna play a very minor part in this historical fiction novel. To sum it up quickly, it's about people being fickle and behaving badly! I'm not even sure what the purpose of some of the characters in the novel was, and there was a plethora of them! I was hoping to get a sense of Vienna pre WWI, but there was not much in the way of sensory descriptions, just dialogue. The story takes in WWI, but only in a minor way. 274 pages

The story based on the Austria-Hungarian Empire during late 1800 to early 1900. The characters are well defined and the limitations placed on female characters reflects the period of restraining. I enjoyed the story