When what you truly want, is what you cannot have…

Synopsis

✨ Tropes & Themes ✨ ✧ Holiday Romance 🔥 ✧ Matchmaking💖 ✧ Forced Proximity 💗✧Age gap (she’s older, he’s younger) 💋 ✧Destination Romance 💋 ✧ Opposites attract 😍 ✧ He falls first 😬 ✧ Only One Bed 💕 ✧ All the spice 🌶️✧😍 Friends to lovers

What happens in paradise… stays in paradise!

Hotel guest relations manager Jasmine, also known as a Love Alchemist, adores her job at the exclusive Spanish Love Hotel. She prides herself on helping guests meet their perfect match. But matchmaking is absolutely forbidden between staff. And so Jasmine must resist the attraction she feels every time she’s around delectable sous-chef, Alejandro. The problem is, she knows the feeling is mutual. But she cannot jeopardise her job or break the rules.

Because all her hard work is about to be recognized when she’s asked to set up the new branch of the hotel in Jamaica. With an ocean between her and temptation, Jasmine is ecstatic. This is just the distance she needs to keep her feelings under control. But there is one kink in her plan… Alejandro has been asked to join her. For two whole weeks!

Under the sultry Jamaican sun, keeping it strictly professional becomes impossible when romance is literally all around them! So they agree a (secret) holiday fling may help satisfy their desires and then they can move on. After all, what happens in paradise stays in paradise… right?

My review

Jasmine is working as a Love Alchemist at the Spanish Love Hotel. Which in fact just is a fancier name for being a hotel guest relations manager. The end of her marriage learned her to only trust herself and to never believe in love again. But she cannot ignore that she is attracted to the sous – chef of the hotel, Alejandro. Even if relations between staff were allowed, Jasmine still wouldn’t be giving in, as Alejandro is several years younger than her. And she is working hard to get that much desired promotion.
A promotion that can become reality rather quickly, as she is asked to set up the new branch of the hotel in Jamaica. And being away from Alejandro is perhaps the perfect chance to get over her infatuation.
Until she realizes that Alejandro is going to join her, for the whole two weeks!
With the purpose of finding romantic activities for the guests, Jasmine and Alejandro find it nearly impossible to ignore their feelings…

There are authors that write books of which you know before reading even one word, you know you are going to love. And yes, Olivia Spring is one of those! 😊

Of course it was a delight to return to the Love Hotel, and see Jasmine again. As a part of a series, Jasmine isn’t a complete stranger, but even if this is the first book of the series you read, you can read it without any worries. This book is a perfect standalone, but do you really want to mis out on all the fun? 😊

Even if it’s strict forbidden by her boss, I could understand how Jasmine wasn’t all that eager to give in to her feelings towards Alejandro. Starting something with a colleague is always a bit tricky. Because not only there is the expected gossip of other people, but also what if things end badly? And let’s also be honest, sometimes you also need to offload and talk about your partner with colleagues. And when your partner IS a colleague, you just cannot do that, right?

But there is a difference in having a fling or giving in to the physical attraction, and act upon them on the work floor, or having genuine feelings and when given in, acting in a respectful way. And while I understand that there are some strict rules applicable in the Love Hotel, I also found them a bit too strict, as the repercussions didn’t match the level of offense. 

How can you not immediately like Jasmine in this book? Okay, even if her resisting Alejandro for such a long time is for sure frustrating as a reader, I could understand her reason of thought. There is so much at stake for her, and being burnt in the past already, she doesn’t want to risk it all.
But we also see such a lovely, soft side of Jasmine. When she lets you in, you are in her circle, no matter if you are just a customer staying at the hotel or someone else. Jasmine likes people for who they are. She doesn’t let her walls down easily, but once again, when you’re in, you’re in.

But it also saddened me to read how her past made her hold back. She doesn’t want to risk to have her heart broken again. And she perhaps also has some outdated thoughts about love and partnership. Because now more than ever, does age difference truly matters? There are people that are older that are perhaps more immature than someone way younger.
Matureness doesn’t come with age, it comes from life experience.

And Alejandro for sure has plenty of that! Yes, perhaps I was initially objectifying him too, but can you blame me? but rather quickly we get to know the real Alejandro. The Alejandro that knows what he wants,  and doesn’t easily give up. But we also see a Alejandro that carries a lot of responsibilities towards his family, as he would do anything for his sisters.

Yet don’t be fooled by his easiness in life, because Alejandro also has been hurt in the past. He hasn’t had an easy time, and it took him a long time to finally feel something for someone else. Even if that someone else is someone he cannot possibly have.

As a reader, I could not wait for the two of them taking of to Jamaica. Because that’s where the fun truly begins! 🙂 

I have never been in Jamaica myself, but I can imagine how it feels like paradise. After reading this story, it for sure stole a peace of my heart. And yes, Bob and his weird Jamaican antics too, even if it took me a while to understand what he was actually saying 🙂.

I think we all have an idea what Jamaica is like, but it was great to discover the place together with Jasmine and Alejandro in even a slightly different way. In a way that brings the pair close, until a point resisting is impossible. And when that happened, I actually squealed! Because FINALLY! 🙂

Of course things aren’t going all that straightforward, as there is not only the issue of ‘what when they are back home?’ but also about their own feelings. Not that they doubt about what they feel, but more about what the other feels. And the fear of discovering it. And the obvious doubts of being enough or not…

Devouring this book is an understatement, as I couldn’t possibly read any faster. Faster but also slower at the same time, because I didn’t want to reach the end! I loved reading the complexity of the characters, but also the heart of the characters, bruised but slowly healing. 

Olivia Spring wrote a wonderful story, set in a special place with amazing characters. Characters that made me feel hungry too, as food also is involved! And rest assured, that I could get my hands on the recipe of that cake that Alejandro and Jasmine made together, I will try it for myself, even if I don’t have a partner to assist me 🙂