For Adults
The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell is the last book to be featured this autumn season on the Sara Cox Radio 2 Book Club—a spellbinding historical romance blending mystery, art and time travel, set in a magical hotel in the Swiss Alps.
You can listen to the live interview with Alexandra on BBC Sounds from 23 December.
We have the chance for you to win a set of 10 copies of this novel for your book club. To apply, click on the survey link below. UK residents only, deadline for entries 27 January 2026.
Not yet a member of Book Club Hub? Sign up now.
The White Octopus Hotel
‘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 London office, the warmth of his palm sends a spark through her.
His name is Max Everly – curiously, the same name as Eve’s favourite composer, born one hundred sixteen years prior. And she can’t shake the feeling that she’s held his hand before . . . but where, and when?
The White Octopus Hotel, 1935.
Decades earlier, high in the snowy Swiss Alps, Eve and a young Max Everly wander the winding halls of the grand belle epoque White Octopus Hotel, lost in time.
Each of them has been through the trenches – Eve in 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.
How to apply
To apply, fill in this survey by 27 January.
