Set in a beautiful hideaway on the French Riviera, between the Alpes Maritimes and the shimmering blue Mediterranean, The Last Hotel is a heartwarming tale of love and loss and of finding joy in the simplest of pleasures.

It's March 2020, and as flights are cancelled and hotels close in virus-stricken Europe, seven strangers meet by chance. Out of necessity they form a family in lockdown in the last hotel open on the French Riviera.

Young Kaz and Lou have lost their dream jobs in St. Tropez, and Will, a chef from Torquay, is similarly and suddenly unemployed. Jenny came for a holiday with her son, Sasha, but his ballet contract is suspended and older Australians Maggie and Tim flee Italy. During their stay at the Last Hotel, the new guests meet interesting neighbours, Juliette and Henri, and Deborah, a single mother whose plan for a restful year in Provence is also disrupted. This improbable gathering of old and young discovers that magic happens when you least expect it.

Wars and pestilences can come with no warning out of a cloudless sky, but so too can love take you by surprise. If you believe in magic and serendipity, you will find it here in The Last Hotel.

The novel was inspired by the author's real- life experience in Italy during March 2020.