THE HEARTBREAK HOTEL
Berkley/Penguin Random House | September 2025
After being dumped by her wealthy boyfriend, twenty-something therapist Louisa strikes a bargain with her reclusive landlord, Henry, to stay in her expensive rental home for free in exchange for renting out its rooms and managing the guests—but when she starts advertising it as a retreat for the recently heartbroken, tensions rise between Lou and Henry… whose heart could use some healing of its own.
some very nice things some very nice people said about this book
“The Heartbreak Hotel is a lush, romantic, and devastatingly tender story about finding who you are beneath all your broken pieces. It cracked me wide open and filled me to the brim with hope. Ellen O’Clover is absolutely a romance voice to watch.” —B.K. Borison, USA Today bestselling author of Business Casual
“The Heartbreak Hotel is a perfect book. Ellen O'Clover is brilliant, writing tenderness, longing, and tension so viscerally that I felt like I was holding my breath the entire time I was reading. Lou and Henry have broken hearts whose edges match up perfectly, and the way they navigated their losses together was, quite simply, transformative. I'll be thinking about the last three words in this book for the rest of my life.” —Jessica Joyce, USA Today bestselling author of The Ex Vows
"Reading The Heartbreak Hotel is a lot like I imagine staying at the Comeback Inn would be—warm, soft, and leaves your heart feeling so beautifully cared for. O'Clover's gorgeous prose made me want to abandon all of my responsibilities and read it in one straight shot. Poignant and life-affirming, this is contemporary romance at its absolute finest!" —Sarah Adler, USA Today bestselling author of Finders Keepers
"The Heartbreak Hotel is such a gorgeous, affirming book—beautiful on a sentence level and powerful on an emotional level. I fell in love with Henry, good with dogs and closed-off with grief, and Louisa, great at helping other people through heartache even when she's going through her own. Ellen O'Clover has such a talent for well-drawn characters and big feelings, I know I will be anticipating every single book she ever puts out." —Alicia Thompson, USA Today bestselling author of The Art of Catching Feelings
"Ellen O'Clover is one of the great talents of our time. Written with as much aching tenderness and insight to the human heart as all of her work, The Heartbreak Hotel lives up to its name: it breaks our heart and then gives us a safe place to land. As personally healing as it is romantic: this is a gorgeous book." —Anita Kelly, author of Love & Other Disasters
“Ellen O'Clover has crafted an achingly tender and sweet novel about what can happen when we allow ourselves to love and be loved in return. Reading The Heartbreak Hotel felt like accepting a warm, reassuring hug. I can't wait to read whatever Ellen writes next!”—Kristina Forest, USA Today bestselling author of The Love Lyric
"The Heartbreak Hotel is cozy and steamy and healing, full of heart and depth, all set against the sparkling backdrop of Colorado. I want to read everything Ellen O'Clover writes—I absolutely adored this book!" —Kayla Olson, USA Today Bestselling Author of The Lodge and The Reunion