When Swiss-born Hugues Martin sees a small, run-down hotel in New York for the rough diamond it is, he transforms it into a beautiful boutique hotel of impeccable elegance, run with the precision and attention to detail he learned through his hotelier training in Europe. Renowned for its unparalleled service, the Hotel Vendome soon becomes the ideal New York refuge for the rich and famous, as well as a perfect home for Hugues' beautiful wife and their young daughter. But when his wife tires of his obsession for the hotel, she walks out on him for a notorious rock star, leaving Hugues a single parent to four-year-old Heloise. Heloise and her family live happily amid a colourful, exciting and sometimes mysterious milieu of celebrities, socialites, politicians, world travellers and hotel employees - and their inevitable intrigues. As unexpected challenges arise, the hotel is the centre of their world. And when Heloise grows us, she longs to follow in her father's footsteps and one day run the Hotel Vendome. The lessons she learned at his side will carry her through it all, in a story no reader will forget. sakriti opis