Moonlight Over Mayfair: The uplifting and charming Sunday Times Bestseller from Anton Du Beke

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It wasn’t really for me, but I think this book will appeal to fans of Strictly or those who like period dramas like Downtown Abbey. The deco decoration at the start of each chapter sets the scene for the ball room and grand hotel where all the action occurs.

I don’t mean that I was disappointed with the way in which the story concluded but I was enjoying the author’s writing style, the characters and the storylines so much that I just wish the book had been longer. Raymond knows that keeping his budding relationship with chambermaid Nancy secret is now more important than ever.Shaken by the Great Depression and with talk of another war coming, the Buckingham Hotel is trying to regain some stability. Thank you to Compulsive Readers Tours and Zaffre Books for this copy which I reviewed honestly and voluntarily. I won't spoil things by going into detail but it all just adds to the colour and flavour of what is going on in the Buckingham.

If you haven't already read the first in series, I would recommend you do that before starting this one - character development and backstory and all that! Given that historical romance is far from my usual genre and aside from the vivid characterisation, much of my enjoyment of the first was due to the portrayal of the 1930s and Du Beke’s willingness to weave the precarious political situation and the looming threat of war around the ongoing lives of the dancers and staff at the Buckingham Hotel. And upstairs, Vivienne Edgerton is desperate to do something worthwhile with her time and her step-father’s money, rather than spending it on dresses and frivolities – but will this land her back in trouble? Dancer–entertainer Anton Du Beke’s historical extravaganza, Moonlight Over Mayfair, is everything one would expect from this Strictly star turned novelist.

At the same time she develops a relationship with Irish businessman Arthur Regan who is challenging the anti-Irish sentiment prevalent at the time. A determined Vivienne finally thinks that she has found the perfect activity to invest all of her time and effort, but does she know what she is doing? Alongside this, the formally debauched stepdaughter of majority investor, Lord Edgerton, a permanent guest in the finest suite at the hotel, has been clean and worrying absent from the ballroom in recent months and concern is starting to mount.

After a successful debut the temptation might have been to maintain the status quo but instead Du Beke takes the risk of significant developments taking place in the lives of the primary cast and as a result the novel proves to be as engrossing as the first. Shaken by the Great Depression and with talk of another war coming, the Buckingham Hotel is trying to regain some stability. The ballroom is very centre stage in the story and the dancers that put on a show that says everything is normal here, while outside the undercurrents of unrest in Europe is never far away.

Raymond has the chance of persuading an American to do just that, and he visits him Stateside to plead their case. Upstairs, Vivienne Edgerton is desperate to do something worthwhile with her time and her stepfather’s money, rather than spending it on frivolity and debauchery – but will this land her in even more trouble? The sequel to his best-selling One Enchanted Evening, its setting is the Buckingham, a luxurious hotel where the elite rub shoulders with more ordinary folk on the dance floors of the impressive Grand Ballroom. The first 30 pages promised an elegant follow up to Anton’s first novel, but I struggled a little with this second instalment.