The Phenomenal Women of the Grand Hotel

1901 - Stockholm is a city in flux.

While the rich dream of even grander homes, the poor dream of food on the table, a fair wage and fewer rats in the streets.

Grand Hôtel — the celebrated jewel of the city's tourist trade — stands on a fashionable waterfront opposite the Royal Palace. But the hotel is in financial trouble, and its board needs a woman of singular talent to raise it to new heights. Wilhelmina Skogh owns a string of successful hotels along Sweden's railways. She understands both the Grand Hôtel's potential and its problems. Yet she is a manager as equally feared as she is respected.

Ambitious Ottilia arrives from the countryside to begin her position at the fabled hotel. Together with a posse of other young women, she must battle injustice and obstacles in a male-dominated trade. Women, after all, are expected to keep the home — but what is a hotel, if not a home?

The Phenomenal Women of the Grand Hôtel — book one in the Stockholm Landmarks series — is a sweeping historical novel, rich with fascinating characters and a hearty dose of fighting spirit. Ruth Kvarnström-Jones, who was granted a unique glimpse into the Grand Hôtel's archives, takes us on a spectacular journey through Stockholm’s cultural past.