“Hotel Magnifique opened the door to a sumptuous and glittering world of magic and mysteries and left me enchanted. Perfect for fans of Caraval and The Night Circus.” –Erin A. Craig, New York Times bestselling author of House of Salt and Sorrows and Small Favors
Decadent and darkly enchanting, this lavish YA fantasy debut follows seventeen-year-old Jani as she uncovers the deeply disturbing secrets of the legendary Hotel Magnifique.
All her life, Jani has dreamed of Elsewhere. Just barely scraping by with her job at a tannery, she’s resigned to a dreary life in the port town of Durc, caring for her younger sister Zosa. That is, until the Hotel Magnifique comes to town.
The hotel is legendary not only for its whimsical enchantments, but also for its ability to travel—appearing in a different destination every morning. While Jani and Zosa can’t afford the exorbitant costs of a guest’s stay, they can interview to join the staff, and are soon whisked away on the greatest adventure of their lives. But once inside, Jani quickly discovers their contracts are unbreakable and that beneath the marvelous glamour, the hotel is hiding dangerous secrets.
With the vexingly handsome doorman Bel as her only ally, Jani embarks on a mission to unravel the mystery of the magic at the heart of the hotel and free Zosa—and the other staff—from the cruelty of the ruthless maître d’hôtel. To succeed, she’ll have to risk everything she loves, but failure would mean a fate far worse than never returning home.
2.5 stars Meh. This book COULD have been good. It had all the right pieces but it just dragged on FOREVER. Michelle and I were buddy reading it and she gave up. But she did want to know what happened and I was able to summarize over 50% of the book for her in a few paragraphs. And she enjoyed my paragraphs a lot more than the book lol.
The main character is annoyingly YA. Yes, this is a YA and so it's to be expected to an extent. But isn't there like an unspoken rule that YA characters in fantasy are more mature? Well, don't hope for that here, you will be disappointed.
And there's just way too many side plots going on. Too many characters who we have to traverse down their path before returning to the main plot. And yes, those side stories do ultimately impact the main plot but we could have taken a more direct path I think and enjoyed it a lot more.
The magic was also disappointing in it's meandering explanations. It took too long to get to the point.
Oh and the romance was... you wanna guess? It took too long and was too predictable. If i'm going to wait that long please give me something slightly unexpected.
I am glad I finished as I was curious about a few things and wanted the answers. As michelle pointed out, one of us had to finish so we'd know what happened. But if a cliff notes version of this book existed I would have totally grabbed it. Find a spoilery review (because I don't have the energy to write it) and save yourself the time.
