Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

Suite Scarlett (Scarlett, #1)

by Maureen Johnson

A hilarious romantic comedy set in New York City from the UK Queen of Teen

If living in a famous art deco hotel minutes away from Central Park sounds like your idea of a pretty sweet deal - you should talk to Scarlett Martin. Having a hotel for a home really isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially when you've got no guests, no money and no prospects for any fun thanks to your parents putting you to work all summer. Luckily for Scarlett, the Hopewell is about to be shaken to its foundations with the arrival of Mrs Amberson, a glamorous travelling socialite who's planning on putting down some roots for a while - and hiring Scarlett as her assistant. With a new job, new friends, and (maybe) a new boyfriend on the horizon, Scarlett's summer is beginning to look a lot more interesting...

Reviewed by readingwithwrin on

3 of 5 stars

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“Well, what now? You have no job. I have no job. Wanna play Jenga?”

When Suite Scarlett starts we find out that the family is having more money trouble then the children realized which means that Scarlett and her siblings will have to help out more. What this also means is that now that Scarlett is old enough she will now get a guest to take care of. What she doesn't expect is to get so involved in her guests life and end up becoming said guests personal assistant. As a personal assistant to the guest she first starts off by becoming the guest memoir writer, and errand runner. Some what thankfully though the guest ends up getting caught up in Spencer's (brother) theater/acting life and ends up taking over that and helping her brother be able to have a small acting career. I'm not going to say anything else about this because this is what the main part of the story ends up being about. (Which I think is why I ended up losing interest.)

With this though we also have the side mini stories of Lola (sister) and her boyfriend having troubles and Spencer and Scarlett hating the boyfriend caused problems as well. Then, we also have Marlene who is the baby sister who is also a cancer survivor and doesn't really like anyone besides her parents, Lola and Lola's boyfriend. Lola is a character that I liked and didn't like a lot due to the fact of how she just made Scarlett's life living hell whenever Scarlett got talked into taking her anywhere. Last, but certainly not drama free we also have Eric who is in Spencer's friend/acting partner. Eric is a character I really wanted to like, but I just never fully trusted him. While I ended up having good reasons for not trusting him it also made me sad for Scarlett because of the way he treated her. I am glad she ended up slightly standing up for herself in the end I just wish she had stuck more to it.

I really tried not to compare this story to Maureen's other series (Shades of London) which I know we shouldn't do, but we all know it still happens. Sadly this one just didn't hold my attention as much or make me want to know what was going to happen next. I did enjoy the story and I found it interesting at times, but a lot of the time I was just not interested. I might read the second book in the series, but as of right now I'm not sure if I will or not.



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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 23 September, 2015: Finished reading
  • 23 September, 2015: Reviewed