This YA fantasy book reminded me of a cross between the Grishaverse books and Howl's Moving Castle. There were a lot of familiar YA elements in it: Faraway, imaginary lands, a magic system that is viewed as threatening, a plucky heroine, a romance that starts off as combative but which slowly turns into affection, and a Chosen One type revelation part way through the book. I enjoyed the book despite all the familiar tropes that were trotted out.

I loved the premise of this story, but didn’t entirely love how it was executed. I wouldn’t dissuade anyone from reading this, though. The description within it was wonderful.

Hotel Magnifique is an interesting and unique world of magic. Jani’s life consists of taking care of her beloved sister after their mother passed away. She works hard even though she’s not making much money to provide for them but she still dreams of the world beyond. Finally there is an opportunity to make their lives better - for Jani to possibly see the world and for Zosa to sing for a crowd. The opportunity is with the Hotel Magnifique which is where magic is safe and is owned by the most famous and powerful magical man in the world. The hotel moves nightly to new locations but harbors a dark secret that the girls never knew about.
Jani must attempt to uncover the darkness and lies within the hotel and find a way to protect her sister.
The book was a fast paced and engrossing read. Loved learning about the hotel and how the magic worked. The twists were shocking and there is even a small romance that doesn’t take away from the story. Wished for more on the magical history of the hotel and background of Alister but it was a great read!

I was hooked right from the prologue! In this story we follow Jani, who wants more out of life for her and her sister, Zosa. When she and Zosa have the opportunity to work in the legendary and magical Hotel Magnifique, they discover that excitement comes at a great cost.

This was an amazing book. The writing perfectly matched the whimsy of the story. There were incredible descriptions that placed you right there in the hotel, and in the middle of the magic. This was such an interesting premise, and I was not disappointed.

Jani was a great main character. She was smart, relatable, and cared so much about doing the right thing and helping those around her. Her relationship with Bel was really cute.

This has comparisons to The Night Circus, which I haven't read, but I highly recommend it just based on its own merit. A solid four stars.

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*ARC provided by Penguin Teen in exchange for an honest review*

This book is geared towards fans of Caraval and although I'm not the biggest fan of that book, I thought the premise for Hotel Magnifique sounded pretty interesting. So I gave it a go.

Like I said, the concept of a magical traveling hotel is very intriguing but in the end it just fell flat. The characters weren't all that interesting and the magic was kind of confusing. I wanted to be down with the romance, but it just seemed so forced. I did however enjoy seeing Jani unraveling the mystery of the hotel and its occupants, while also coming to terms with the fact that not all that glitters is gold. The little bits of art sprinkled throughout the book, like itineraries, notes and flyers were a nice touch.

But yea, this one just wasn't really for me.

If Shadow and Bone and Caraval had a book baby, it would be Hotel Magnifique. If you only read one more book for the entire year, please let it be this one!!!! It was thought provoking, engaging, fun, and even had a cinnamon roll character for me! I can talk forever about how good this book is!!!! Absolutely amazing!!! Read it. You’ll love it.

Enchanting, dark magic wrapped in a facade of a luxurious hotel will have the reader captivated from get-go!

What a lush, magical, colorful world! The descriptions in this were so vivid, and I felt like I could taste and see everything. I loved how the hotel worked and the sisterhood bond between Jani and Zosa. I definitely needed to know what the truth behind the hotel was, and I was not disappointed. I can't believe this is a debut! Everyone should add this to their list.

What if, instead of you traveling to the hotel, the hotel came to you? The Hotel Magnifique appears in cities across the world for one night only, offering the wealthy a two-week stay of immense, magical luxury, leaving them with an overwhelming sense of happiness at the end of it.

After their parents' death, sisters Jani and Zosa traveled to Durc hoping that Zosa's singing voice would open doors for them. Rejected at her first audition, now the sisters scrape by with barely enough for food and a room overhead. Jani and Zosa cannot afford to be guests, but Jani finds an advertisement for jobs at the hotel. Jani sees the mysterious Hotel Magnifique as their second chance to see the world and earn enough coin to settle them wherever they want to go. Zosa's singing voice wins her a contract, but Jani gets rejected. She has to force a deal with the mysterious Bel to win a spot as a maid. But when Zosa and Jani finally enter the mysterious hotel, they're separated almost immediately, and it isn't long before Jani suspects that something sinister is hiding behind all the glamorous magic.

Jani's headstrong and curious and not the type to follow all the rules about where the staff can go or when, even when it becomes apparent that breaking the rules as a staff member can lead to dire punishments, including losing body parts. She's determined to void the magical contract trapping her in the hotel and save her sister. She finds an ally in the handsome, frustrating doorman, Bel, who tells her more than he should about the inner workings of the hotel, but still leaves out key details. If they can learn to work together, they have the power to change the destinies of everyone within the hotel.

This dark fantasy draws you into its world, unspooling its bewitching enchantments and chilling dangers a bit at a time. It reminded me of The Splendor, one of my favorites from last year.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Hotel hysteria.
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When I heard about Emily J. Taylor’s debut YA fantasy novel Hotel Magnifique, I knew I needed to get my hands on it. Sign me up for all the magical hotel stories please. I was expecting to enjoy it, I was not expecting to recommending it to everyone I know. Here are some other things that took me by surprise.
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- shocking twists I never saw coming
- dark thriller elements that kept me up at night
- graphic terrifying moments that I can’t get out of my brain
- a fantastic mystery/heist theme
- a complex and interesting magic system
- a sweet romance
- a love story about the bond between sisters
- a rich fantasy world that feels tangible and makes you want more
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Hotel Magnifique is the page turning thrilling fantasy you want this spring. I love that it is a standalone, but I really hope Taylor has more stories to tell in this world because I don’t want to say goodbye.
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There are so many interesting aspects to this book. A hotel that changes locations every 24 hours. Guests are invited for 2 weeks and have an incredible time, but they can't remember their experience. The hotel is one of the few places where magic is permitted and welcomed. Against this backdrop is a a variety of characters with some good, some evil, and some who will do anything for the one they love. Enter Jani and Zosa, two poor orphaned sisters who decide to apply for jobs in the hopes of one day returning to their homeland. However, as is often the case, nothing is as it appears, including the sisters. This is a creepily delightful book, and a fast read. The ending is a bit rushed.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was really looking forward to Hotel Magnifique, because The Night Circus is one of my favorite books, but unfortunately there was something that was just lacking for me. I found the worldbuilding and premise to be so interesting, but struggled to connect with Jani.

Beautifully written with engaging characters this book creates a magical world for fans of the Night Circus. The hotel,and it’s eccentric characters grabbed me from the beginning and held my interest throughout.

This book was enchanting, and honestly I was torn between a four and a five star rating. Reading it is an immersive experience, similar to reading Caraval by Stephanie Garber. That's not to say it isn't a story that stands on it's own, rather it made me feel the same way I felt while reading Caraval. The creativity and wonder that went into writing the scenery and the magic system are incredible.

The only reason this review is not five stars is because of some problems I had with the character development. The main character seemed prone to willfully ignorant self-sabotage fairly often, and at times the dialogue seemed a little under developed, and juvenile (the banter lacked the wit it hoped for). But the overall story development and suspense kept me reading, and I devoured most of this book in two days.

Look, I'm a sucker for a book set in a magical circus/library/hotel or whatever as long as the worldbuilding and characterization are good, and yeah! Hotel Magnifique delivers on all fronts. At first, I found something about the main character really annoying - she kept on getting in trouble for not following rules that no one told her - like figure out the rules, girl! But actually, that was explained in a pretty interesting way later on so what do I know? Anyway, this standalone fantasy has it all: cool magic, a very nefarious villain, and even some sweet sweet romance. I'll be widely recommending it to fantasy fans. 4 stars - I really liked it!

The synopsis is perfectly intriguing, mixed with a beautiful cover that would catch anyones eyes.

I have to say - I did have semi high expectations. I thought this was going to be a whimsical fantasy mystery with great magic, but it was very middle of the road for me. I definitely think there will be people who love and rave about this book, but I wasn’t too impressed.
It was kinda hard to follow, and it seemed to become very rushed toward the end.
I did like the two sisters, and the magic was pretty cool but overall, it just wasn’t the book for me!

Still recommend people to give it a shot tho! Especially if you like the night circus

While slightly tainted by the YA nature/behavior of the protagonist, this one has a solid night circus(y) vibe that's a real pleasure to explore.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it continually kept my attention. I read more than half of it in one sitting because I didn’t want to stop. This book is heavily similar to Caraval, the plots are similar in structure and overall idea but vastly different in characters and individual plot lines as well as specific details about the location in which the story takes place and what specific traits are given to the characters. I loved the magic feel to this book, majority of this book takes place in the “Hotel Magnifique”, a magical hotel that changes location every night. It has the same feel as Caraval in the way that people are invited in, the invitations are limited. Additionally the main three characters have the same feel as Caraval. Within this hotel, all of the important and most seen workers have some sort of magic within them, no two the same. What starts out as innocent and exciting quickly proves to be exactly the opposite. I was regularly intrigued and on my toes about what will happen next or what character will show their true colors. Overall I loved this book, I very easily got sucked into this magical world and found myself completely immersed.

From the very first moment I started this book it resembled Caraval to me. There were several similarities to it. It was compared to Caraval (which I liked) and The Night Circus (which I didn’t like) so I was curious to see how I would like this book. It sounded like something that I would enjoy.

This book was heavily descriptive which was really nice. I thought that it was beautifully described (even if it often sounded like Caraval/The Night Circus at times. I can really see the influence of that. I also might compare it to Where Dreams Descend. I also enjoyed the writing in this book. I thought it was lovely. It created such an atmosphere.

The pacing of the book was slow; and at the beginning there were some parts that were very slow, and the book did drag in parts. Jani is the main character in this book and she is very devoted to her sister, Zosa. But at times I felt so bad for Jani, because she worked so hard and Zosa didn’t seem to appreciate it at all.

Also, I loved the introduction of Bel. He was such a mysterious character at first – and I was curious about him from the very beginning.

The romance in this book wasn’t at the forefront – it did play a part, but I felt that there was a good combination between the romance and the rest of the book.

There is a mystery aspect to this book, and I liked how it begins to play out. There was one part that I was like oh, okay because it was slightly obvious what had happened.

The ever-changing rooms part was so interesting to me, and I liked how as we went along, we learned with Jani, rather than some of the infodumps that can happen in a shorter book.

Overall, I did enjoy this book.

DNF at 36 percent. I found the characters one dimensional and stopped caring about what was going to happen to them. The dialog seemed forced and not realistic. Sad cause the blurb gave it such potential.