THE PINK HOTEL: ⭐️⭐️🌗
There was so much potential for this book that reminds me of the premise of the British tv series UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS. I found it incredibly difficult to get into but by the time I did, I was so disenchanted with the characters that found myself finishing just to finish rather than enjoying the words on the page.

NOTE: I was provided an ARC by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an audio ARC of The Pink Hotel.

Kit and Keith Collins, are newlyweds who happened to be invited by the general manager, to stay at the stunning and famous Pink Hotel in the heart of Beverly Hills, as his personal guests. Kit is shocked to learn that their honeymoon is actual a job interview as Keith desperately wants to work and become a part of the Pink Hotel's world. There are two distinct social classes at the hotel, the ultra wealthy with outrageous demands and sky-high expectations, and the staff who spend every waking moment making these fantastical requests a reality. As she keeps herself entertained while Keith is working, Kit finds herself with one foot in both worlds; making good friends with the overworked employees and ultra rich, spoiled and bored hotel patrons. Beyond the hotel walls a massive wild fire is raging, creating curfews and riots with the super rich and glamourous seeking shelter and pushing the hotel to its breaking point.

I had the audio version of this book, narrated by Tavia Gilbert, who did an excellent job moving the story along and keeping the pace fast and interesting enough to keep my attention. Let me start by saying that none of the characters are likeable. Some are unlikable by design, albeit a tad cliché, and some like Kit, who is supposed to be the protagonist, become grating as the story continues. I loved the concept of this story as a take on the Beverly Hills Hotel and the eccentric past and present that it possesses, with a host of unique personalities making up this micro milieu. Because the characters and so extreme and the ending is like a massive grenade I did not like this book as much as I was hoping to.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for access to the audiobook of The Pink Hotel by Liska Jacobs in exchange for an honest review.

CW: drug use, alcohol use, violence, injury, fire, classism, see full list on StoryGraph.

Newlyweds Keith and Kit Collins elect to spend their honeymoon at The Pink Hotel, where Keith is hoping to be offered a job. Quickly enraptured by the whirl of high end hospitality, Kit and Keith find themselves "adopted" by some of the high rollers. The events that unfold are emblematic of the remorselessness of wealth.

Something I learned about my reading tastes by reading this book: I LOVE books set in hotels (see also The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart, One by One by Ruth Ware, The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse). Setting a book in a hotel is one way to get me wrapped up in the exposition right away. However, as with several of the hotel set books that I've read over the last year, the follow through fell a bit short for me. I can get dazzled by the lavishness of being at the hotel, but the action never seems to be as engrossing. This book was shelved by others on Goodreads as a thriller, but I would not describe this book as a thriller. I'm sort of at a loss for how to describe it and what audience to recommend it to. It's not quite ridiculous enough to feel obviously satirical, but it's not suspenseful enough to be categorized as a thriller. I think the take away from this story, as is the case with similar books with large casts of characters is that obscene wealth brings with it a carelessness and unkindness that I never want to lose.

It takes a while to get invested in The Pink Hotel. It's a slow start, with some extreme characters, and situations. A social commentary on class, it highlights the vast gap between middle/lower classes and the ultra wealthy. This book is filled with the absurdity of excess. The further along in the story you get the more you get swept into the crazy, and it's easy to see how it does the same for the two main characters Kit and Keith. It also shows how having any/everything one might want doesn't always lead to a happy and fulfilled life.

The narration, and production quality is great, but overall the story is a bit lackluster. It accomplishes it's goal of dark social satire, and allows the readers to be voyeurs to this group of people who live life so unlike the mass majority.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to listen to this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

This book revolves around Kit and Keith, a newly married couple that are launched into the ritzy world of the upper echelon elite in a fancy hotel. Keith has always wanted more from his life and starts off his marriage by not telling Kit their honeymoon was really a job interview. This novel attempts satirical dramatization of class-wars and the frivolity and ridiculous of the wealthy but had so much going on I felt confused reading the entire book.

I really wanted this book to be a DNF but I trudged along and I do mean trudged.
The over-descriptive and over-exaggerating language was extremely distracting and the sense of place was missed in the writing of this book. It was almost too descriptive that it lost the power of the storyline. I loved the idea of what this novel was trying to achieve and I respect and honor Liska Jacobs for attempting to write such a unique book with a truly interesting plot. However, for my taste, it just didn’t deliver and fell flat. I am so confused by the ending it was not a satisfactory end at all.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

I couldn't quite get into this despite the excellent narrator... There were some interesting characters and some crazy (literally) scenes, but it wasn't really keeping my attention. I can see this being a hit with many, just not for me.

In my opinion, this book was fine. It wasn't great, it wasn't horrible, it kind of hovered somewhere in the middle. I found that the audiobook especially couldn't really draw me in very well, especially with the slow nature of the book, and I found the ending to be very rushed. Somehow, as this book went on, so much was happening, and at the same time, absolutely nothing was happening.

I think that the descriptions of the setting were definitely a strong point of this book, and the atmosphere that Jacobs created as very tangible and felt very real. I also think that the characters were fun, although they tended to each be a little bit one dimensional.

Overall, I feel neutral about this book. I don't regret spending the time to listen to the audiobook, but I'm not sure I would recommend it to other people as a book they have to read.

Thanks for the good read, #netgalley.!

Imagine Crazy Rich Asian and Fantasticland had a baby- that is this book.

Striving smallytown newlyweds embark on a psuedo-honeymoon, psuedo- job interview at the exclusive pink hotel-which becomes increasingly chaotic and dangerous as the world outside is engulfed in wildfires and protests against the ultrarich guests.

I thought this was such a fun read, despite finding almost every character universally unlikeable-which was definitely the point....i hope. There is so much tension in kit and keiths relationship and i wanted so much to shake kit and tell her to lean into her intuition but then you remember shes a malleable 23 year old. I in no way anticipated how dark this turned in the last few chapters, but i liked it- it made it different and memorable.

Keith and Kit are young newlyweds that are gifted a stay at a luxurious hotel for their honeymoon. The Pink Hotel is trying to hire Keith, so their honeymoon has the dual purpose of an extended job interview. While the storyline was an interesting concept, with the young couple being immersed into the work of the ultra wealthy, the characters were just all so awful. There was not one character I could relate to. They were ugly and nasty people, so I found not one character to root for. It left me fearing for humanity….
***huge thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I made it through about half of this, but I couldn't tell where it was going and I didn't care about the characters, so I set it aside.

Not a terrible a book but I couldn't get into it at all. A swanky hotel in Los Angeles serves as the setting for this book about a newlywed couple and the rich guests they mingle with while the city burns and riots rage outside the walls. Uninteresting characters and very little plot/action just made me bored. Sadly this wasn't for me. LOVED the gorgeous cover though. DNF @ 55%.

Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for early digital copies in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately, this was my first DNF on NetGalley. I just wasn't interested in the characters and the satirical view of rich Californians. I wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't get into it.

Netgalley gave me a free copy of the audio book in exchange for my honest review. What a wild ride! The Pink Hotel isn't what I expected, but that's ok. Kit and Keith are on their honeymoon at a fancy, bougie hotel in LA during the height of a wildfire. You watch them spend a week with the guests and staff of the Pink Hotel, and dang do they do a lot of loathsome and crazy stuff. The audio was fine, and the narrator changed her voice to portray different characters, but eek, those voices were annoying as hell. I'm sure this was intentional on the narrator's part to show how hair-raising these characters' personalities are.

This definitely seems like satire, shedding light on the horrible things rich people do because they are bored and have too much money (although they have trauma and feelings just like everyone else). This read a bit like a movie, just watching $hit hit the fan and everything burn up around them (literally). I don't know if this book was entirely for me; it's hard to tell if this was a purposeful style of writing or just not that well done. It kept me reading, but I would only recommend it with forewarning.

I loved this!
Kit is a delight. Keith is a piece of shit, Coco and Mimi deserve the world! My heart broke for Marguerite
Sort of a modern Masque of the Red Death like
Will definitely be getting this in print so I can go over some parts.
Freaking wonderful, So atmospheric especially with the humidity I'm currently living in.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, MCD and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of this novel by Liska Jacobs, narrated by Tavia Gilbert - 3.5 stars!

Newlyweds Kit and Keight Collins are spending their honeymoon at the Pink Hotel, an exclusive hotel in Beverly Hills, partially paid for by the general manager. Kit and Keith come from a small town where they work at a much-less glamorous hotel and they are not prepared for this opulent lifestyle or what it might do to their marriage. Kit is ready to relax and enjoy and isn't comfortable with all the excess and classism apparent in the hotel. Keith is viewing this as a job interview and the general manager uses him to help out, while promising him a future, one that Keith is desperate for. Then wildfires sweep in and everyone is confined to the hotel.

While the narration was good and I liked the storyline, I found it hard to like any of the characters or be too interested in their lives. The plot line of the staff vs guests was interesting, with so much elitism and classism on display. The satire was enjoyable too, with dogs dressed up for events, and the wildfire was the perfect spark for changing course. But all in all, I just wasn't real invested in this one, as much as I loved the cover and premise. You may love it, so give it a go!

This was a difficult story to get into. None of the characters are likable and the point of view changes more than I liked. The story is a dark social satire, so basically all of the rich people were horrible individuals, partying while the city around them burned due to wildfires and closing their doors to "outsiders." They even held a luncheon for their dogs!

This story was short on plot, but continued to beat the drum of "the elite wealthy are awful, soulless people." The people in this story are indeed awful, but I have a hard believing that every ultra-wealthy person is like this. It was quite over the top. I had to struggle to keep my interest in the story as there was little plot to follow. Unfortunately, this one did not work for me.

I listened to the audiobook version, and the narrator did a good job, which lifts this book up by one star to three stars.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from Macmillan Audio. My review is voluntary and my opinions are my own.

Keith and Kit Collins are celebrating their honeymoon with a trip to the luxurious Pink Hotel in Los Angeles. Unbeknownst to Kit, Keith is plotting to be assistant manager at the hotel. Feeling out of place amongst the outrageously rich, famous, and infamous. Keith is trying to ingratiate himself with the Manager and staff. We follow not just Keith and Kit, we follow the insanely rich guests and the accommodating staff. Set against raging wildfires throughout Los Angeles, Keith works to fit in and Kit wonders if this marriage was the wrong idea. As the fires get closer and the guests get more demanding, protests grow near the hotel. Its a trip that will change the direction of their marriage and their lives. With a color cast of characters, this story seems like if I wait a week or two this story could totally happen in reality. With so many characters, it can be easy get lost, but I did enjoy the story.

A breathtaking look at the terrible game played to keep up with or serve the Joneses.

It’s nothing you don’t see in daily life or on the news but it’s awful how much people who want to matter are willing to sacrifice to get there. Relationships, morality, sanity, themselves.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to listen and review this novel.

I was really drawn to the cover art and the premise of this story, but it actually fell flat to me. I didn't get any kind of real connection from the newlyweds. I understood the author was trying to show what class, privilege, class disparity, greed, social status, money, love, and relationships look like from someone thrusted into it but not truly apart of it.

It took the author a good long bit of narration to really get to the point and then the ending felt somewhat ridiculous and rushed.

Thank you to partner MacMillan Audio for the review copy of The Pink Hotel by Liska Jacobs, narrated by Tavia Gilbert.

This is a well produced and powerfully narrated audiobook, I think it was really well narrated and a strong example of voice acting. I found Tavia Gilbert's range of intonation for different characters impressive and her ability to convey the faux joviality of characters such as Mr Beaumont and to capture the inner thoughts and unease in Kit to be effective. 4stars for the narration, truly well done and impressive, the stars are for this strong work done in narration.

In terms of the plot of the Pink Hotel, I was overall not excited about the story. the writing is excellent but in the literary style that is atmospheric in a way that I find distancing and disengaging, I felt like an outsider looking into the world but never fully engaged in it. The characters too were not likable and the story, though thought provoking, when in directions that just were a bit too out there for me. This is me, my taste, and what works for me as a reader/listener, the writing as I said is impressive and themes on social class, marriage, sexuality/sexualization, and many other themes are worthy of discussion and analysis. The plot/execution though is more 2-3 stars.