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.
– GoodReads
My Review
Do you like Spirited Away? Do you want it somehow creepier and with a slightly more European twist? Cool, read this.
I read this in a handful of hours. I started it on my way to Galaxy-con, I finished it easily afterwards. It was a very quick read and a very fun read. Seriously, I love Spirited Away so reading this and realizing how similar they were just made my day (though I am unsure if that was intentional).
Much how I felt about Scarlett in Caraval, I really wanted to shake Jani at times. in fact she was probably my least favorite character at times. I had a hard time believing she kept her and Zosa with a roof over their heads with how rash and ridiculous she was. It was the main reason this was not a five ‘star’ (coffee) read for me.
Jani plunges Zosa in to the magical world of Magnifique and it is a dark and dangerous world. Jani certainly has tenacity and it was nice to watch the world int he hotel unfold around her. Zosa is her motivation and I do love a good sisterly love story with romance. She’s constantly trying to get back to Zosa as she realizes that working at the hotel is not at all what it appears to be.
the goriness of the book was spectacular, this dark gritty magical world was easy to get obsessed with and hard to put down once it does hit that darker stride.
This is another book where I really loved the other characters. Taylor does a great job making you care and/or be intrigued by every character she gives you in the book and I love that.
The world outside the hotel is not as well developed, I did want to know more but since the setting was primarily the hotel itself, I didn’t think it was really an issue.
The antagonists are properly horrible and I loved that, but if you’re not a fan of some gore and horribleness, maybe pass on this lol.
A great, quick read that I am lucky enough to have an eARC of! I also may have ordered a physical copy I just enjoyed it that much!
4/5 Huge cups of coffee from me! Thank you so much to PRH for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion!
The Caffeinated Reader 