Unfortunately, this book didn't do much for me. It had great potential , but never quite lived up to the fantastic sounding synopsis or the gorgeous cover.

I finally gave up at 75% and had to put it down and honestly felt relief. I was never completely sure of what was going on and realized I did not care about any of the characters whatsoever, which is pretty unusual for me. And I'm always into an unlikeable protagonist, so it's bad when they elicit no feelings at all. Plus, I had trouble even distinguishing who was who as I continued to read.

Overall, a super great idea and cover, but my expectations ended up being too high, I think.

The Pink Hotel is a trainwreck you just can't look away from. The fires are coming, the couple is not on the same page. You can see it all happening in slow motion as everything starts to fall apart. I'd been looking forward to reading this one for months and it did not disappoint!

First of all the setting of this one, I was all in. This is basically the famed Beverly Hills hotel, which is my favorite hotel I have ever stayed in. Newlyweds Keith and Kit are invited to stay at the opulent pink hotel to win Keith over to hire him. What was supposed to be a luxurious stay turns into so much more when they become locked in after wildfires, riots and blackouts. Chaos ensues outside and it does inside as well. Dark and dangerous I would love this as a movie!
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Thank you #farrarstraussandgiroux and #NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I don't like giving negative reviews however I did say I would give an honest review in exchange for an arc. I would like to thank Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, MCD for giving me this opportunity. I really tried to enjoy this book. And parts of it I was really getting in to but then some of the things felt so out there. The writing style was not easy to follow and I don't think any of the characters were likable, even the innocent young couple on their honeymoon being influenced by the workers and the guests at the Pink Hotel. The fact that there were wild fires burning all around the hotel and these people didn't seem to have a care in the world. It really made the wealthy people seem so shallow and the hotel employees didn't seem too concerned either.

Keith and Kit are newlyweds invited to stay at the opulent Pink Hotel under the guise that it’s to celebrate their honeymoon. Keith, however, is aware that the general manager has his eye on him as a possible new employee. Wanting more from life and his surroundings, Keith soaks up the high life while Kit, his wife, yearns to go back to her small-town living.
This novel was very descriptive from the first page. It held my attention and made me cringe at the characters' bad behavior. I may not have connected with or liked any of the characters in this book, but Jacobs was able to draw that line between classes and show how out of touch with the outside world the guests at the Pink Hotel were, which was quite entertaining.
With greed and snobbery at the forefront, this book was everything I thought it would be. Distasteful in a good way and full of debauchery, I enjoyed reading from the comforts of my middle-class home.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Jacobs book brings up issues of class, race and gender. It all collides when fires rage out in Southern California and how the various characters manage the chaos. Intriguing read, well worth your time

DNF around 50%.

I'll be honest, I have no idea what is supposed to be happening in this book. It jumps around so much that I'm having a hard time following. I dislike EVERY single character and couldn't care less what happens to them. There's a fire, but they only seem to care sometimes? The opulence of this hotel is so far over the top, it's not even believable. I thought I was farther in, but when I realized I was just half way I couldn't do it anymore.

I don’t even know where to begin??? This was such a strange little book. Not bad. Just bizarre. Middle class Newlyweds Kit + Keith find themselves trapped at the Pink Hotel while wildfires blaze around them. With no one allowed to leave, the tension between the staff and the extremely wealthy guests boils over. And while Keith has his sights set on the city of lights, Kit isn’t so sure.

It was basically one big satire/metaphor/ idk?? Lots of over the top plot lines to drive home how insane the rich guests were. I would compare this to some mix between GOOD RICH PEOPLE (book) and WHITE LOTUS (hbo).

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 stars. I love the cover!


• I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review •

The setting of this The Pink Hotel was absolutely gorgeous! It’s set in the Beverly Hills Hotel in LA and the authors descriptions of the hotel and the garden surrounding it was very lush and manicured. However, I found the characters to be awful. They are just the worst people and have zero redeeming qualities. I would have been fine with this, had there been more humor behind them. Overall, I liked some parts of this novel but I don’t think this book was for me.

Published by MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux on July 19, 2022

The Pink Hotel is a luxury hotel in Los Angeles. The color, location, and history suggest that it is the Beverly Hills Hotel. The manager points out locations in the hotel that were favored by Sinatra and Madonna and hundreds of other celebrities. Many of the hotel’s guests and residents are living lives of waste and leisure, having been born into money that they have not yet managed to squander, although they are doing their best.

The hotel is undergoing a renovation. Half the rooms are unavailable. The other half re in high demand, thank to wildfires that are threatening mansions in the hills. One of the bungalows is the permanent home of a survivor of five marriages, each new husband wealthier than the last. “They’re all dead now,” she explains. “Every single one. I’m all that’s left.” She relies on her pet monkey for companionship. Maybe that’s better than searching for a less reliable love.

The story is of a new marriage and its immediate disintegration. Keith Collins manages a small hotel and restaurant outside of San Francisco that has recently earned a Michelin star. Kit is a part-time waitress who fell in love with Keith. At Keith’s urging, she is studying to earn her certification as a sommelier. When Richard Beaumont and his bored wife Ilka visit the restaurant, Beaumont suggests that Keith might be the right material to work at his pink hotel. Keith and Kit are both gorgeous and Keith has the kind of superficial charm that plays well in LA. After Beaumont learns that Keith and Kit will be getting married, he offers them a deep honeymoon discount at his hotel and suggests that it would be worth Keith’s time to visit the place. The honeymoon offer is actually the idea of Beaumont’s wife, Ilka, who feels inspired by the couple’s young love. Once they are at the hotel, Ilka sets out to test whether their love is real — because, if it is not, then no love is real, including her own.

The guests and staff are amused by Keith and Kit. They clearly don’t belong among the elite. Keith has convinced himself that he belongs, but he feels a need to assure others that he recognizes Kit is “not cut from the same cloth as them.” He refers, for example, to her “hillbilly laugh.” Keith is clearly underselling Kit and Kit is not amused.

Since wildfires have left the hotel understaffed, Keith volunteers to perform various managerial tasks, expecting that his performance will lead to an assistant manager position at the hotel. Keith claims that he’s doing it for Kit, but Kit isn’t happy that she’s being ignored all day. For most of the novel, it isn’t clear whether Keith is even in the running for the assistant manager position. Beaumont might simply be using him as free labor in a time of crisis, or playing a prank on a middle class kid. Kit understands that he wants the job because of “the throbbing empty center of him, the void he tries to fill with expensive pretty things in the hope he will feel whole.” Kit would like Keith to make her feel whole, but he’s more obsessed with pretty things than his pretty wife.

Life at the hotel is frivolous. As Ilka observes near the novel’s end, “In this place, nothing real can survive.” Fires are devastating the hills surrounding Los Angeles, riots have broken out in the streets, but hotel guests are oblivious. They demand constant entertainment and endless supplies of Champaign and cocaine, anything to alleviate the boredom of wealth, to distract them from reality. Toxic twins have given their caracals the run of the hotel. The twins torment Marguerite, a spoiled teen who treats Kit like a new toy. Marguerite dresses up Kit in couture, changes her makeup and shows her off to her wealthy friends. By the end of the novel’s week-long timespan, the hotel has succumbed to the anarchy of its guests. Nothing real is surviving, but little about the lives of the hotel’s guests is real. In the end, they are no better than the protestors who riot outside the hotel, a class war fought without class or dignity on either side.

Love might be real but what is love in the Pink Hotel? “Love is a fantasy,” a hotel guest opines. Beaumont is having an affair with Coco, the hotel’s most competent employee who is nevertheless a glorified waitress. Since her husband is giving her no attention on their honeymoon, Kit is spending too much time with a hot construction worker. Keith reacts by responding to Ilka’s flirtation. This might be the stuff of soap opera, but it’s fun.

While mocking the wealthy is always a good time, the novel’s greater value lies in its dissection of the Collins’ marriage. Kit already feels like she has failed as a wife. She’s torn between love for her husband and a desire for the freedom she had before she became Mrs. Collins. When she tells Keith she doesn’t want to be a sommelier, that she might want to go back to school or become an artist, his response sends the message that he doesn’t believe she’s sufficiently smart or talented to make it in the world without his guidance. The honeymoon opens Kit’s eyes to the reality of her relationship. At the same time, Keith really does love Kit. He knows he should listen to her, knows that they should talk about their problems, knows what he should say to her. If Keith and Kit would just talk, their love might produce a middle ground that allows them to flourish independently and together. They both know that but the words never come.

The woman with five dead husbands might provide the key to the novel when she muses: “Learning how to be so filled with anger and hurt, sadness and fear — all the horrors life can throw at you, and still somehow offer love. Because how else could any of this work? Love despite the monster. Without it there’s nothing.” The novel ends without resolving the issues that are pulling the Collins' marriage apart, but exploring those issues in such a chaotic setting is sufficient. Engrossing events that cause multiple characters to melt down, just as the surrounding world is doing, make The Pink Hotel a bizarre but strangely compelling story.

RECOMMENDED

When was the last time you judged a book by its cover? I gotta tell you, I am GUILTY. Look at that cover! But I'm sorry. This just ain't it.

I don't think I've ever read a book in which I cared so little about the characters. And I've read some questionable books. If the author's goal was to conjure up people that are so despicable, you'd read this book looking absolutely disgusted the entire time.. well, then, she succeeded.

The story (can I even call it that?) takes place over one week. Not one good thing happens. To be honest, I'm not even sure what happened.

The only thing I enjoyed was how the author transitioned between POVs. While most of us are used to multiple POVs by utilizing chapters, Jacobs would switch right in the middle of a paragraph. This may sound crazy but she did it so well, it was seamless. So, two stars for that alone, really.

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Strong 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 because the real story here is one of social justice and I really appreciated the message that was trying to be heard from these pages. Unfortunately, I felt like that message gets somewhat lost in the confusion of the frequently changing POV and the difficulty to find plot. I was often distracted by trying to figure out what the plot was and/or what exactly this book was about, that by the time I got there, the book was ending. Once it ended, I'm actually fine with this writing style, but it's just not what I was expecting going in. The whole thing felt unfocused and a bit disjointed, but ultimately that works. I do recommend this for progressive thinkers and supporters of progressive social movements, but do go into it with your mind open to the underlying message - this isn't REALLY a story about a sweet newlywed couple on a luxurious honeymoon at an exclusive resort - it's about the social and cultural extremes that are present so that luxurious honeymoons and exclusive resorts can even exist for the 1% haves and wanna-haves. The more I digest this book, the more I kinda love it. And if you've marched, or even just stood in solidarity, in a protest in the last few years - the Women's March, BLM, We are the 99%, etc - and ever felt like tearing it all to the ground - give this book a chance.

I wanted to enjoy this one and thought I would based off the synopsis. But this rich-people-behaving-badly just didn't capture me and I felt like I had to force myself to slog through it.

I could not bring myself to finish this book. Nothing happened. It was a forum to showcase the opulence only the privileged few experience. The two main characters are trying to change who they are and it was just sad and unpleasant.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

dnf @50%
I’m actually so upset about this one because the premise had me SO excited! I loveeee books set in hotels and have been seeking out more of them but this one was just super boring and the characters were flat and i tapped out once i realized i didnt care at all about anything happening

I was really looking forward to this as the plot intrigued me. But so far it’s been failing to illustrate the gaps between the rich and poor as promised. It just isn’t holding my attention and nothing of note is happening. Maybe it gets better but I’m not willing to stick around and find out especially after reading other reviews. Plus I can’t stand the characters. The way the women are written is unnecessary and they don’t feel like full fledged characters. Keith is disgusting-I stopped reading when he started talking about having sex with his cousin 🤢 DNF at 20%

* Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book for review, all opinions are my own*

DNF 22%

I tried to read this book, in fact, I think if I tried I could finish reading it but I know I wouldn't give it more than 2 stars unless something VERY SURPRISING happens which I don't think will be the case here.
So since I'm in a very good moment of reading and I don't want to run the risk of getting into a reading slump I decided to abandon this reading, because, in addition to not liking the story, the way women are being described in this book is bothering me A LOT.
It gives me chills, the ways women are being referred to in this book were unnecessary in several parts, and the men in this book also I admit that they disgusted me at times.
I don't recommend this book based on what little I've read.

unfortunately, i was not a fan of this one. i'm not sure i can even say why? it just did not grab my attention like i thought it would. which is disappointing because i keep seeing this book everywhere. thank you for this arc.

I guess after you accumulate certain level of wealth, you wouldn't know what to do with that money - you expect everything to go your way and everyone to be in your service regardless how absurd your requests are. The guests of Pink Hotel are those people. They stay at the hotel just for the fun of it and throw pointless parties where they have exotic animals or use other people to show off their wealth.

Keith and Kit found themselves in the middle of this craziness. Keith wanted to play along with it because it could be his fast track from small B&B management to big shot hotel management. Kit was not so sure about the whole thing. This was their honeymoon after all. She played along as well for a bit, but as things started to get out of hands she decided to hide in the corner although rich friends wouldn't let her go.

When world was burning down (this was set when wild fires were all over Cali), these rich people were teaching us what debauchery means. It showed the big gap - no, no, Grand Canyon between - the poor and the rich. It's a quick book to read on the beach with little bit of satire.

I was a huge fan of Liska Jacobs previous book, The Worst Kind of Want, so I was eager to read this one. In the Pink Hotel, honeymooners Kit and Keith are celebrating their recent nuptials at the Pink Hotel where they experience a vacation that is anything but drama-free. Outside the confines of the hotel, the city it plagued by riots, fires and more, while inside, things are also heating up, as guests are forced to stay claustrophobically confined inside the hotel. This book explores the rising tension between the swanky hotel guests and the hotel’s employees, an interesting and intriguing social commentary on class. While I don’t think anyone would want to stay in this hotel, reading about it is wonderfully entertaining. Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and to NetGalley for the advanced review copy.