Becareful what you wish for.

This nutty twisted tale was a rapid escalation of a fever dream filled with dark humor and satirical social commentary on the vapid 1%.
You know how one might hate watch Keeping up with the Kardashians? I hate read The Pink Hotel, as it's made to be hated in all its glory.

Set in an opulent Beverly Hills hotel where the rich and famous shower themselves in decadent parties and lavish eccentricities, a wild fire rages in around them. Kit and Keith Colins, suburban newly weds, found themselves caught up in the drama that is The Pink Hotel. What's meant to be a romantic honeymoon getaway, became a delusional lower middle class' worst nightmare. The husband, with an ulterior motive of his own finds himself selling his soul for a climb up the social ladder, but will things work in the love-bird's favor or will their marriage catch on fire along with everything else around them.

There's so many social issues to unpack as the story develops, but I had to knock off a few stars because of the perspective jumps throughout the book that was often unclear and somewhat confusing. While I wasn't a fan of the writing style, the cult like distortion of The Pink Hotel engulfed my whole attention. This book was an ambitious slow burn (quite literally). Where all the writing mechanics didn't always work,- the story made up for it in a delicious 'can't look away from this train wreck' sort of way.

This book gave off strong F. Scott Fitzgerald + White Lotus energy and I'm living for it.

Wow. I really feel this book was a colossal waste of my time. First off, the first three-fourths of the book dragged as, plot-wise, very little happened. Secondly, I did not enjoy the author’s writing style, particularly the choppy shifting of POVs and constant sentence fragments. Also, for a book that seems to categorize itself as literary fiction, the frequent inappropriate use of dialogue tags surprised me. One example: “‘ I have a second job,’ the waiter laughs nervously,” which SHOULD be, “I have a second job,” the waiter says, laughing nervously. You can’t laugh dialogue!

Perhaps all of these things could have been forgiven if the plot rose to the occasion. After soldiering through the slow parts out of obligation to NetGalley, the action picked up in the last 20 percent. And then the author left me with the ultimate insult—an ambiguous ending. I’ll tolerate that from a well-executed, thought-provoking novel, but The Pink Hotel—for me—was neither.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC, and I do wish all good things for the author, though her work is not for me.

Now this review has been tricky to create because I just loved to hate this book. It has a writing style that just oozes worthless description that seems to mirror the vapid characters. They are all dreadful in the best possible way from the immature, demands of Princess Marguirite to the desperation of the unhappily married couple.

I found this book quite a struggle to really get into but, the premise is simply fascinating. The world is burning but, the disgustingly rich rise above poor people problems by partying and living lavish lifestyles all enabled by the ever disgruntled workers at the pink hotel. I thoroughly enjoyed this insight into the class system but, we didn’t quite need such a heavy going descriptive book.

I found this book a bit difficult and confusing to read mostly because you're left wondering who's speaking and it takes you a while to figure that out. Overall it was an amazing read especially looking into the lifestyle of the rich and also we get to meet different perspectives which i really liked even though i would like to be warned beforehand.

This book was interesting and written in a very distinct style. It reminded me a lot of Sally Rooney, melancholy and a little depressing in a well crafted way. The characters of The Pink Hotel are well fleshed out and each have their own set of challenges and ambitions, they just don't seem to overcome them. I was invested in some of them, but I never found myself rooting for them.

The Pink Hotel offers a peek behind the curtains of the extremely rich 1% and the view is not pretty. Quite disturbing actually. If that is your thing- this book is FOR YOU! Based on the author's note, I think some of these scenes were developed off a foundation of real life happenings and that is frightening (lol).

In summary: Dark humor, twisted expose, and a cautionary tale of marrying too young and soon.

Kit and Keith Collins arrive at The Pink Hotel (aka The Beverly Hills hotel) in Los Angeles full of love and dreams as newlyweds. But their honeymoon is effected when they are drawn into the circle of the rich and famous clientele of the pink hotel. When wild fires suddenly threaten the city of BH and Keith is called into service, playing assistant to the hotel manager, Mr. Beaumont. Because Keith just didn't come to The Pink Hotel for his honeymoon, he also wants a job, and is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to get it!
I hate to have to say it- The writing was bland and I could not get into the story. Everything was choppy and it was difficult to get into the inner monologues of each character because they were underdeveloped. The development overall was slow and I did not like a single character. Sadly, this book is a pass for me.
However, I will say if anything, the cover of this novel is stunning! Perhaps this could be a beach read for some and go in not looking for too much from it!
Thank you NetGalley and FSG for the opportunity to read this ARC. Publication date: 7/19. All
Opinions are my own.

I really wanted to love this novel. Initially, it captured beautifully a sense of place; the setting is lush, indulgent, ripe to the point of fermentation (although this is maintained artificially) and saturated with noise and colour. But after 100 pages of essentially the same reworked descriptions and a sense of menace that took far too long to realise, I gave up and skipped to the end. I suspect this is a novel written with a screen adaption in mind.

I was lucky enough to get an ARC from the publisher. Based on the description of the book I assumed this would only be an assessment of wealth and class in the United States. However, the author found a way to artfully examine the reality of love and how women are treated by society and in their intimate relationships. At times it compares the reality of being a young woman newly married against that of a woman married for several decades, and that of a mistress. Throughout this novel I found myself rooting for and against the same exact characters. Every character is so realistic that in a sense you identify with their contradictions. I would recommend this to anyone that loves a good satire with a hint of dark comedy and several doses of truth. I’m glad I started my year off with this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. Unfortunately, it just did not WOW me. I was confused about the time period and the characters just were not likeable. It made it hard to care what was going on in the story. Thank you.

I'm really sorry but this novel was not for me although I did manage to complete it. From looking at the reviews this is very much a marmite situation, love it or hate it. Unfortunately I fell into the latter category.

I liked the premise of this book but just found nearly all the characters unlikeable whether it was newlyweds Kit and Keith, hotel staff Coco and Ethan or the indulged guests the Laceys, Tigran or Marguerite. Only construction worker Sean had any empathy.

I found the portrayed indulgent, hedonistic lifestyles repulsive, but I fear that there are elements of this which does occur for those who have obscene wealth and few morals.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers, for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

To be honest (no pun intended...haha), I did not finish this book. I really tried to push through but the plot was moving along slowly, coupled with the annoying characters.

At first, I was intrigued by the premise of this book because it gave me 'the white lotus' vibes, and truthfully, I didn't mind it. I enjoyed the TV series, so I expected to like this book. But I couldn't get around the author's writing style. Especially the use of an omniscient POV, and how she steadily jumped from one perspective to another without warning.

Also, what's up with the main couple? Keith and Kit Collins are the most unlikeable characters I have come across in recent times. Think of annoying Arturo from Money heist married to annoying Bella Swan from the Twilight series. I will leave you with that imagination.

What a unique read this was! Drawn in by the cover and synopsis, I was totally unprepared for the dark humour and social satire that awaited me between the pages.
Newly weds Keith and Kit are invited to the famous, opulent Pink Hotel, Keith sees it as a potential new career opportunity but surrounding LA wild fires leave them trapped at the hotel in a nightmare whirlwind life locked between wound up staff and complete bonkers, Uber eccentric rich customers.

Stirring up a hefty heap of classism this novel is nuts, the novel is separated into days and Saturday ends up as one complete giant f##ed up hoo-ha.

The story jumps from POVs of numerous character and the whole story has a style of writing I hadn't experienced before but I really liked. . I'm so glad I requested this book on Netgalley as it was a real step away from my usual genre and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Its a classic "careful what you wish for" situation! When actually for me the simple less extravagant life is always more appealling!

Thanks to Netgalley and #farrarstrausgiroux for the ARC of this book

Pub date 19th July 2022

#netgalley #bookreview #newbooks #books2022 #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #thepinkhotel #liskajacobs #readreadnosleeprepeat #bookaholic

As someone who's extremely well acquainted with Los Angeles, I was quite eager to read this novel... that said, I had a really hard time with the first 40-50% of it, which was a bit of a slog. This story of two newly-weds honeymooning in LA during a lot of strife - wildfires, riots, etc. sounds super exciting, but the writing style was very hard to get into. I stuck with it and did get the "California feels" that I was personally looking for. I am not sure if it just needs a bit more "oomph" at the beginning to hook the reader, but sadly I can't recommend it to the average reader - maybe it is just me, as there is an audience for everyone. My sincere thanks to the publisher & Net Galley for the complimentary DRC, which obviously did not affect my review.

Kit and Keith Collins arrive at The Pink Hotel (aka The Beverly Hills hotel) in Los Angeles full of love and dreams. But their idyllic honeymoon is tainted when they are drawn into the circle of the rich and famous clientele of the hotel. And when wild fires threaten the city, and Keith is called into service, playing assistant to the meticulous hotel manager, Mr. Beaumont. Because Keith just didn't come to The Pink Hotel for his honeymoon, he also wants a job, and is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to get it. But as the fires burn on and the guests become more frantic and in need of atrocities and extravagance to keep them entertained, Kit becomes disillusioned and questions whether she ever knew her husband at all. Jacobs does a truly magnificent job of drawing the reader in and creating such a sense of place that one can even smell the fresh flower bouquets' delicate scents competing with the acrid rasp of smoke. I fell under THE PINK HOTEL's thrall at once and wasn't able to return to the real world until I finished the book

Most will recognize The Pink Hotel to be the iconic Bel-Air Hotel. Be careful what you wish for. The story of the young couple on their honeymoon is a classic tale of want and the emptiness having too much while others suffer can bring. The annual California fires become a character in itself, sealing off those inside even more than their privilege already has. Reaching the final page the reader is reminded to be thankful but the story to get there makes for a fascinating read.

Very grateful to NetGalley for the chance to read “The Pink Hotel”

This is literary fiction so plot is used more to suds out the characters than to provide a story. To me, this book is literature. It should be added to some reading lists for college students because there is so much to unpack. The whole work is an amalgam of wealth, sex, power, gender, expectations, animalistic appetites, decadence; you name it. You could write a thesis on the use of animals and destruction in contrast to created images of the wealthy.

The shifting third person narration adds a sort of blurriness to the intoxicated dream/nightmare of the six days that make up the novel.

Wonderful, wonderful book. I loved it.

Newlyweds invited to a exorbitant and well known Beverley hills hotel for their honey moon. The husband has ulterior motives to get a job while here - and during all of this the world is burning down around them. Literally. Wildfires everywhere. Yet the hotel is doing whatever they can to keep everything as normal as possible for their rich guests. Or. what rich people perceive as normal. Honestly was pretty out there most of the time and felt like it was a little thrown together at the end but overall well written and good concept. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I requested this book because the cover and short blurb really pulled me in. However, once I began reading, I got a little bogged down. It took me a bit to get used to the author's style, but once I did, it flowed well and the descriptions were great! The setting of The Pink Hotel really came to life.

The omniscient point of view felt a little foreign to me as a reader. It swapped around a lot, so I didn’t feel too connected to any one character. I feel that was the author’s intent because she wanted to show many facets of class and social standing.

What I did learn about the characters, particularly the wealthy ones, was not pretty, and they all came across as downright repulsive. But, the more middle class characters like the hotel employees and Kit and Keith Collins didn’t really have anything about them that made me want to root for them. Kit and Keith were starry-eyed honeymooners, but Keith was also at The Pink Hotel for a job interview of sorts.

Initially, I found their love for each other to hopefully be what cemented them and kept them out of the craziness at The Pink Hotel. It didn’t quite work in their favor. The action really picked up toward the last third of the book, and I found the ending to be vague enough to draw your own conclusions as a reader, but also strangely satisfying.

The book gives a new meaning to just burn it all down and start over.

The synopsis of this book, and the cover art really attracted me to this book. I love reading stories that are set in Los Angeles. While I loved reading about the Pink Hotel in Beverly Hills and all it’s guests, this one fell a little short. Set in the summertime where Southern California fires are burning rampant across the county, the Pink Hotel was a refuge for the wealthy looking for a staycation while the “middle class” was protesting for help and rioters were frustrated with the social divide. The story development seems very slow in the beginning and it wasn’t until about the middle of the book where the pace started picking up, and the lack of character development had me losing interest. Overall the setting made it a fun read, but it wasn’t a favorite.

Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me. I adore the cover. While I don't usually read blurbs and only skim them I read this one and it intrigued me enough to ask for a copy but I didn't remember much when I started reading and was coming into the book blind. The premise is that a couple of newlyweds have the opportunity to spend their honeymoon in the Pink Hotel. I felt like the story was moving slow and not much was happening till the fires and protests and the last part of the book. There were a lot of characters and I didn't enjoy Kit's childish behaviour at all. There are some societal issues the book touches on but it didn't hit the mark with so many characters and not enough depth to the problems. Overall, I feel like it could have been much better. The portrayal of the wealthy was spot on but the book was probably supposed to be a satire and I didn't feel that enough for me to change my perspective.