This book is marketed as YA and it is geared more towards Middle School. Some of the characters were pretty unbelievable and not in a good way.

Murder at the Hotel Hopeless centers around Charlie as he helps his mom run the family hotel. Everything is pretty normal until his friend dies mysteriously, he then begins to learn more about his life when he learns he left something behind for charlie. With the help of Penny Price, a child actor, he must untangle webs of secrets to find out what happened to his friend.

Murder at the Hotel Hopeless wasn't my favorite read of the year, and I struggled to stay engaged at certain points. I genuinely feel it's better for a younger crowd but still fun and light easy-to-read mystery.

This is a clean and clever murder mystery aimed at a bit of a younger audience than I expected when I picked it up but it was still a good and an easy read. I'm impressed and would recommend it to most younger people.

Orca Book Publishing creates titles for struggling readers or English Learners. I’d encourage Orca to analyze the Lexile score of this title. It seemed to have easy sentence structure, but difficult vocabulary.

The mystery was interesting. Unfortunately I didn’t find any of the characters likable. Penny was a brat, Charlie was always griping, mom stressed out, Dexter grumpy … Sorry. A miss for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orca Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Murder at the Hotel Hopeless follows Charlie Hope, a teenager who helps his mom run a hotel, when his friend who he finds out has a secret past as a jewel thief, Mr. Ignato, dies. This short novel then follows him and Penny, who plays a teenage detective on TV and is currently hiding out in the hotel, as they try to find out who killed Mr. Ignato.

I thought that this book did exactly what it set out to do. For a middle grade audience, it will be straight-forward, and probably fairly compelling.

This was a quick read! It’s a great whodunit and I didn’t not want to put down until I found out the truth. I love this author’s style! I had never read anything by him, but I will now!

From the cover on, it's clear that although this is a hi-lo novel, good for teens who are learning English, it doesn't talk down to readers. (A reminder: just because the book is written at a third grade level doesn't mean the content is appropriate for readers of that age.) With a limited vocabulary, there isn't a lot of description, which keeps the action moving but also means that the characters don't have a lot of depth. In many ways, this feel like the book version of a TV series. Great for reluctant readers and those just learning English.
Review based on an eARC received through NetGalley.

This was a short, but fun read; great for younger readers. This was fast moving and exciting enough to capture the attention of younger readers.

Charlie Hope helps his mom run the family hotel. His life is pretty normal until his friend, Mr. Ignato, dies mysteriously. He soon learns that Mr. Ignato was a thief previously in his life and left Charlie a missing diamond - that also happens to be cursed! With the help of a child actor, Penny Price, Charlie is determined to find out what happened to his friend.

This was a short, easy to read book. The writing was not my favorite - it felt choppy - but for a younger audience, I feel like it is a pretty solid mystery.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a pretty quick read. I do like how one of the main characters was able to fool another main character. I like how at the end, even though Penny doesn’t have to stay at the hotel; she still wants to.

I really enjoyed Murder at the Hotel Hopeless. It read more like a short story to me, but if you look at the target audience, it's perfect. It is part of @orcabook series of hi-lo novels. They are short, high interest novels written at a lower reading level. I love how this gives struggling readers access to age appropriate stories. They are also published in a dyslexia friendly format. I read an e-copy, so I can not speak to it, but I love that this exists.

Murder at the Hotel Hopeless has a relatable main character- 17 year old Charlie is trying to get his driver's license, is dealing with family money troubles, oh and solving a murder.
The plot is a fun murder mystery involving stolen jewels, ex-cons, and a hearse.
It moves very quickly, but still manages to have character development.

While this book is geared toward teens, it would also be appropriate for younger readers. Recommend for ages 10+

Thanks to #Netgalley and @orcabook for an early copy for review.

This is a fast-paced, action-packed murder mystery involving teens who live in a hotel with a retired jewel thief. Printed in dyslexic friendly font, and written in easy to decode language, this book is good for older MG-YA kids who may be reluctant readers or ELL.

Will recommend purchase for school libraries

A cute middle-grade mystery that is more of a short story than a novel (it took me an hour to read from start to finish). A good mystery, although if you read mysteries often, you'll figure this one out pretty quickly.

thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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This was a super cute and fun middle school mystery. There was a variety of characters and stereotypes, it was super fast-paced, I loved charlie as a character she was smart and driven. This is perfect for a younger reader that is interested in the mystery genre.

This is a cute fast-paced middle school mystery book. You have a spoiled brat movie star, a teenager who lives in the rundown hotel his mother owns, an old man, and a missing diamond. This is the perfect book for a 6th grader to read. There is a murder to solve so the movie star comes to the rescue since she plays a detective on tv.

I really enjoyed this book as a nice refresher from a binge of romance that I just went through. I think it would be great for anyone just getting into murder / mystery books as it was short but never boring. Overall a great read! Thank you to Netgalley and Orca Book Publishers for this ARC!

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, Orca Book Publishers and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Enjoyable and entertaining, keeps you reading.

I really, really enjoyed this book! It had me hooked from the very beginning and kept me hooked the whole time!