Great novel, Space ship, cast of wonderful characters and a mystery. Really enjoyed the novel and looking forward to reading more from this author. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

HIGHLIGHTS
~no one has a happy backstory
~secret sonnets
~a rebel propagandist
~cows as presents
~don’t judge this book by its cover

Let’s get one thing straight: this is not a cosy book. I don’t know why it’s being marketed as one – perhaps the publicity/marketing team had no more idea of what, exactly, this book is trying to be than I did.

Because what it is? Is kind of a mess.

And before we go any further, I want to let you know that Floating Hotel doesn’t have a happy ending. It’s one of those infuriating endings that tries to dress itself up as a happy or at least hopeful one, but is in fact pretty fucking tragic if you think about it for more than .2 seconds. It’s an ending that retroactively ruins any feel-good fuzzies the rest of the book managed to scrape together. (And it did not scrape together many.)

So if you’re looking for a nice cosy sci fi to curl up with…this isn’t it. Allow me to instead point you in the direction of Lovequake by TJ Land (Lovecraftian alien takes human form and adopts human and superhuman misfits) or perhaps Three Twins at the Crater School by Chaz Benchley (traditional English boarding school story but set on Mars, reviewed here) or Gail Carriger’s Tinkered Starsong series (forming a band in space, first book reviewed here). But absolutely, categorically not Floating Hotel.

Like Frontier, Curtis’ debut, Floating Hotel follows a different character with every chapter. Unlike in Frontier, most of these mini-stories don’t tie together into an overarching plotline; instead, each one is more of a flashback to how the character in question ended up working for, or visiting, the hotel, sometimes split between that flashback and what their life looks like now. The characters’ backstories are, to a one, pretty miserable, and the hotel is presented as an escape, a home for all these misfits – one they appreciate to varying degrees. Not everyone’s happy to be working in a hotel for what will presumably be the rest of their lives.

This had plenty of potential to be a very cosy book indeed, which might be one of the reasons I’m so annoyed with it – because instead, Floating Hotel reads like a book that doesn’t know what it’s trying to be. Let’s take the imperial spies mentioned in the blurb as an example. In a cosy story, the spies would probably be played for comedic effect; they might be useless, or completely on the wrong track, or essentially toothless. (…which is an unintentional pun, which you’ll recognise if you’ve read the book.) Instead, we have discussions of and see the aftermath of torture and murder, backed up by many, many mentions and reminders of how horrific the Empire is – and how useless and pointless trying to change things is.

…What part of that is cosy?

There are some smaller storylines that follow developing romances or partnerships, but even those held thorns for me – past trauma leading to awful behavior in the present, for example, or a musical performance that has to abruptly turn into an attempt to save someone from assassins. Even the thing with the love poems ended in someone being emotionally crushed! And the bigger plotlines? Every single one of them ends tragically, heartbreakingly. People die, are blacklisted, tortured, left homeless.

HOW ABOUT NO???

It’s like Floating Hotel was trying to tackle big issues – poverty, the abuse of artists in the music industry, censorship, an even worse capitalism of the future, a big sprawling corrupt empire – while also trying to zoom in on smaller, personal stories; attempting to be cute and sweet while also serving up borderline-grimdark awfulness. And the result is a mess. It doesn’t work, and for the record? That messiness, that inability to commit to one end of the emotional spectrum or the other, made everything so boring. The pacing dragged out what needed to be urgent and high-stakes, and sped up moments of emotional intensity that we should have got to revel in. I had to force myself to finish–

–only to be punched in the face with that ending, which dares to present itself as vaguely hopeful, cautiously optimistic, when really, everything’s been burned to the ground and the earth salted.

I can’t recommend this to anyone: it’s too bitter for those looking for a comfort read, but the more action-y/darker aspects are watered down by the attempt at cosiness.

Just skip this one altogether.

A vignette-style sci-fi that is reminiscent of a quirky indie film, Floating Hotel feels like a slice of a larger story.

I’m not sure why this says it’s a debut because I read Grace Curtis’ other novel, The Frontier, last year. I’d also debate this being called a “Cozy” sci-fi, given there are some moments that are pretty dark (mentions of torture, people being spaced, death in general).

The unique aspect of this novel is that it has a different POV for each chapter, through which a larger story affecting the entire hotel is told. I’m very fond of this sort of thing, as it feels like a book serial but on a smaller scale. You get to see how characters who show up in one chapter actually feel compared to how they are viewed by others. The only problem with this format is that sometimes you feel like you want more of one character and others you’re not as entranced by. It's a similar trap that short stories sometimes fall into. The tone also doesn't feel entirely consistent.

The story itself needed a bit more broadening. I felt like I was supposed to feel something stronger at the end than I did. While the negative aspects of the unvierse were obvious - a totalitarian government, the destruction of planets for mining, etc. - there was no sense of resolution of these factors. Then again, perhaps there was, but it was very subtle and more of a “this might shake things up in the future” than a “take down the dictator” story. In this way, it’s not bad; it was realistic if not entirely satisfactory.

This doesn't really have anything to do with the story, but while I love boats, cruise ships are the supreme example of human hubris in the face of the environment. The grey water, the fuel, the dumping of garbage into the ocean, the food wastage, etc. So why would I read a book taking place on one? Well, my main issue with cruise ships is the destruction of the environment, and other than fuel consumption, the Abeona is not destroying anything - it’s in space. It’s also more like a boutique hotel than a behemoth. I also really enjoy stories set in apartment buildings where there are quirky characters in each room, so that was the draw for me.

I’m also on the fence with the whole romanticizing work aspect of the novel. Everyone in the hotel seemed to love their job, which seemed a bit unrealistic to me. Of course, had they all hated their jobs, the tone of the story would be very different, but certain aspects of the novel seem to glamorize working in a hotel you can’t leave at the end of the day, where you can only see your friends and family once a year, and having to deal with rich assholes all day. If the book had explained more that this place was good to work in because working for the terra-fracking companies is worse (we got a hint of that, but not enough to make that argument), that would have made more sense to me.

That aspect was quite minor, though. I enjoyed the writing style and the quirky characters so I found it an enjoyable, fun read.

A cozy lil space story with some excellent characters.

Somehow got from this exactly what I expected? It was a story about various random people in a hotel floating in space. I liked the chill vibe, to be honest. It was calm sci-fi - not something I've really experienced before!

Essentially, all of these characters have a past that led them to this floating hotel. Most are staff, escaping various things, but there are a few regulars as well who round out the story quite well.

I liked that each character's view progressed the story in its own way. There's no real jumping back and forth; the story marches steadily on, gaining greater insight into the players as we go.

No hectic terminology or wildly deep ideas. Just a soft lil space adventure featuring a bunch of misfits.

I do think things could have been a little more thrilling, but as it is I still enjoyed getting to know the characters and their stories. There were still plenty of moments that kept me invested in these people, the hotel, and the collective future of all.

With thanks to Netgalley for an e-ARC

In this delightful debut science fiction novel, a captivating story unfolds, featuring a cast of misfits, rebels, and a found family.
The narrative takes us on a journey through the stars, unraveling a mysterious plot that adds intrigue to the cozy atmosphere.

It's a truly enjoyable experience—fun, comforting, and notably inclusive. I couldn't help but love it!

Thanks to Netgalley and DAW for providing me the e review copy!

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**TL;DR**: A surprisingly warm and cozy story that follows a crew and the occupants of a floating hotel - including spies and torturers. I loved this.

Frontier was one of my favorite books of last year and Grace Curtis has stuck to her style and brought us another winner in Floating Hotel. This one centers in a floating hotel, a cruise ship of the stars and the drama that unfolds there.

The book is cozy and warm - that’s the best way I can describe it. We get chapters from nearly every crew member and some of those riding, and they give us pieces of the history of the ship, themselves, and what is happening on this possibly last flight. There is an empire at large that the crew and the ship’s occupants are all members of, which is illustrated through the course of the novel to great success I felt.

I ended this loving the characters and the story. I wish we’d had just a touch more in the ending, but the way it was framed and executed worked fantastically. For a book that follows spies and torturers among it’s more cozy elements the book really took me by surprise.

I recommend Frontier and now I’ll add Floating Hotel to that list. Grace Curtis is working her way to a favorite author. This was a delight.

5 out of 5 Friends From Beyond

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with advance reader copy!

The premise of this book really excited me, because it somehow reminded me of Before The Coffee Gets Cold and Dallergut (a place that can make you heal from your pain and regrets), and I was right! This book gave me the same hopeful feeling!

I can't explain it very well, but there is something very moving about this idea, that somewhere across the galaxy, there is a place that will accept you even with all your past mistakes and regrets. A place that allows you to find your family.

I think the only downside of this book is that each chapter is told by a different character, so you won't know what happens after about... 30% of the book, once you get past that phase, everything makes sense.

Oh ! To take a ride on the Floating Hotel! Sign me up!

I absolutely love this book. It's a perfect concept - a hotel that moves from planet to planet (and system to system) kitted out with fantastic food and restaurants and great service. The Grand Abeona Hotel is a dream

I also love how Curtis has styled this sci fi novel - in each chapter we meet a citizen, normally a staff member of the hotel and learn their back story. Abeona seems to be a safe house of sorts, a place for many who lost their home, cut ties with family or are on the run. The stories are varied, exciting and beautiful. This book could have served as a series of short stories tied together by the hotel. Curtis takes the book to the next level by tying everything up with a mystery thriller. Who is leaving notes, and better yet who are they for? Who is the political radical the Lamplighter? Join general manager Carl and all of the denizens of the Abeoa to find out!
#Daw #floatinghotel #gracecurtis

A fun, unique space story. I didn’t realize going into it that it would be quite so cozy. I was thinking *hoping* for more along the lines of skyward but this is not that.

There’s a lot going on and a lot of characters. A floating luxury hotel in space requires a lot of moving parts as one would imagine. That being said, all the different backstories of workers on board made the story read quite clunky. I didn’t feel like I got to know them or even really care about them. I think for me, that’s why I had the lack of connection to the story itself. Then there’s the other part of the story, the mystery side. It was like the author took the cozy side from the left and the rough side from the right and just smacked them together to force them to work.

Love the plot, the idea of it, just not the execution.

Well, that was a fun stand alone. And it felt fresh and original too. Decaying once grand space cruise ship, still very nice, traveling around a corrupt and messed up human empire dealing with all the little plots and schemes brought on board. Solid read for any science fiction fan I think if you’re in the mood for a fairly light, aside from someone being tortured and such not… read.

Very cosy and I love seeing that in the science fiction genre. Definitely a good read on a rainy day or when you are feeling a bit low, it's lovely and makes you feel warm inside.

Thank you to NetGalley and DAW for providing me with an eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review!

I absolutely loved the concept for this book. I loved the characters, I loved the setting, and I loved the story. (You can probably sense a "but" coming.) BUT, I think this book tried to do too much all at once. For a novel that was just over 300 pages, this was an ambitious story to attempt to tell, and unfortunately I just think it fell flat. There was a LOT going on in this book (sometimes too much, which was another issue I had with it) and because of how much was going on, there was just no way to get to a satisfying conclusion to every plot point within the allotted pages. Personally I think this novel would have fared much better as a series. It would have given the author more time to develop the characters, introduce us to the setting, and set up the various conflicts-- rather than piling everything on us at once. I really, really wanted to love this book, but I think it just tried to be too much all at once and the writing just wasn't strong enough to hold up the bones of the story. I still enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, but I think this book could have been so much more had the story (and setting and characters) been given room to breathe.

As we embark on our journey through the Grand Aboena Hotel, we get to see sort of a slice of life from many of the staff members and a few of the guests who call the hotel home. As we encounter each new person we get a glimpse of their past, their secrets, and how they feel about being in the Grand Abeona. There is an overarching mystery that we are trying to figure out as we are introduced to all these characters, I found myself trying to piece together all the bits of information we get to solve it. And I was completely wrong on really what it was the mystery was supposed to be, and who it ended up being about.. So I guess I was mildly confused through a lot of the story, but it didn't make me enjoy the story any less. I had some stand-out favorite scenes and one or two favorite characters, and I loved the cozy vibe that the hotel gave off.
I would check out other books by Grace Curtis in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars, rounded up because I like the concept.

I was drawn into this by the idea of a space hotel, essentially a cruise ship, and the style of loosely connected short stories. It was a quick read, and something easy to read in short bursts, if need be, as each chapter is a vignette of one of the crew or guests of the hotel. All the stories interconnect to form a cohesive, overarching plot. Though this is described as "cozy," I wouldn't term it so - it's cozy for about the first hundred pages, but then it goes down some dark paths, as some dark events happen and some characters have very tragic backstories.

There are a lot of styles represented here - cozy found family, (possible) murder mystery, code-breaking, spy thriller, rebellion against an Empire, and more I'm sure I'm forgetting. In trying to tackle so many tones and styles at once, the stories don't always quite work together, and certainly some characters' stories are more interesting than others, thus the 3.5 score instead of 4. However, on the whole I liked the unique format, as I enjoy it when authors break out of the traditional style. Plus, if you're not drawn into a particular characters' story, you know the next one will be along in 20 pages or so. Somewhere I saw this compared to Becky Chambers' style, and though I think Chambers' stories are a little more cohesive with better developed characters, I can see that comparison. It also reminded me a bit of Mary Robinette Kowal's The Spare Man. If you liked either of those authors, I'd definitely give this a try. I'll keep my eye out for more from this author in the future.

Let me start off by saying: I don't think this will work for everyone, but I devoured it. As a fan of slice-of-life anime and manga, like Restaurant to Another World, or cozy sci-fi like Becky Chambers, this fits those cozy vibes I love. I could 100% see this as an animated series, and I will never know peace until it is adapted.

While each chapter focuses on a different character, either the staff of the floating hotel or guests who visit, there is an overarching thread that is found in each of these snippets of people's lives, and once it starts getting revealed, it is so addicting to follow. I could see people being bored in the beginning or confused by the structure, but I think both the slower start and the unique style are worth it in the end. I was worried the ending wasn't going to hold up, but I found it satisfying. Highly recommend!!

The author uses many different POVs and their varying narratives in a remarkable way. Rather than getting bogged down by too much happened, it served to build the levels of the story.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall Review

This book has the vibe of Legend and Lattes but set in space. Told in a multiple POV, we get to learn about the staff, guests, and crew of the Abeona hotel, a floating spaceship. Though the Abeona has seen better days, it become the center of political intrigue and danger when spies, professors, and soldiers descend upon it.

This story was very cozy and easy to read, with you caring about each character as you go. I loved that each character has a rich inner life that we get access to, and it shows the different sides of the Abeona ecosystem. If you want a light read that has a great plot, I recommend this book.

Actual Rating: 3.5

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC of this book.

‘Cosy’ books within a variety of genres seem to be growing massively in popularity lately and sci-fi is a genre that I’m constantly meaning to check out (my experience with it so far, book wise anyway, is in the form of dystopian novels which I adore) so when I was offered an ARC of ‘Floating Hotel’ I leapt at the chance to check it out. Not only did it tick those ‘cosy’ and ‘sci-fi’ boxes but its blurb promised numerous areas of ‘intrigue’ and it featured a setting that brought ’Passengers’ to mind too. For a first dive into two different genres it was a pretty enjoyable experience.

One of my favourite aspects of ’Floating Hotel’ is one that admittedly may divide opinion; the rather unique way in which the story unfolded. Instead of switching between a couple of perspectives, sticking to one or opting for a third person narrative this book features the majority of its perspectives only once, giving it’s chosen characters one section where the reader gets to discover the past that led them to the Abeona and the events that trouble them in the present. This was wonderfully well done and managed to share these backstories in an engaging manner whilst keeping up intrigue in the present goings on abroad the ship. Scattered between these segments were an intriguing number of ‘Lamplighter dispatches’ which were surprisingly delightful and eye opening to read. It was an interesting approach to a story and I’d certainly be excited to check out more novels written in a similar manner.

The setting also intrigued me and was delightful to explore. Given the novel’s narrative approach and the story’s focus it wasn’t explored as thoroughly as I’m used to (as an avid fantasy reader) but it’s level of exploration felt fitting for the story that was told. The ‘intrigues’ were interesting to unravel too and the central mystery left me pleasantly surprised, for the most part, with how it tied up. The answers aren’t written out in black and white entirely upon the page but in a way that suited the story. Honestly my only issue with the ending is the fact that someone overlooked something fairly obvious to me which is frustrating. Yet as a whole I was satisfied with how everything was tied up.

Early on ’Floating Hotel’ felt as if it was going to be a solid, four star read to me. Yet over time I have to confess that my enjoyment level had a tendency to falter. I was never bored but I wasn’t quite as invested in the story as I could have been. Yes the various mysteries intrigued me, yes I enjoyed exploring the setting and learning everybody’s backstory but I also found a lot of the characters rather unlikeable too. Not all of them but more than I’d have expected. Everyone had interesting stories to unravel and I loved discovering them but quite a few people had such spiky personalities and it frustrated me after a while. Did so many people have to be rude to others consistently?

Similarly I didn’t really feel much of a spark within the romances that were hinted at. This isn’t major, as romance certainly wasn’t the focus of the book, but it’s worth mentioning. Especially as some of the interactions felt somewhat awkward to me. Although I did find some of the parallels between dangers and industries within our own world eye opening.

Altogether I recommend ’Floating Hotel’ and think that it will prove to be a refreshingly different reading experience for many. It’s an interesting approach to a sci-fi mystery with lots of different levels of intrigue. It has lots of fascinating secrets to uncover and is set within a world that I’d happily explore in more depth. Truthfully if a couple more of the characters had felt more likable then this easily would have been a four star read for me.

I am such an absolute sucker for any kind of found family and the galactic island of misfit toys that is “Floating Hotel” left me hoping that everyone has a Carl in their lives. This whacky space mystery was so much more than a who dun it, it was acceptance, second chances, and endless kindness. The end was perfect but left me a little melancholy, that’s all I’ll say.

A hotel spaceship with a crew of misfits who come together to form a family of sorts. An emperor who attempts to quash any discussion or acknowledgement of alien species, even in fiction. A secret subversive newsletter which appears to be coming from the hotel. This book is a lovely cozy mystery set in space. I enjoyed the characters, the concept, and the atmosphere of the book. I enjoyed hearing the story develop from the perspective of the other characters. I can imagine this as a great audio book with multiple actors. Overall, a fun, fast, engaging read. The kind of place that might spawn lots of fan fiction, and I would want to read all of that too. I'll be recommending this to my sci-fi readers for a light mystery and a breath of fresh air.