Book Review: The Pink Hotel by Lisa Jacobs

 GOODREADS SUMMARY:

Confined to an opulent Beverly Hills hotel during a raging wildfire, a young couple is caught in the escalating tension between the wealthy guests and the staff.

Newlyweds Keith and Kit Collins can hardly believe their luck when the general manager of the iconic, opulent Pink Hotel invites them to come for a luxurious stay as a bid to hire Keith. Kit loves their small-town life, but Keith has always wanted more, and the glittering, lily-scented lobby makes him feel right at home.

Soon after their arrival, wildfires sweep through the surrounding mountains and Los Angeles becomes a pressure cooker, with riots breaking out across the city amid rolling blackouts. The Pink Hotel closes its doors to "outsiders," and Keith and Kit find themselves confined with an anxious, disgruntled staff and a growing roster of eccentric, ultra-wealthy, dangerously idle guests who flock to the hotel for sanctuary, company, and entertainment.

A blistering, dark social satire, The Pink Hotel exposes a tenuous class system within its walls, full of insurmountable expectations and unspoken resentments, which deteriorate as the city burns. In her barbed, provocative new novel, Liska Jacobs explores the corrosive nature of greed and interrogates the notion of true love, while hurtling readers toward certain disaster

TEE'S THOUGHTS:

Oh good lord this book was a wild and very odd romp. The Pink Hotel takes place entirely in an exclusive pink hotel located in Beverly Hills, with descriptions that mirror the Beverly Hills Hotel, with its pink exterior and palm frond wallpaper, even the Polo Lounge to have a drink in. That instantly drew me in, because I love love that hotel, second only to the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood.

Newlyweds Keith and Kit Collins take their honeymoon at the famous pink hotel, but under different circumstances, then Kit thinks. Keith who runs a small boutique hotel in Northern California has a chance at a job in the Beverly Hills Hotel and is comped for his interview and apparent shadowing. He jumps at the chance, I mean who wouldn't be? But Keith is all about the prestige and glamour it would bring him and Kit.

I won't lie, I thought this book was slow in many places, but it was like a bad train wreck and I could not look away, I was curious to see what next would happen in this circus tent of a hotel. The author wrote with such satire, and I think that was another reason I kept on reading. Her writing was good, the story..ehh.

The characters were just awful, but I feel like they were written to be awful. They were overindulgent, wealthy beyond measure, and just humans that felt that everyone around them, were there solely for their entertainment or pleasure. But again...their antics, the outlandish parties for their pets, their disregard for others, it kept you reading to see what they could possibly do to outdo their last stunt. None were likable, especially Keith, who to me was the ultimate brown nose trying to make his way into their world and get the job, even to the point of sacrificing himself and his new marriage.

Kit wasn't awful, I just found her super naive, and you kind of felt pity for her, especially the way the people dressed her up and paraded her around. The rest of the characters were just extreme but played the parts in the story that they were supposed to with unbelievable precision. They certainly had me laughing, and the author did a great job of overinflating their characters with their wealth, I feel like this was heavy on the satire part.

I do not know if I loved or hated this book- I mean I loved the cover- it is gorgeous, and it WAS an interesting read. I gave it three stars because damn I just kept reading and reading...for whatever reason.