Suite Scarlett Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Welcome to the Hopewell Hotel. We offer clean suites, delicious food (sometimes burnt), free entertainment (that the owners don't know about), and service with a smile.
Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson has family values. Rather, it values family: The Hopewell has been passed down through the Martin family for generations. The current owners are struggling to keep it going, and their children readily pitch in to help. Well, "readily" is relative - no pun intended. There's Spencer, the oldest at nineteen, an actor skilled at comedy and pratfalls; Lola, a recent high school graduate whose rich boyfriend can give her everything she wants - except that which matters most; Scarlett, the Suite's sweet protagonist; and Marlene, the youngest, who has no problem saying what she likes and what she doesn't. On his or her fifteenth birthday, each Martin gets a suite to care for. The book begins with Scarlett turning fifteen, getting assigned the Empire Suite, and finding out just how tight things are getting in the hotel. "We'll get by," her father says. "We always do."
And they do. I really enjoyed the family dynamic in this book. Spencer and Scarlett are close, as are Marlene and Lola. They all get along, but Scarlett's bond with her brother is stronger than that with either of her sisters. Thus, a large part of Scarlett's story also belongs to Spencer. He put a culinary scholarship on hold to pursue his acting, and his parents gave him a year to become a working actor or buckle down for school. With that year almost up, Spencer is anxious for something to come his way that pays him (to make his parents happy) and challenges him (to make him happy), so he's thrilled to when he gets the opportunity to be in a production of Hamlet. Spencer has such a good heart. You'll want him to succeed, and you'll wish he was your older brother too.
Meanwhile, while all of Scarlett's friends are off having summer adventures, Scarlett works at home. The Empire Suite is occupied by an aging actress named Mrs. Amberson who has money to spare and opinions to share. This woman is a true character. You never know what she's going to do next. Instead of bossing her new assistant around with barking commands and snapping fingers, she becomes an odd sort of confidante for the girl, and her eccentric ways become endearing.
Before long, Scarlett finds her summer schedule pretty full. In addition to dealing with Mrs. Amberson's antics and helping out with Spencer's show, she's also crushing on Spencer's scene partner Eric. She tries to re-connect with each of her sisters. Marlene's coddled for a reason - something I won't reveal here - and sophisticated Lola's apparent happiness may be more of an act than her family knows.
Maureen Johnson's sixth novel - and Scholastic debut - is not to be missed. Johnson's trademark wit is here ("Before, liking Eric was like a mirror - it was just a shiny thing, and it only went one way") as is her ability to capture simple truths. There are many truths to be told here about families, first loves, careers, living in New York City, and simply growing up.
It's refreshing to read a story with a well-adjusted leading character who actually acts her age and likes her family. Watching Scarlett takes in everything around her is a real treat. She's content to be in the middle of her family, in the middle of her teen years, but she's also realizing how many wonderful possibilities are out there for her and for the ones she loves. You know that whatever she does now or when she grows up, she'll do it well.
Check into the Hopewell today. I hope - I know - you'll enjoy your stay.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Suite Scarlett

Click here for more information about Suite Scarlett

Annika At Wilderness Hotel: The Finnish Spies Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This story caught my interest because I was so fascinated with the charactors in the book. If I think about it, I am alot like Annika because we both like adventures, except of course I can't see peoples auras. I wish I could though.
All preteen girls should read this book because it caught my interest and will probably catch yours.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Annika At Wilderness Hotel: The Finnish Spies

This is the first in the series about a Swedish girl whoimmigrates to America in 1882. Annika lives at Wilderness Hotel by ahuge lake on the Minnesota/Canadian border, in a place namedSettlement. She is small and very dark, much unlike her tall blondparents. The people of Settlement stare at her sometimes, and thismakes her uneasy, but Annika isn't unduly concerned about this becauseshe is loved very much by her Swedish Pappa and Momma, and besides,she has many good friends. But Annika keeps her secrets. She hasspecial powers and tells no one about them. She experiencesforetelling . . . that is the knowing what is going to happen inadvance of it happening. And she sees what she calls the "colors" ofpeople . . . we know of this as auras. Annika enjoys her powers. Sheused them to her advantage when getting to know new people. Her powersbecome more potent as she pays closer attention to them, trusts them,and she often uses them to guide her. Annika's family has begun awonderful new life. But all is not well in America. The past knows noborders. It follows Annika's Pappa across the sea from Sweden toAmerica. Then it falls to the "Little Black Haired General" to saveher family and the people of Settlement from evil forces that woulddestroy them all.

Click here for more information about Annika At Wilderness Hotel: The Finnish Spies

The Ice Hotel Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I couldn't put the book down early on. The story is full of wonderful details about a place I will probably never visit; the suspense is palpable. I finished the book lying on the beach under the sun in Mexico and could feel the Arctic winds. MC Foley really brings you into another world; fascinating!

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Ice Hotel

A family, reeling from their eldest son's death, escapes to the Ice Hotel, where an age-old, arctic magic connects this world to the next...To twin siblings Izzie and Poe McGarity, big brother Rossa is not just the eldest of three children.He is a hero, a leader, a king.Or rather... he was a king.Before his mistake.Before he died.Haunted by visions of Rossa wherever they turn, the twins and their parents accept an invitation to the legendary Ice Hotel, an enormous structure built entirely from snow and ice, thousands of miles to the north, in the Arctic Circle.What the grief-stricken McGaritys don't know, is that the Ice Hotel will not only bring them face to face with frigid Arctic winds, powerful huskies built of fur and frost, magnetic fields, fluxes and levitation, mercenary Hunters, and a storm thundering towards the polar cap with the force of the cosmos itself; but also, it will bring them closer than they could ever imagine, to Rossa's last, greatest, and most impossible wish.

Get 28% OFF

Click here for more information about The Ice Hotel

The Enders Hotel: A Memoir (River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Growing up in a hotel sounds like a cool and exotic experience, doesn't it? At the very least, it must have offered the chance to meet all kinds of people. And eating all of your meals at a café counter, sitting on an upholstered and spinnable stool, would have been fun, too. Well: maybe. These are the kinds of scenes Brandon Schrand recalls when he thinks back to his childhood. He lets us in on his unique past within the pages of this intriguing memoir.
Schrand's family owned the Enders Hotel in Soda Springs, Idaho, from 1975 to 1992. A three-story brick building with more than 100 rooms, the hotel dates to 1919 and was named for William and Theodore Enders, the German immigrant brothers who built it. Coincidentally, the establishment was also an attraction for "enders" of other sorts: transients, recovering alcoholics, and individuals just plain down on their luck. Schrand's relatives -- a complex combination of personalities as a result of multi-generational divorces -- accommodated pretty much all of them, when they weren't on the move or in recovery themselves. "It seems fitting, inevitable perhaps," he writes, "that we eventually bought a hotel, a place outfitted with so many exits and entrances, and a place that seemed itself a beacon to the far-farers, to people, ultimately, like us." (p. 203) At the same time, Brandon was growing up. An only child with a vivid imagination and a clubhouse that he eventually shared with friends and classmates, Brandon spent his so-called "formative years" doing odd jobs around the building, alternatively interacting or deliberately ignoring the guests (as per his parents' orders), and exploring the natural areas around the hotel. Complete with a geyser that erupted every hour on the hour, Soda Springs was a company town, a tourist destination, and a temporary way station for many a passer-by. For Brandon, it was Home.
The novelties are what make for interesting reading here. Soda Springs. An unusual family situation. Living in and operating a hotel with a bar and a restaurant. Most of us don't come from similar situations. And yet: growing up is in itself a common experience and one that we can all relate to, no matter the location. And though we may be singularly place-oriented when we are children, it is only when we become adults and look back over the years that we realize that the individuals who surrounded us at the time made the difference, all along. As much as we loved special buildings or certain towns, it was the people who made those places remarkable for us. That can be a hard lesson to learn; harder still, to accept.
Writing such a book is a risky business, since it reveals so much of oneself and one's family. (How did Brandon remember all of these boyhood incidents???) This is the kind of memoir that prompts you to write your own. It's easy to see why it's an award winner.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Enders Hotel: A Memoir (River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize)

Get 32% OFF

Click here for more information about The Enders Hotel: A Memoir (River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize)