Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor

22 reviews

bellebookcorner's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I really like this magical book!
It certainly gives off the Caraval vibes - enchanting, alluring and yet it has dark secrets underneath it. 

I absolutely love the strong sister bond between Zosa and Jani. 
The interesting characters inside the hotel kept me interested with their background story revealed little by little as the story goes.

I also love the blooming slow burn sweet romance between Jani and Bel!
I love the mysterious Bel, he's very swoon worthy! It made me wish there's his POV in this story. 

The ending was a bit too rushed in my opinion but otherwise, it was all a happy ending for all the characters. 

Overall, it's an enchanting debut novel with easy to read writing style that will  hooked you right into the plot to explore this magical mysterious hotel!
I'll definitely check out other books by this author in the future!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Emotional abuse, and Confinement

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Death of parent

hippievamp's review

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Confinement, and Body horror

Minor: Abandonment and Drug use

kbowles24's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Blood, Bullying, Murder, Abandonment, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

a_cera_t0ps's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This book had a good amount of exposition and additional detail. It had many romance tropes, but still kept up the main plot without cheapening the story. There was never a sudden "i just met this person but now I'm madly jealous of someone talking to them," never a romance that upends the purpose of the story. It tried to stay balanced. The romance was heavy: 50% romance, 50% plot. There are a good few unnecessary plottwists/decisions that only added so much. Overall, the book was enjoyable, even if it wasn't revolutionary.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Murder, Grief, Kidnapping, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Death, and Physical abuse

Minor: Torture, Slavery, Trafficking, and Medical content

vjlp22_reader's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Physical abuse

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, and Gore

emhromp's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

What. A. Ride. 
This was *a lot* darker and crueler than I thought it was going to be. I actually liked that a lot about this book.
This first 25% of the book was a little bit unhinged, it felt as though the writer had to catch her stride, but the book just got better and better. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Murder, Violence, Physical abuse, and Torture

arturo_luzen's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Death, Violence, Torture, Confinement, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Classism, Body horror, Confinement, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Death, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Gaslighting

tspice24's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Violence, Confinement, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

camiclarkbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Emily J. Taylor’s YA fantasy debut, “Hotel Magnifique,“ is a rich YA fantasy about being careful what you wish for.

Seventeen year old Jani is barely able to care for herself and her younger sister Zosa. That changes when the infamous Hotel Magnifique appears in their town. The hotel is legendary for all of its enchantments and ability to travel to a new destination every morning. 

The sisters decide to interview for staff positions and are whisked away on a magical adventure. But once inside the hotel, Jani learns that the staff contracts are unbreakable and the hotel harbors sinister secrets that she needs to reveal.

Allied with the handsome but frustrating doorman Bel, Jani searches for answers on how to break the staff contracts to save her sister—and all the staff—from the hotel and the ruthless maître d’hôtel. Jani will have to risk everything for a chance at success, but failure would mean a fate worse than not returning home with her sister.

Taylor crafted an amazing world in “Hotel Magnifique” and gave beautiful descriptions of each new location that the hotel traveled to. She also introduced an interesting magic system that is reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha and Small Science. 

Taylor’s characters were on the bland side, which I was not particularly surprised by since this is her debut novel. There isn’t anything necessarily “wrong” with them, but they make all the decisions you expect them to make, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for the reader to be surprised.

“Hotel Magnifique” is a great debut novel, with lush descriptions and a fascinating concept. It’s too bad that “Hotel Magnifique” appears to be a standalone novel. I would love to see more stories set in the world that Taylor created!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

spookily's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Lovable characters: "It's complicated" because, while some of the side characters are arguably lovable, the MC is intolerable. She spends the entire novel jumping to conclusions, acting impulsively, and excusing her own behavior by claiming that her stubbornness is a virtue, even when it puts her and her sister in greater danger. She's rude, self-centered, and extremely difficult to sympathize with or root for.

Diverse characters: "It's complicated" because the author has a weird obsession with showing off how many colors she can list for skin tones. Every single unnamed side character is described by some inane set of words like "the copper-skinned boy," "mocha" "olive" "porcelain" etc. etc.. It essentially feels like she is just filling the room with as many "diverse" looking characters as possible without having to put in the work to incorporate an actual sense of diversity into the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Death, Torture, Blood, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, and Vomit

Minor: Death of parent, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Cursing, Excrement, Confinement, Alcohol, and Classism