Reviews with content warning for Murder - Hotel Magnifique

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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emhromp's review against another edition

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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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arturo_luzen's review against another edition

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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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katvou's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.25

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spookily's review against another edition

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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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shinypurplepants's review against another edition

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mysterious tense

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

2.75

This was an okay debut. Some bits were formulaic and I was able to see many, many of the twists coming but overall it was an interesting premise kinda like howl's moving castle minus the whimsy and with a lot of "horror" elements added via gross visuals. The romantic subplot was my least favorite part. I didn't find the two leads supposed chemistry at all believable even before the

age gap of human minor + immortal that looks young

started bothering me.

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brokentoes's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

Perfect blend of “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “Spirited Away”

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monniebiloney's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious relaxing medium-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

3.75

Pros:
has a wonderful setting
I liked the horror elements, especially at the beginning of the book
The ending was satisfying

cons:
The ramance fell flat. They were trying to go for some kind of enemies to lovers like tension but Idk if I just hate Enemies to lovers, or this book make it real really boring.

The main character also felt very entitled to other people's lives which bothered me. Like you are NOT owed the secrets of your aquantenses, let alone your friends. The amount of times he got mad at Bel, who wasn't even her boyfriend yet, for not telling her stuff like, was kidn go anoying.

The fact the MC also was clumbsy, but only clbsy when the plot called for it was also quite anoying.

All in all, I was planning on rathong the book 3 stars, but I felt the ending was satisfying enough to bump it up to 3.75. If Bel and the Main character weren't a couple and instead they focused more time on Beatrice, I probably would have rather the book 4.75.

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