From the New York Times bestselling author of The Program comes a haunting, romantic, and suspenseful story about one girl’s search for healing in a grand and mysterious hotel full of secrets.

Stay tonight. Stay forever.

When Audrey Casella arrives for an unplanned stay at the grand Hotel Ruby, she’s grateful for the detour. Just months after their mother’s death, Audrey and her brother, Daniel, are on their way to live with their grandmother, dumped on the doorstep of a DNA-matched stranger because their father is drowning in his grief.

Audrey and her family only plan to stay the night, but life in the Ruby can be intoxicating, extending their stay as it provides endless distractions—including handsome guest Elias Lange, who sends Audrey’s pulse racing. However, the hotel proves to be as strange as it is beautiful. Nightly fancy affairs in the ballroom are invitation only, and Audrey seems to be the one guest who doesn’t have an invite. Instead, she joins the hotel staff on the rooftop, catching whispers about the hotel’s dark past.

The more Audrey learns about the new people she’s met, the more her curiosity grows. She’s torn in different directions—the pull of her past with its overwhelming loss, the promise of a future that holds little joy, and an in-between in a place that is so much more than it seems…

And the 13th chapter will only add to the mystery behind the 13th floor of Hotel Ruby…and ultimately, what it means for Audrey.

Out 2016

MY THOUGHTS:

I had been looking for this book for some time since reading its premise online. I recently found it at Book Outlet online. Here’s my review.

Suzanne Young is the author of several books including “The Program” series, “The Remedy,” “The Epidemic,” “All In Pieces,” to name a few and she mainly writes for Young Adults.

This book is under a new title, its old title being “Hotel Ruby.”

Okay, the author often approaches topics such as depression, mental-illness and so I was curious to see where she’d go with this premise.  I quickly discovered that the issue of grief was address along with dealing with a family loss.

However…. here I go… the added parts of ‘supposed’ gore and guts struck me a bit as being thrown in for the sake of calling it horror.  I can’t say I didn’t like the book, I just struggled at times to be engaged with the story.  Hotel California came to mind over and over and over and, well you get the point.

Character development was okay, the setting was done well and ended up intriguing throughout the book, the plot was weak and like I said the twists and turns… not so great. The romance, I could have lived without, too tropey for my liking.

I think if the author stuck to the premise and elaborated from there, this book might have gone better for me.

Sadly, I’m forced to give it: