Hotel Ruby by Suzanne Young

I’m going to start off with this: Hotel Ruby is by far the best book I have read this year.  And I’ve read a ton of books this year.  It’s so very rare when I find a book that I loved so much that I honestly think about reading it again as soon as I finished.  Also, it’s rare that I find a book that I like so much that I’m counting down the days to it’s release when I can own a finished copy of it.  

Yep.  I loved this that much.

I knew I was going to love this one as soon as I saw that cover for it.  I don’t know how, but I knew it was going to be my new favorite book.  So when I got approved on Edelweiss for this one, I was thrilled.  When I actually sat down to read it, I couldn’t put it down.  I walked around with my Kindle glued to my hand for an entire day (I even made dinner while I read it).  I hadn’t read anything else by Suzanne Young yet (However I do own The Program, The Treatment, and The Remedy), so I wasn’t quite sure how much of a treat I was really in for.

We start off with Audrey, her bother, and her father in the car on their way to their grandmother’s house, where Audrey and her brother would be spending the summer.  Since their mother died, Audrey and her brother are having a hard time coping – Audrey herself has been acting out and causing trouble, and since their father has been emotionally absent, the two of them are left to deal with their grief by themselves.

When Audrey father decides that he needs to take a break from driving, he puts the three of them up in the Hotel Ruby for the night.  The Hotel Ruby is an older, grand hotel that Audrey’s father and brother fall in love with immediately.  Audrey is a little skeptical, especially since she will be staying on a different floor from her father and brother, but she is determined to enjoy her stay before she is sent away to her grandmother’s house for months.

During the night, she finds her way to a great party in the ballroom, where she means Elias, a good-looking guy about her age, who she gets along with great.  However, she is promptly informed that the part is “invite-only,” and without her invitation, she would not be permitted to return.

“‘The Hotel Ruby was built in 1936…it was a playground for the rich and famous.  A stationary Titanic.  And just as tragic.'”

While banned from the party without an invitation, she begins spending time with Elias and noticing some really strange things about the hotel (for example, seeing bloodstains on the staff, and then the stains are gone).  Since Audrey isn’t invited to the party, she befriends the staff, who have a gathering on the roof to welcome back one of their own.  However, she is under the watch of Kenneth, the concierge, who has a great dislike for Audrey and isn’t afraid of her knowing.

As time goes on and one night turns into several, Audrey notices more and more things amiss in the Hotel Ruby, and she is determined to get to the bottom of it.

This book isn’t really scary, but it has the right amount of creepy that makes it exciting.  The characters are wonderfully written – the romance between Elias and and Audrey is done well, and I loved the two of them together.  The other guests and staff in the hotel are equally as well written and it was so easy to get swept into the story.

While I have to be honest and say that I managed to guess what was going on about halfway through the book (normally that ruins a book for me), I didn’t even mind it, and I was still shocked when I read the end, even thought I pretty much had figured out what was coming.  I can’t say enough good things about this book – there wasn’t one single thing that I disliked, and I have a feeling it’s going to be one of the most read books on my shelf in the future.

Note: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.