Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

Summary (via Goodreads): "Scarlett Martin has grown up in a most unusual way. Her family owns the Hopewell, a small Art Deco hotel in the heart of New York City. When each of the Martins turns fifteen, they are expected to take over the care of a suite. For Scarlett's fifteenth birthday, she gets both a room called the Empire Suite and a permanent guest named Mrs. Amberson. Scarlett doesn't quite know what to make of this C-list starlet and world traveler.

And when she meets Eric, an astonishingly gorgeous actor who has just moved to the city, her summer takes a second unexpected turn.

Before the summer is over, Scarlett will have to survive a whirlwind of thievery and romantic missteps. But in the city where anything can happen, she just might be able to pull it off."

Review: So my quest to read everything by Maureen Johnson continues.

Suite Scarlett is a SUPER cute book, with an awesome coming-of-age for Scarlett. I like these stories Johnson writes, about someone older and with fewer inhibitions taking someone younger under her wing. Scarlett's adventures at the hands of Mrs. Amberson are fun, enlightening, and make me totally jealous. Why can't I live in a hotel in New York and work on the play my older brother is in??

I also like how none of the characters are stereotypes. Well, Marlene could use a little more depth, I daresay, because right now all I think of her as is a demon-child, but I understand this is a trilogy. So there's time. (Although she does come through at the end. So there's that.) But I LOVE Lola. It would have been so easy to make Lola a total stock character of the Beautiful variety, but instead she's an actual PERSON who makes choices and gets fired and has bad days. And is awesome.

I will now be reading the rest of the trilogy.

Goodreads Shelves: addictive, bechdel-test, fluffy, funny, is-or-would-be-a-good-movie, is-this-a-kissing-book, my-kind-of-woman, thought-provoking

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