Suite Scarlett
Author: Maureen Johnson
Series: Scarlett (#1)
Publisher: Scholastic
How Received: bought
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.
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Maureen Johnson could write about the history of dresser drawers and I would read it.
I haven't encountered an author that makes me laugh more than Johnson does. It doesn't matter what she's writing about -- ghosts, hotels, 140-character count of her escapades in real life on Twitter -- I love it. She makes me laugh in a way that no other author really does.
Which suits her stories well.
Despite the near absurdity of the things that happen, her characters are realistic and understandable; there's not a single one that isn't fleshed out and made real, even if they're only on the page for a half a second.
The only thing I didn't really enjoy was the romantic plotline -- though realistic, it felt kind of forced at times, and I prefer my books to have no romance and be great then have a romance and be adequate. However, Johnson managed to pull it together at the end so that it tied in wonderfully with the rest of the plot.
Honestly, though, the thing that stands out most about Suite Scarlett is the writing style itself; no matter what I want to say about the characters and the plot and how fun everything was, it wouldn't have been able to pull it off without Johnson's distinctive writing style and her ability to get into a character's head and pull the personality right out of them. Without a doubt, Suite Scarlett is one of the funniest books I've read in a long time.
I'll definitley be picking up the sequel.
Overall Rating & Final Comments: 9/10. Took a few pages to get into, but besides that, a really funny story with really real characters.
Cover Comments: I didn't realize until a half hour before finishing that the key is the NYC skyline. I love it!
Have you read any of Johnson's books? What do you think?