Haunted Hearts Hotel Reviews

Haunted Hearts Hotel is a cute and laid back story that does suffer from some uneven pacing and too little focus. The erotic elements feel pretty tame all things considered (maybe I'm ruined 5ever by AO3) but there has definitely been a few times I've been genuinely impressed by Grace's ability to convey tactility in a way that almost makes it feel like something is brushing up against my skin as I'm reading. I've definitely enjoyed my time with this novel! I have a bit of a weakness for stories about nurturing spaces, and I think the setting of this book delivers pretty well on that. Hotel Lexington is a pretty appealing setting that I ended up caring about, even though I think I would have wanted to see more more in terms of feedback of how the actions taken in the game have impacted the hotel as a space. And the characters who inhabit the setting are also quite nice, making for a pretty varied cast with enough charm to make me want to get to know more about most of them. If anything it might be a little bit too nice and cozy, especially with the seemingly very easy and relaxed game mechanics. Pacing is the main weakness of this work. I think the biggest push back for me personally while reading this has been the lack of connective tissue keeping things together. Sometimes scenes feel like they are completely separate events being described without the more practical aspects of how the main character arrives at a situation, or the narration that would have contextualized the scenes as parts of the same narrative. Especially towards the end of the book it also feels like things are happening a bit quick as well, as if there are some key obstacles missing to overcome to make the main narrative feel weighty or as if there are simply too many smaller events and plot elements happening to give them the room they would have needed. What suffers the most from the pacing is the relationship development. For the size of the story it feels like there are too many characters to give them the time I would have needed to grow really attached to them, or feel like the main character has a (meaningful) relationship with them. On one hand you get a rather profound sense of freedom from a narrative where you can go up to someone the day after you met them and tell them they seem pretty nice and you wanna smooch, but it does entirely do away with any sense of longing and the desire that would have come with that longing. The sex scenes with Manfri and Della have been surprisingly nice at times, but I really wish I would have been made to want them more by the time they arrive in the narrative, if that makes any sense. While I miss a bit of romance and build up for the sex scenes, the scenes themselves have been quite nice! While they've been pretty tame I've also had a few instances where I've genuinely thought "damn, this is what makes literature such a good medium for conveying sensuous experience" at some of the metaphors used. Maybe it's just a thing for light touches I didn't know I had, but the writing can get vivid in a very pleasant way that isn't very common to pull off. I really do wish I had more of an emotional connection established to contextualize those sensations, that would have elevated them even further.