Suite Scarlett ~ Maureen Johnson

…A Young Adult Challenge Read

Scarlett Martin has grown up in a most unusual way. Her family owns the Hopewell, a small hotel in the heart of New York City. Her nineteen-year-old brother, Spencer, is an out of work actor facing a family deadline to get his career in order. Eighteen-year-old Lola has the delicate looks of a model, the practical nature of a nurse, and a wealthy society boyfriend. Eleven-year-old Marlene is the family terror with a tragic past.

When the Martins turn fifteen, they are each expected to take over the care of a suite in the once elegant, now shabby Art Deco hotel. 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, world traveler, and aspiring autobiographer who wants to take over her life. And when she meets Eric, an astonishingly gorgeous actor who has just moved to the city, her summer takes a second unexpected turn.

With Mrs. Amberson calling the shots, Spencer’s career to save, Lola’s love life to navigate around, and Marlene’s prying eyes everywhere, things won’t be easy. Before the summer is over, Scarlett will have to survive a whirlwind of thievery, Broadway glamour, romantic missteps, and theatrical deception.

The show, as they say, must always go on . . . .

Synopsis via Amazon
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Aaah. Maureen Johnson. She’s good, that one.

I’ve been looking forward to the release of Suite Scarlett for too long now thanks to reading Maureen Johnson’s blog {on which she teased us with little hints and tidbits,} so is it any wonder then that I sat down with it last night around seven and had it finished by a little past midnight? Not to me. And that’s because every book I’ve read by Johnson has engaged me in the same way; her books are fresh, a little quirky, funny, and while the characters learn things along the way, for realistic fiction her books are never weighed down by the “real life” problems presented. Her books {to me, at least} manage to be a comfort, an escape, something you want to settle in with and read right away because they make you smile.

With Suite Scarlett, more than anything I enjoyed the dynamic between Scarlett and her brother, Spencer. Affection was front and center and so palpable it made me question why my four brothers and I could never manage it. As a group, the Martins were so well drawn they could be walking the streets of New York right now. And that’s skill. One that Maureen Johnson has in spades. She’s also particularly good at capturing the essence of the landscape that serves as her setting; this time around it was New York, where she herself lives, and it felt like I was there.

I would definitely, easily recommend Maureen Johnson’s books {and often have;} most especially Suite Scarlett and Girl at Sea {my favorite to date.}