The Pink Hotel by Liska Jacobs

 

Kit and Keith Collins have just gotten married.  Keith has arranged a stay at a luxury resort hotel in Los Angeles, right out of downtown.  What Keith hasn't told Kit is that it's also a job interview for him.  He manages a hotel back in their small town and he wants to move up.  He'd love to work at the Pink Hotel with its ultra-rich clientele and movie stars.

Keith takes right to the wealthy life but Kit isn't sure she will ever fit in.  Keith leaves her alone for long hours while he's working as part of the interview and she is left on her own.  She is taken up by a young wealthy girl and her group, who spend their lives shopping for couture dresses and accessories and going from party to party where they drink and do drugs.  

She and Keith both also befriend Coco who has worked at the hotel for ten years and who is the manager's mistress.  Through her Kit meets the staff and the crew doing construction for more bungalows at the hotel.  She is more comfortable with this group as they all would have been friends back home.

But other things are going on.  There are fires in the California hills and as they creep closer and closer to Los Angeles, the hotel guests are confined to the premises.  Those who are evacuated and wealthy enough come to stay and soon the hotel is bursting at the seams but understaffed as some of the employees can't get there.  The parties get more frantic and Kit and Keith's new marriage is strained to the breaking point.  

Liska Jacobs is an American author whose work often focuses on modern women and the conflicts they face in their daily lives.  Keith comes across as a taker and a man who believes he can make all the decisions in their marriage.  Kit is vulnerable, taken out of her comfortable environment and exposed to things she has never experienced.  Readers will want to continue reading to see how things all work out.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did an excellent job.  This book is recommended for both literary fiction and women's fiction readers.