ARC provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Super cute read, if a bit chaotic at times.

Pitched as John Wick meets Eloise at the Plaza, this book is about a girl who lives in a sanctuary hotel for spies. It takes place in a different version of our world, where all people have "Knacks" (basically... a metaphysical cutie mark). Some people are Normal and others are a part of "the Life". We follow Beatrice, the daughter of a famous spy, as she is coming into herself and dreaming of following in her mother's footsteps - despite her parents' own concern at the danger.

And as I said, this was super cute. Beatrice was a fun character, her interactions with the hotel and its inhabitants were fun, and I loved how original this was. There were moments that captured a John Wick energy for kids so well that it really was impressive.

It was also a bit messy. There were a lot of plot points that got brought up and then dropped, things that seemed like they would have pretty big consequences and then just... didn't. I also felt like this book struggled with its tone, trying to walk a line between childish whimsy and violence. It's an ambitious task and at times it was really well executed, others... not so much.

Overall, I still liked this. It might not have been perfect, but I thought it was cute and Rosaria Munda isn't really capable of writing a bad book.