After reading the great JANE STEELE and THE WHOLE ART OF DETECTION was I looking forward to THE PARAGON HOTEL, the new Lyndsay Faye novel.

Set in 1921, Alice "Nobody" James arrives in Portland after a harrowing train ride. Not only has she fled New York, but she's also been shot and now needs a place to hide. Thanks to Max, a black Pullman porter, she finds refuge at the Paragon Hotel. The only problem? This is the only all-black hotel in the city and they are not very keen to have a white woman staying there. But with Max as well as the wonderful club singer, Blossom Fontaine, on her side, Alice stays in the hotel. However, she quickly realizes that not everything is peachy in Portland. The Ku Klux Klan has arrived in the city and a child disappears from Paragon Hotel not long after Alice has arrived...

For some reason, I found THE PARAGON HOTEL a bit hard to both get into and get through. Don't take me wrong, the story is good and kept my interest. But, I found this novel harder to read than Faye's previous titles. Nonetheless, I did find the Paragon Hotel to be an interesting place with all the different people staying there. I felt that Alice and I didn't click and the flashbacks to her life in New York didn't help much. Thankfully, Max and Blossom both intrigued me, along with the rest of the enjoyable characters who inhabited the Paragon Hotel, and they made this a worthwhile reading experience. Additionally, the ending had a fabulous twist that took me completely by surprise! Recommended to historical fiction fans.