Five Days at the Hotel Adams coming May 26th, 2026 from Tommy Nelson; 272 pages
About the Author: “Hailey Alcaraz writes multicultural coming-of-age books about girls using their heartbreak to change the world. She began her writing career in the sixth grade as a Kid Reporter for Time For Kids and remains passionate about crafting stories about identity, love, and resilience. She is the author of two YA novels, Up in Flames and Rosa By Any Other Name, a Pura Belpre Award Honoree, as well as the forthcoming middle grade novel, Five Days at the Hotel Adams. Hailey lives in Scottsdale with her husband, two daughters, and precocious German shepherd, Lemon” (Bio from the author’s website).
Find Hailey Alcaraz on the following platforms:
About the Illustrator: “Alisha Monnin was born and raised in the rural US in a small village where distance is measured by cornfields. Growing up, she was a voracious reader and daydreamed about going on magical adventures. As an adult, she still spends her days daydreaming and reading, but now her imagination is funneled into her artwork. She graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design, and now resides in Cincinnati, Ohio with her Manx cat named Beignet” (Bio from illustrator’s website).
Find Alisha Monnin on the following platforms:
In 1910, the largest hotel in the Arizona Territory, the Hotel Adams, is preparing to host the Desert Club Banquet, and the hotel is aflutter with governors, politicians, artists, and two gutsy girls—Luisa and Ruth. Luisa is a maid at the hotel, dreaming of poetry, art, and her bright future in Arizona. Ruth is the daughter of a lawyer who recently moved to Phoenix. She misses her home, longs to dip her toe in the political scene, and utterly despises poetry. Through a chance encounter and a little spy work (on Ruth’s part), the girls begin to uncover a plot that threatens to destroy the famous hotel. Only they know it’s going to happen, and only they can stop it. But how can two girls stop an arson plot?
I am not usually one to read middle-grade fiction, but when I found the upcoming anthology series, American Stories for Gutsy Girls, I knew I had to check out the first installment. Hailey Alcaraz is clearly passionate about the Southwest: the history of the Hotel Adams is little known, and Alcaraz writes a wonderful story about it. My favorite thing about this story is the characters. Luisa and Ruth are very different; one loves poetry, and the other loathes it, but they are both gutsy girls. Furthermore, even though this book is geared towards a younger audience, it doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to the hard subjects surrounding the formation of a state. The girls come across suffragists, advocates for Native American rights, and environmentalists, all while also dealing with grief, identity, and their own futures. Even though these characters end up in different places, they are perfect examples of the many different types of gutsy girls. For me, the only thing missing from this book was more action. A lot of the conversations surrounding the girls were about their age and their inability to stop something from happening at the hotel. And in the end, they contributed very little, and that wasn’t even told on the page. There was already a lot of character in the plot—I just wanted more action, too.
Five Days at the Hotel Adams releases on May 26th, 2026.
Pine Reads Review would like to thank NetGalley and Tommy Nelson for sending us an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change before final publication.
Hayley Bigelow, Pine Reads Review Writer