The Guest with Claws Audiobook By Ella Maven cover art

The Guest with Claws

Monster Hotel, Book 1

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The Guest with Claws

By: Ella Maven
Narrated by: Sofia Willingham, Brandon Utah
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About this listen

I've never met him before . . . so why do I feel as if I've known him all my life?

Scoring a job at the exclusive and secretive Hotel Castle Verna is exactly what I need to pay off my debt and avoid a punishment I might not survive. The guests are a little eccentric, but they are great tippers. All I have to do is ignore the strange sights, smells, and sounds coming from the guest rooms, and I can remain gainfully employed. Simple, right?

Except there's one guest at the hotel who's always watching me with his mismatched black and white eyes. Half his face is covered with a black mask, and his stare sets my skin on fire. I don't know him . . . and yet I feel known with every stolen glance.

Strange happenings are going on at the hotel, and each day, I fall deeper into a world I never knew existed. And the guest who's watching me? He isn't who I thought he was . . . but then again, neither am I.

Contains mature themes.

©2023 Ella Maven (P)2025 Tantor Media
Paranormal
All stars
Most relevant  
The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙💚💜❤️
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: 😟🙁☺️🤓
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

The heroine: Nessa - she had an interview for a job she really needed at an exclusive place called Hotel Castle Verna. She was nervous, sweating and had her borrowed heels glued together. The job is the best paying job in the city, but she knew someone who had died before their interview. So, she was posing as that woman, since she had the same first name and all. She had a ton of debt from hospital bills and still had chronic pain. She was on the verge of being homeless since the powers at be around the world fell. She knew she would be sent outside the walls of what was once Chicago, to the debtor prison labor camps if she didn’t get this job.

The Hero: Lanis - he had a penchant to obsess which made him good at his job. His obsessions usually had a death sentence which he was responsible for carrying out. He immediately became obsessed with the new human employed at the hotel. He was a 400-year-old Malice whose people came from a far away galaxy a long time ago. He has one clawed hand, is half covered in the skin of his enemies, and he is never without a mask over the lower half of his face. He is a killer for hire that had been ostracized by his clan. He had promised himself he would never be responsible for another person after the last time didn’t work out well. He only takes lives now.

The Story: Nessa got the job for an entry level position in guest services at the hotel. Which meant she would have to deliver things to guest rooms. One of the rules was that if she worked at the hotel, she lived there and had to get permission to leave. Another rule was that she would be terminated if she looked into any of the guest's packages. The whole air of the place was secretive and formal. Nessa found out that her belongings were already at the hotel and that she had been hired the moment she walked into the hotel.

The hotel is well described, especially the lobby which sounded very baroque. There is also an eclectic mix of unconventional characters and creatures. As Nessa worked, she began to feel that every guest has something a little off about them. Some have big teeth, some seem to make things disappear and others had terrible smells coming from their rooms. Lanis begins to stalk Nessa as soon as she arrives at the hotel, though he is protective of her. He wanted to make sure she was safe. All the guests at the hotel were part of the Malice assassin network.

The setup absolutely glimmers with eerie elegance and emotional depth. Ella Maven constructed a richly layered dystopian-gothic world with high stakes, strange rules, and a heroine who’s equal parts desperate and brave. Let’s unpack some of what’s working brilliantly—and tease out a few elements that are possible in the story.

🌒 Tension & Atmosphere

The baroque grandeur of Hotel Castle Verna layered over Nessa’s desperate, scrappy circumstances creates a tension that’s both visual and visceral. Her chronic pain, stolen identity, and looming debtor prison give her a fragile dignity that’s easy to root for. The mystery of her immediate hire and the guests’ sinister peculiarities heighten that trapped-in-a-gilded-cage sensation. Chilling and captivating.

🩸The Hero: Lanis

Lanis is brutal, otherworldly, and wildly compelling. That obsession trait, especially when paired with his vow to never care again, makes him dangerously magnetic. His clawed hand half-covered in enemy skin? That’s pure, macabre poetry. You’re laying down serious Byronic vibes. The internal conflict is there—he wants to watch over Nessa but can’t (or won’t) admit why. That push-pull could be the emotional fulcrum of the story.

🌀Their Dynamic

This could easily become the kind of relationship that plays with control, distrust, and reluctant intimacy. Their chemistry has the potential to smolder quietly, especially if Nessa proves more resilient or unpredictable than Lanis expects. I loved to see Nessa slowly realize that Lanis isn’t the only monster—but he might be the only one on her side. There is also some uncertain recognition between them that hinted at something more going on.

The one thing I really didn’t like about this story was also something that was central to the story so though I didn’t like it, I don’t know how it could have been any different. However, I have never understood why romance authors are so fond of the “scarred Hero” trope. I don’t mind Heroes that are scarred on the inside, but I just don’t get why authors seem to love having Heroes that are disfigured by scars in some way, and this Hero had so much more than just scars. I like the way the disfigurement doesn’t matter to the heroine, but really who wants to imagine a Hero who is horribly deformed in some way? I like a handsome Hero. Though I did really like the originality of this story.

This audiobook was narrated from multiple perspectives, done in dual narration by Sofia Willingham and Brandon Utah. Sofia Willingham isn’t one of my favorites, there is something about her voice or tempo I just don’t really like, though her voice is soft and not bad. Brandon Utah has a fairly deep, gravelly voice which I liked.

Alien John Wick at the hotel for assassins!

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New series from Ella Maven and it didn’t disappoint! I loved every minute of this Monster Romance, the interesting bond the MCs had with each other was unique. I also really enjoyed the narration.

Lanis and Nessa

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