Women's Hotel was such a breath of fresh air in my Kindle library. The writing felt so personal and unique - unlike anything I've read lately. A must-read for this fall season (well, now, almost winter - but still, it fits).

Set in 1960’s NYC, The (fictional) Beidermeier is one of the last of the dying breeds of women’s hotels. Living there are quite the cast of characters from a woman looking for more partying than work, a woman who’s a terrible hairdresser, a political activist, a woman looking for a husband, and Stephen, the daytime elevator operator.
Initial write-ups of this book say it is funny (couple scenes, maybe) and as captivating as “Lessons in Chemistry” (nope). In 2016, Fiona Davis’ debut novel “The Doll House” about the Barbizon in 1952 which, in my opinion, was better.

Well-written but this was definitely a slice of life book where almost nothing happened (except in the final fantastic chapter) which is not usually my choice of book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy!

I've been a fan of Daniel Lavery's for years and was really excited about this book! My experience reading it was weird because I put it off for a long time due to other life stuff, and so by the time I started it I was stressed about finishing it in time. I ended up switching to the audiobook really early on mostly due to the time constraint (and the several Netgalley books I needed to read in a short time period lmao). I do think that was a good choice for me because while the book is good and very interesting, I think I would have gotten a little bored with reading it not in audiobook form. I would have struggled to keep up momentum I think. That said, I think the book is really funny, entertaining, and well-written. I love Lavery's voice and style of writing and I'd definitely read another similar book by him.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperVia for the chance to read and review this ARC.

This was really fun. I recommend this to anyone in a female book club because everyone will be able to relate to a character and guessing each others character would be fun.

I have always liked Daniel Lavery's work; I think he is very smart and funny, and his humor tends to be rather subtle but successful. I loved this book, I loved all the eccentric characters, and I particularly liked getting deeply involved with their inner worlds. I think this was a fantastic read~!

Deeply reminiscent of Mary McCarthy and Barbara Pym, this snapshot of an itinerant collective at one of the many crossroads of social change was simultaneously cozy and stirring. The to-the-bone glimpses into the individual women's psyches gave a balanced rudder to a book that seemed to be as much about having a good time as reporting the quotidian impacts of unfolding historical moments.

If this book had been 2x shorter, it would have been 3x as enjoyable. Lavery successfully creates a quirky cast of 60's era "women's hotel" residents, but attempts to Mrs. Dalloway his way into a freeflowing, steam of conciousness narrative that lends moreso to confusion than charm. At the start of the story especially it is often to differentiate the narrators from one another as the POV can shift abruptly from one paragraph to the next. This would have been manageable had Lavery not expended enormous effort giving each resident multiple chapters of backstory. While this leads to compelling characters, it balloons the story to a size and complexity that is unsustainable, spending multiple chapters expounding on one character only for them to fade into the background while another takes the stage. This novel would have worked better as a series of short stories or vignettes about each resident. I can even visualize it as a movie or an episodic tv show: unfortunately the narrative delivery structure Lavery landed on is the only one that doesn't quite fit. If you enjoyed "Lessons in Chemistry" or are generally interested in a mostly forgotten area of (white) American woman culture, this book is enjoyable and educational, if challenging to parse.

I liked this and I didn't. The writing made me feel like I was in on some sort of joke, but I never really got invested in the characters. This also gave me The Stanley Parable vibes in a way that is hard for me to articulate. This story idea was really interesting, but there are just so many characters and little things without much plot to propel this story forward.

this has excellent writing — sharp, sly, clean — plus a beautiful cover and a great concept, but unfortunately it never coalesced for me. the writing, like i said, is truly great, but there is very little plot and too many characters for this to be a book that sticks with me.

I DNF'd at 20%. it was interesting but I never felt invested in the characters, there were so many to keep track of but not fleshed out enough

What a quirky, quirky book! I thought the book got off to a slow start, but it picked up and I actually did want to learn what happened to the characters by the end. The premise of the book is great and I think there is lots of good fodder here for a book; readers can meet the women, learn about their backgrounds, how they interact with each other, etc.

However, this book demands patience; the intricate prose and lengthy paragraphs require a committed reader who’s willing to push through. While it might not be for everyone, those who persevere will find themselves rewarded with a satisfying ending. Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy!

Women’s Hotel by Daniel M Lavery, I want to start this review by saying I am a big fan of books written about boarding houses women’s hotels halfway houses ATC anywhere there is a group of strangers forced to live together to me I find those situations are packed with hilarity. Unfortunately that is not what I got with the women’s hotel at all! I was sorely and sadly disappointed by the abundance of description in this book it took forever to get to some kind of situation that move the plot forward and that is when I finally got what the plot was about. I really wanted to like this book it really checked all my boxes but unfortunately I didn’t like it nor did I find it funny and I’m amazed that others do usually I can see how other people can like a book but this one has really stunted me, but to each their own however. #NetGalley, #DanielInLavery, #Women’sHotel,

Women's Hotel is an intriguing, quirky read that blends humor and slice-of-life vignettes set in a women’s hotel in 1960s NYC. The prose is witty and sharp, with Lavery’s trademark cleverness shining through. While the lack of a clear central plot and frequent shifts between characters made the narrative feel a bit disjointed at times, I still found myself drawn to the eccentric cast—especially Katherine and Lucianne. It's a unique and charming read, though I did wish for more cohesion to tie everything together.

After reading 10% of the book, I realized that I am probably not the target audience. Going in I expected a history of the hotels (how they came to be and the downfall, societal perceptions, maybe following the lives of a few women's daily routines.....) What I got instead was the author trying to use as many words as he knows to get his point across. At times a SINGLE SENTENCE took up entire page of my kindle. There were sections where the paragraphs were so long that I flipped through multiple pages of the kindle and the paragraph still continued. Reading felt like a chore especially when my eyes kept swimming because there was nothing to break up the text and give my poor brain a chance to breathe.

50% into the book I did start to enjoy the book more, but I think I was too jaded at that point from the awful 1st chapter. Will attempt to reread the book again in a few weeks and see if I can change my mind.

The prologue of Daniel Lavery’s debut novel suggests that he has written a formal history of women’s hotels, residences for single women living alone in big cities until they land a husband; however, what he has penned is a charming, and often poignant tale, told in vignettes, about the denizens of one such hotel, the fictional, second rate, fifteen-story Biedermeier in 1960s mid-town Manhattan. When the story opens, there are only two new residents moving into the Biedermeier on “Moving Week” as young women seem to be moving to the suburbs. The residents are alarmed when the hotel’s diminished fortunes cause its penny-pinching, longtime manager, Mrs. Mossler, to suspend in-room continental breakfast service as the unspoken rule was that no self-respecting Biedermeier girl could be caught scrounging food (which they purloined from a Baptist church or a synagogue or a faculty dining room) between eleven and after dark. Mrs. Mossler’s right-hand, Katherine Heap, the recovering alcoholic and first-floor director (who saw no reason to “push her luck” and live higher than the third floor), handled the odds and ends that might arise, including discouraging men from using the elevators since Stephen, the hotel’s elevator operator who extracted large tips during Moving Week, could not be counted on to do so.

In addition to a legal secretary, a Hunter College student, and a woman who had a “real job” at the New York Transit Authority, a favorite resident is Lucianne, a John Robert Powers girl and a newspaper reporter fluent in the language of clothes. Lucianne covered horses, Anglo-Japanese ceramics and lacquerware, day boating and nouvelle cuisine, but she declined to cover divorces, affairs, engagements or foundation garments. She was in love with Sidney Avery until she concluded that he was discouraging her by ordering ginger ale for both of them. The there is the beautiful new resident Gia Kassab, a ballet dancer, who is disarmingly honest about her singleness of purpose which was to marry her mother’s former beau, Douglas Burgess, an editor at Viking, who was recently widowed.

Lavery, formerly of the beloved defunct website “The Toast,” has written a delightful novel with precise period details, such as automats, cafeterias, and chicken in aspic. Although his ensemble cast of off-beat characters seem light on the surface, Lavery leavens the comedy with unexpected darkness when he lingers in the characters’ backstories. Thank you HarperVia and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this fresh story.

Women's Hotel gives us a window into the lives of a few residents of the Beidermeier. At times, the writing seems to get bogged down in details, but eventually it comes together into a nice story. Light reading, but heavy prose, if that makes sense. This might be better enjoyed in audiobook format.

3.75/5

an interesting read!!

I really love the concept, following the interweaving of a group of women’s’ stories as they navigate their lives within a women’s hotel

I haven’t been able to pinpoint it, but something about the writing style didn’t fully mesh with me, but this could be personal preference! I am someone who typically gravitates towards dual or multiple perspectives in a text, but I did find that the narrative voices of the different characters were difficult to differentiate, and often their alternating perspectives felt similar in tone and voice to one another. This made it difficult for me to truly connect with the cast of characters or become deeply invested in their development as characters.

With that said, the last chapter was fantastic, and had me heavily reconsidering and changing ratings. The ending of the book was raw and unexpected. Fantastic way to tie it all off.

If you prefer plot-driven books to character-driven books, this one likely wouldn’t work well for you, but if you love a very slice of life, mundane set of vignettes centering this women’s hotel, this could be an enjoyable read for you!

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins for this advanced readers copy!

***A big thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this upcoming book***
I was unfamiliar with the author but I stumbled upon this upcoming title and was intrigued by its title and premise. I went into it based off of my initial observations hoping for/expecting a mashup of Mad Men (the book takes place primarily in the 60’s) and The Grand Budapest Hotel. It *kind* delivered on those expectations. The book primarily focuses on a handful of the women living in the New York City hotel and their day to day goings on. There isn’t really a plot, per se, which is fine if the writing is good and the characters leap off the page. I had a hard time differentiating between some of the main characters and the writing wasn’t as approachable as I like it to be.

This book wasn’t my cup of tea but I don’t regret reading it and would recommend it to any readers looking for a time capsule that will show them what life was like for a small group of women trying to make it in Manhattan in the 1960’s.

ultimately this was too wordy for me and poorly described by the publisher so maybe i was putting it up against unfair expectations. ALL vibes no plot but like very fine vibes.