The Women’s Hotel has an unexpected commonality with Seinfield, which is about “nothing,” but actually is a canny and compulsively entertaining examination of the quirks, misunderstanding, stratagems, assumptions, social connections, and cultural pulse of friends bound by time and circumstance in a very specific part of New York. The same could be said for The Women’s Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery, which is about a slowly fading New York specialty hotel for women, mostly young or youngish overseen by Mrs. Mossler, a vaguely kind but absent-minded manager who is happy to delegate most of her responsibilities to even kinder (to the extent of being a pushover), Katherine, whose reflexive generosity covers an uncertain sense of self and a burned bridges family scrapbook. Lavery shows an unflagging interest in the smallest details of the lives of its residents, who run the gamut from leftist activism to wannabe socialites to models, stock room workers, bartenders, shop girls, journalists, typists and office staff; they are all just scraping by. The residents are hunting for husbands, for independence, for friendship, for freedom, for an end to capitalism, for a celebration of it, for sobriety, and they are uniformly fascinating. This is due in no small part from the narrative tangents Lavery employs detailing bad bosses and worse mothers, the social repressions of gay culture in the 1960s, the small to medium shady practices some working and out of work women use to supplement their incomes, and especially, the often hilarious, often poignant interactions of borders with very different agendas. Lavery lavishes a good part of this slim book in setting the scene, which can be off-putting initially, but his observations are droll and acute, so the slower pace pays off. There is not much of a plot, other than the repercussions and rebellion against the new cost saving policy of eliminating free breakfast. But Lavery is able to string a wealth of character exploration, historical positioning and social commentary on this premise, it is well worth a visit. Recommended.

Sometimes you hear the phrase “no plot, all vibes” to describe a novel, but this one managed to feel more like “no plot, no vibes”, yet still somehow kept me reading. It’s been hard to really describe how I felt about it - I enjoyed the characters (at least, to the extent that we got to know them) and I enjoyed the concept of a group of young people all living together in hotel with a college dorm-type atmosphere, but the lack of a throughline and depth of the characters kept me constantly wanting more to grasp onto.

It’s hard to pin down what Women’s Hotel is really “about” since there’s not really a central plot, but it follows a small cast of characters that are living and/or working in a women’s hotel in NYC in the 1960s in sort of a slice of life type of way. It unfolds as a series of vignettes or scenes that almost feels like episodes of a tv show. If I had to identify a “main” character around which many of the vignettes revolve, that would be Katherine - a young woman who we eventually come to learn moved away from home under difficult circumstances and who is leaning into her found family in and around the hotel as the hotel’s manager. In addition to Katherine, we also get stories that involve the hotel’s owner Mrs. Mossler, the elevator operator Stephen, and hotel tenants Lucianne, Gia and Ruth, among others.

The concept of the women’s hotel was really fascinating to me, and I really liked its feel of a more mature type of sorority house. Each character is completely quirky, odd and eccentric in their own way, and I really enjoyed the humor in the prose as we heard their stories. It was honestly really funny, and I don’t say that lightly about novels! But at the same time, it was almost unnecessarily verbose, and would veer off into waxing poetic about the most inconsequential details, which took me out of the story. I really enjoyed getting to know our characters in the hotel and certainly enjoyed the witty prose, but then I often felt that as soon as I was getting to know a character, the chapter would end and we’d move on to a different character and set of circumstances, leaving me unsettled.

All in all, it was a mundane yet charming read that was nothing like I’ve read before - the publisher compares it to Lessons in Chemistry and personally I don’t see any similarities there. True, they both made me laugh at times, but for very different reasons and they have very different vibes. While overall it had a number of things to like, I wish it would have had more of a cohesive plotline to pull everyone and everything together. Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Enjoyable! I laughed, I pondered. There was a mix of joyful, funny moments, sad or stressful moments, and insightful quips about humanity. I loved Katherine and Lucianne’s stories. Ruth and J.D. were compelling. Overall an interesting look into a forgotten time period and a world that I don’t feel I’ve seen much about, so I appreciated the chance to learn more. Thanks Netgalley!

Women’s Hotel is set in the early 60s and centers around the lives of various women living in the same hotel. I will jump into and read anything set in this time period but unfortunately, this novel did not deliver.
The blurb also says for fans of Bonnie Garmus’s “Lessons In Chemistry” and I feel that is a bit of a stretch.
The pacing is at an achingly dull rate and an overwhelming amount of inner dialogue without much happening or adding to the plot.

Publication date October 15, 2024.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperVia for allowing me to read and review Women’s Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery.

A cozy book for a cozy fall. As I have been for years and years, I was delighted by Lavery's writing. This book, his first novel, truly lets his knack for prose shine. A perfect example of little plot, all vibes, I loved the peek into 1960s NYC via the strange concept of a women's hotel in the heart of the city. As we follow the lives of the women who occupy the building, my only complaint is that we didn't have as much time as I would have liked with each character. Lavery creates characters who are complex, vivid, and sharp. This book is the same, and I'm so happy he's now writing novels because I can't wait for more.

3.49

“Women’s Hotel” is a very difficult book to pin down, especially a book like this about women and their inner thoughts and written by a man, though I did not realize that until the end. That must be a compliment.

I almost said it was a difficult story to pin down, but I struggled to find the central story, other than the end of the Biedermeier Hotel and the era of women’s hotels. After a forward all about women’s hotels and then Mrs. Mossler’s story, it was a while before I could even pin down when most of this book took place.


About fifteen pages in, we met Katherine, who runs the day-to-day management of the hotel, some of it by default. Soon, she meets with several of the “girls”, so it then seems that the story will be from Katherine‘s perspective, but as part of a full ensemble. We then flash back into Katherine ‘s full backstory, which is a little odd, just like Katherine (though far from the oddest). We learn about her alcoholism and what brought her to New York. I don’t know how prevalent alcoholism is in the situation like hers, but it is something that feels somewhat unlikely. I won’t judge since I don’t know and I also realize that everybody’s story is different.


Different characters have different spotlights throughout the book, but Katherine is more heavily featured. There are characters being “spotlighted” even beyond the 80% mark, which just feels disjointed because we dive into the inner monologue of their life when their name has only been mentioned once much earlier in the book. Keeping all of the characters straight was hard enough already. Some are more heavily featured than others. The people you thought were a little more “normal” are so only by comparison. I guess that’s what happens when it seems to be the only hotel that will house women who can’t afford much at all, in exchange for declining amenities and conditions.


The oddities of the characters leads to some of the uneasiness factor, but is also part of what makes this book unique and engaging. It’s a very interesting read, and if it had presented some more cohesion and continuity, I think it would have been excellent. The rest of the elements ultimately overshadowed the extremely witty cadence, particularly parts told through Katherine.

Though I didn’t notice the first name of the author until the end, it now makes me wonder how the story might have read differently had I known the author was male. Though I don’t want to read it again, I wish I had that lens now to see what differences might appear.

Thank you to Daniel M. Lavery, NetGalley, and HarperVia for providing me with a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

I wanted to like this. It’s a premise I enjoy, character studies of a group of people. But it’s just boring.

It centers, per the title, on a hotel in 1960s New York that serves women. The tenants, owner and the elevator operator are our main focuses.

But it’s just dull. Lovely writing but that’s not enough to keep me interested.

I absolutely loved the concept of this book and the idea of us as the reader getting glimpses of the residents of the hotels lives but it was overall a miss for me.

I know many people are going to love this one but it sadly wasn’t for me. I wanted to really dig into the lives of the characters but it ended up feeling a bit too surface for me. I just didn’t connect to the characters like I wanted to.

I loved the way the Daniel Lavery writes and would definitely read another book by him in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

Absolutely fantastic plot! Could not put the book down once I began reading it. Cannot wait for it to be released. I will recommend it to everyone I know!

As someone who has been fascinated by the idea of women's hotels since reading The Bell Jar, this was such a fun read. I loved the atmosphere and the richly drawn characters. I found myself smiling while I read more often than not. What an excellent slice of life in the strange microcosm of the Biedermeier.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3/5 stars)

Women's Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery has all the ingredients for a witty, trenchant look at the lives of women in a crumbling institution. With a quirky cast of characters like Katherine, the lightly cynical manager, Lucianne the workshy party girl, and Stephen, the part-time elevator operator, this novel sets up a stage ripe for both humor and insight. And yet... it’s just meh.

Don’t get me wrong—the premise is solid, and there’s definitely some humor sprinkled throughout. Lavery has a gift for sharp one-liners and situational irony that gave me a few chuckles. The book draws comparisons to the likes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Lessons in Chemistry, and I could see glimpses of that kind of wit. But unlike those stories, Women’s Hotel doesn’t fully land the emotional punch or offer enough narrative momentum to keep me fully invested.

The problem? The characters felt underdeveloped. While they’re quirky, they’re also kind of... bland? There’s a lot of potential in their situations—struggling at dead-end jobs, juggling failed ambitions—but the emotional depth I wanted just wasn’t there. The plot meanders, and while that can work in character-driven novels, I found myself losing interest as the story shuffled along without much growth or change for the residents of the Beidermeier. The stakes felt low, and as much as I wanted to connect with their struggles, I just didn’t feel that spark.

That said, Women’s Hotel has its charm. If you’re into lightly cynical, slice-of-life novels that offer subtle humor and dry observations about the absurdities of life, this book might still be worth a read. Just don’t go in expecting the depth or emotional heft of a true modern classic.

This was simply just not it for me. I tried to get into this, but quickly realized there was nothing actually happening. No plot as it just felt like I was meandering through it and forcing myself to read more and that's not enjoyable so I just stopped. DNF.

I really loved the first 100 pages of this book. I enjoyed the characters, each of them with their quirks and hopes and dreams. Each of them had flaws, making them feel real and tangible. I especially loved Katherine. I thought the writing was fun and cozy and lighthearted, with a meandering pace that was quite enjoyable. I liked how it kind of jumped between characters, zooming into one woman’s life then back out to the hotel as a whole. Overall, while it was fairly mundane it was still quite charming and I was enjoying it. However, after 100 pages the mundane charm was no longer enough to hold my interest. It also became abundantly clear the story was generally plotless. There were a few side plots, but no concrete main plot. It really was only about the women’s lives, with no major thread outside of their residence really tying them together. At the very end a plot sort of appeared, and I did not like it. And then the book just sort of ended, without feeling adequately wrapped up. So overall this book started off
fairly enjoyable but ended up lackluster.

I loved Lavery’s writing on The Hairpin and The Toast, and was not disappointed! A fun take on places like The Barbizon. Would recommend.

Thank you NetGalley, Harpervia and Daniel M. Lavery for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Women’s Hotel.
The setting of this historical novel is written quite descriptively. There is a lot of information about the rooms of the hotel, clothing, food and small details that are not quite important to the plot but give you a good picture and set the atmosphere. The timeframe jumps around, the characters are interesting but rather flat without much background knowledge and there are only snippets of a plot. I would be hooked for awhile but then characters change and I would lose interest. There was too much telling without emotion so I felt I was observing from a distance instead of becoming part of the story. This style of writing is just not for me. There are some humorous moments and bizarre situations but it did not flow evenly. It felt like many short stories strung together. This had potential but I was a bit disappointed.

Had such high hopes for this but it was just incredibly boring. Writing was beautiful but the story gave me nothing.

Like many reviewers here, I found this very dry and a bit of a slog. It was very hard to finish and I would have not finished if my NetGalley stats didn't depend on it. I can appreciate the author's writing talent but this story was not for me. The author's note at the beginning was the only thing that I found interesting and it made me excited to read the book, as did the book's blurb, but this just wasn't for me.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperVia for this ARC

DNF @ 140 pages

Partial Review:

The prose in this book is like gravy, it's too thick and greasy to drink. It really needs something to break up all the meatiness. I didn't have the jaws to chew my way completely through this one. And I no longer have the vision I need to skim!

So I quit. For me, it wasn't an enjoyable read. My reading notes provide all the explanation, I've shared them below. You might love this one. It's definitely unique and writes about an interesting cultural phenomenon at an interesting time in history.

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. It's no wonder all our grandmothers were thin. These women were legal nonpersons, who could expect insufficient services even though they paid for a room, and were mostly relegated to thievery to keep food in their stomachs.

2. This book really handles suicide with nuance and respect. No plot devices here!

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. The narrative voice is too distracted with the details of the setting to get going with an actual story.

2. The style of the writing is not friendly. The syntax is unnecessarily complicated and the diction, unnecessarily verbose. Instead she murmured something tactful and nodded vaguely, and then after trading a few less keenly felt remarks about the weather, which was fine and seasonable, and the sermon, which had to do with whether Paul’s taking-up of Eutychus in Acts should properly be considered a resurrection from the dead, in the manner of Lazarus and Tabitha and the daughter of Jairus, or whether it should be considered instead a revival and therefore merely a simple healing miracle, like that of the beggar at the Gate Beautiful), Altheah drifted away. p59 All one sentence. Sentences this long are most often runons and frequently require chunking. This one would have benefited from chunking, as would many of the sentences in this book.

3. This is a book designed like a string of scenes or scene clusters. Each time I was reading a scene, I was blatantly aware of the development of some aspect of the story, but only and always in parts. Each scene focuses on furthering just one part. Contained. Little beads. Beads because the primary content of the scenes don't build on previous scenes. One character will develope in one scene, another in another scene, another provides some plot progression. These disparate parts just don't meet up very often, but they're all running at the same speed toward... something.

4. I suppose the plot is designed to mimic wandering the halls of a hotel and knocking on the doors, asking for stories. Maybe? But honestly, it's setting driven to the point of being distracting. It's a shame because setting driven novels can be completely brilliant. For example, try most of Jack London's work, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, or Bride of the Tornado by James Kennedy. I did not like the treatment here, but you might!

5. DNF @ 141 pages. The couldn't flip by fast enough.

Rating: DNF @ 141 pages
Recommend? No
Finished: Sep 21 '24
Format: Digital arc, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
💜 dense prose
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 family stories, family drama
👭🏽 women's friendship under stress
💇‍♀️ women's coming of age
🕰 historical fiction

Thank you to the author Daniel M. Lavery, publishers Harper Collins, and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of WOMEN'S HOTEL. All views are mine.

"From the New York Times bestselling author and advice columnist, a poignant and funny debut novel about the residents of a women's hotel in 1960s New York City.

The Beidermeier might be several rungs lower on the ladder than the real-life Barbizon, but its residents manage to occupy one another nonetheless. There's Katherine, the first-floor manager, lightly cynical and more than lightly suggestible. There's Lucianne, a workshy party girl caught between the love of comfort and an instinctive bridling at convention, Kitty the sponger, Ruth the failed hairdresser, and Pauline the typesetter. And there's Stephen, the daytime elevator operator and part-time Cooper Union student.

The residents give up breakfast, juggle competing jobs at rival presses, abandon their children, get laid off from the telephone company, attempt to retrain as stenographers, all with the shared awareness that their days as an institution are numbered, and they'd better make the most of it while it lasts.

As trenchant as the novels of Dawn Powell and Rona Jaffe and as immersive as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Lessons in Chemistry, Women's Hotel is a modern classic - and it is very, very funny."

I miss the bygone era where their were sanctuary hotels.

3 stars

The titular setting and the array of quirky characters make this a unique read, as does the author's characteristic voice, though some readers may find certain stylistic choices challenging.

Lavery's voice, both in writing of all genres and even in podcasting and other nonfictional spaces, is unmistakable. His command of the language leaves renowned experts in the field swooning, but it also makes his writing, at times, somewhat inaccessible to broader audiences. Sometimes, the language overtakes the plotting and character development here, and I wished for a different outcome. Additionally, since this is more of a character study, wherein the hotel becomes a backdrop for many individual stories, there isn't as much forward movement and apparent plotting as many readers may expect. For me, this was a read focused on observations versus actions.

I enjoy so much about this writer, and while this effort did not resonate with me in the same way that other works by Lavery have, I still enjoyed the glimpse into this world.