Gala and Lane are two enthralling yet completely unlikeable characters. Charlie is a bit more endearing, but he definitely has his faults. LA Women takes a deep look into their complicated friendship over the span of many years. I don’t know if I even want to call it a friendship. The complex relationships made this story completely engrossing, I kept searching for reasons and answers. There are a few big events, but for the most part this is a quieter novel that looks at game, friendship, motherhood, addiction and family under a microscope. A microscope so strong that you can see all of the imperfections. I loved the Hollywood landscape, it set the perfect tone for such a story. The ending was magnificent.

Set in the late 1960’s and up to the mid 1970’s, L. A. Women is a story of the intense, fractured friendship between two young women, Lane, a novelist, ultimately a wife and mother, and Gala, a party girl and sometime writer with an out-size personality. The men in their lives are Charlie, party master and closeted gay, and straightforward upright Scotty, who marries Lane. Lane’s childhood was particularly dysfunctional while Gala’s wasn’t wonderful either. As so-called friends, these two women use and abuse and sometimes depend on each other. Competition and compassion are at war in this back-and-forth relationship.
The opening chapters are full of sex and drug-laden parties, and I didn’t find any of the characters very appealing or ones I could identify with. When Gala disappears and no one seems to know where she has gone, Lane feels compelled even driven to try to locate her. This search fuels the novel as the chapters alternate in time between past events and present day 1975. Recommended for fans of Ella Berman and those looking for a graphic portrait of an earlier Hollywood/Los Angeles party scene.

No notes. Each character was so real and human, and likable and hateable all at once. Ella Berman wrote this beautiful novel about being a woman in the 70s in a man’s world, that is still relatable today. It showed how women need each others support and friendship but also how sometimes women get in the trap of comparison and putdowns instead of lifting each other up. I LOVED this one. It wasn’t a book where I devoured it quickly but the depth and the writing were beautiful.

This novel follows two women in their twenties navigating the LA art scene in the 1960s and 1970s—Gala and Lane, both aspiring writers. On the surface, they seem like total opposites: Gala, the consummate party girl, and Lane, an uptight woman new to the LA scene. Their unlikely friendship begins when Gala introduces Lane to Charlie, who becomes Lane's best friend and helps Lane write her debut novel, which turns into a smash hit. But when Gala mysteriously disappears, Lane becomes obsessed with finding her, much to the frustration of those around her.

The book is rich with vivid imagery, transporting you straight to 1970s LA, immersing you in the vibrant world of love, sex, drugs, and the pulsating art scene. The writing is exceptional, capturing the era's raw energy and complexity. The toxic love-hate relationship between Gala and Lane is addicting, delving into the intricate dynamics of female friendships—how women can be both each other’s greatest supporters and harshest critics. I absolutely loved this. It’s a perfect read for fans of Daisy Jones & the Six or Ursa in D Minor.

I have enjoyed Berman's previous novels so was excited to get approved for this one on @netgalley. It publishes on August 5th so I recommend her previous while you wait; While You Were Innocent (2023) or The Comeback (2020).

DNF at 23%

I wanted to be able to finish this book, but couldn’t due to the two female MCs. I could not relate with them, and the plot was hard to follow.

I am bummed because I really liked “Before We Were Innocent.”

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the digital eARC.

This book blew me away. Set in the 1960s in Los Angeles we have Lane a writer and Gala a socialite. There is jealousy, toxic friendship, Gala disappearing, obsession, and ambition. Then Lane does something that changes both of their lives... The writing, the characters, the setting, everything about this book made me not want to put this book down. I have read everything by Ella Berman and will continue to because she is just such an amazing writer and storyteller. Please pick up this book!

1960s Los Angeles. A city of sun-soaked glamour, restless ambition, and friendships as intoxicating as they are volatile.

Lane Warren has built a reputation as a journalist and circles the edges of literary success. But now, she’s ready to step into the spotlight on her own terms. Trading the cool reserve of the East Coast for the heat of LA, Lane struggles to find her place in a world that seems effortless for everyone but her.

Then she meets Gala.

Tall, radiant, magnetic—Gala moves through life with an intoxicating ease. She doesn’t seem to work, and she certainly doesn’t care about the things that keep other people up at night. Yet somehow, she is always the center of the room, a gravitational force around which others orbit. Lane is immediately drawn in, swept into an intense friendship that feels like fate.

But nothing this dazzling lasts forever.

Told through shifting timelines, LA Women unravels the story of Lane and Gala—how they met, the rise and fall of their intoxicating friendship, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding Gala’s eventual disappearance. Theirs is a relationship that defies easy explanation, one that flickers between admiration and rivalry, devotion and destruction. Against a backdrop of parties, power plays, and the unreality of 1960s Los Angeles, this novel explores the fine line between love and obsession, and the cost of losing oneself in someone else’s orbit.

A story of ambition, longing, and the unspoken tensions between women, LA Women is an unforgettable novel of a friendship that burns bright, fast, and dangerously close to the edge.

#LAWomen #EllaBerman #Berkley #LiteraryThriller #1960sLA #FameAndFriendship #ThePriceOfGlamour

5/5 stars

I don’t know if any other book will top this for me this year. This was incredible. This was everything I wanted in a work of fiction about a LA party girl and writer. I know Joan Didion and Eve Babitz had to play a role in this somewhere as inspiration for Lane and Gala, and I’m really really hoping so because this is exactly how I viewed their relationship. I adored the polished edges of Lane in contrast to Gala’s chaos and how they both needed each other despite how much they didn’t. This was an incredible book