Christmas at the Women's Hotel: A Biedermeier Story

Picture it, the nineteen-sixties in New York City for the Christmas season, but instead of being the stroller along the festive streets, you’re the working gal at the counter going back to a cheap hotel rather than the Waldorf-Astoria. Daniel Lavery introduced his Biedermeier Hotel and the plucky working-class women residing there in earlier release Women’s Hotel and now sends along the follow-up Christmas at the Women’s Hotel taking up the story where the first left off.Multiple storylines dot this ‘slice of life’ holiday coze making me regret not having read the introductory Women’s Hotel story first because the characters were already established. That said, I was able to get vested in them and their concerns.Katherine the first-floor manager gets an unexpected letter at home that has her wondering if family reconciliation will be under her tree for Christmas. Lucianne’s entrepreneurship has her running a (its tasteful) (oh, and not too shady) escort service by phone from the privacy of her room. Why has the phone bill skyrocketed? Mrs Mossler wonders, but is distracted by other pressing concerns. Thieving is something of a specialty for two residents who are behaving sketchy lately.And, all the while, the dialogue, manners, and historical setting had me immersed in the world of the story and seeing life and holiday season of a past-era NYC. From World Fair exhibits to lighted and decorated shop window displays, it was all vividly portrayed.Warmhearted and amusing ‘found-family’ anticipating Christmas at the heart of it all. A historical holiday women’s fiction that puts one solidly in the Seasonal Mood.

“Christmas at the Women’s Hotel” does not care if you remember anyone’s name. It will not help you. It will not pause to catch you up. It simply yeets you into the Biedermeier Hotel with a string of garland, one working phone, a seasonal side hustle, and exactly zero apologies. The halls are decked, the pay is low, and every woman in this place is either selling something, hiding something, or emotionally repressing something, sometimes all three before breakfast.We’ve got Katherine spiraling over maybe reconnecting with her estranged sister, which is both tender and exactly the kind of quiet emotional catastrophe that happens around the holidays when you're just trying to wrap presents and not cry in the pantry. Lucianne? Oh, she's out here casually running a telephone-order male escort service from her bedroom like it's no big deal. She said, “What if capitalism… but hot?” Mrs. Mossler is waging a one-woman war against the Biedermeier’s mystery phone bill and slowly unraveling over holiday tipping etiquette, which honestly? Feels like a personal attack.Meanwhile, Patricia and Carol are giving serious “we accidentally stole a cursed diamond and now it lives in the breadbox” energy. There’s been a whole museum heist situation, thieves arrested, but the jewels are missing, and these two are acting twitchy. I’m not saying they did it. I’m just saying they definitely know who did and they’re probably related.The whole novella feels like if “A Christmas Carol” threw out the ghosts and said, “What if the real haunting was economic precarity and intergenerational regret?” The pacing is pure chaotic holiday energy — like someone trying to tell you five stories at once while the kettle boils over and Carolers are screaming outside. It’s short. It’s messy. It’s kind of brilliant. It also assumes you’ve read “Women’s Hotel,” and if you haven’t, well... welcome to your new full-time job: remembering 20 characters introduced mid-conversation with zero explanation.And yet. There are moments that hit. Josephine, who is 70 and literally out here PICKPOCKETING HER WAY THROUGH RETIREMENT like she’s in “Oliver!” but with better shoes. I would read an entire spin-off about her grifting wealthy uptown ladies while quoting Oscar Wilde and committing light fraud. Mara Wilson voices her (and everyone else) with that perfectly droll, quietly mischievous tone like she knows something you don’t and probably stole it from your purse.Daniel M. Lavery’s writing is like... if a vintage screwball comedy and a stage play about class consciousness had a love child in a snowstorm. It’s wry. It’s observant. It absolutely doesn’t care if you’re following every thread, because the characters are too busy chasing side gigs and existential closure to slow down for you. It’s got that mid-century theatrical snappiness, but buried under the jokes are these little moments of grief and longing that sneak in like glitter in your bra after a party.Is it structurally all over the place? Sure. Is that kind of the point? Also yes. It’s a portrait of messy lives in a messy world, dressed up in holiday drag. Not every subplot hits, and if you’re not familiar with the first book, good luck figuring out who’s related to who, who works where, and who’s possibly stashing sapphires in the umbrella stand.But if you’re in the mood for something that’s festive, literary, a little weird, and absolutely drenched in that very specific “trying to feel joy while the walls of your life gently crumble” December feeling, “Christmas at the Women’s Hotel” is it.Three stars, but if Josephine ever headlines a jewel heist, I’m showing up in a trench coat and fake mustache ready to assist.Merry Mayhem Prize: For Making Me Care Deeply About a Phone Bill and a Possibly Cursed Socialite Escort RingHuge thanks to HarperAudio Adult and NetGalley for the advanced audiobook. And for enabling my holiday addiction to emotionally complex women, crime-adjacent capitalism, and for casting Mara Wilson as the voice of every cigarette-holding, jewel-hiding, emotionally withholding woman I wish would ruin my life just a little.

The characters of Biedermeier, a women’s only boarding room hotel, in NYC are back in this delightful novella. Follow up to Women’s Hotel in time for the holiday season. Author Daniel Lavery has written a cozy mystery with several storylines that intersect with each characters odd jobs. Several tenants and workers are not as they appear. Behind closed door is a jewelry burglar, escort operator, and money schemer. This was a charming quick read. If you enjoy women’s fiction and NYC nostalgia of a bustling city during winter then give this one a read.I received a copy of this book through a Goodreads Giveaway.

I thought this short story would be a good read for my holiday reading binge. The book summary pretty much lays out most of the storylines of some of the residents of the Biedermeier Hotel, a place with single women from their 20’s to their 70’s. However, there is another storyline that the book summary didn’t mention. One of the oldest and longest standing residents, Josephine, a woman in her 70’s supplements her paltry retirement savings with her trusty old pickpocketing skills. I also liked the author’s notes at the beginning and end about the history of these types of hotels.