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Guest Review: CHRISTMAS AT THE WOMEN'S HOTEL by Daniel M. Lavery
- Sophia Rose
- Dec 24, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 25, 2025
ABOUT THE BOOK
New York Times bestselling author Daniel M. Lavery returns to the fabulous world of the Women's Hotel in this delightful and heartwarming novella about one especially boisterous Christmastime at the beloved Biedermeier.
Christmas at the Biedermeier Hotel means employment, and employment means walking-around money. For ten months out of the year, jobs come fitfully and infrequently to Biedermeier residents, but between Advent and Epiphany any girl who wants something to do between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. has her pick of holiday window dresser, salesgirl at the card stores on 42nd Street, Broadway usherette, assistant laundress at the Lincoln Center Nutcracker, Pinkerton security at the World’s Fair exhibition halls in Queens.
Katherine considers the possibility of making amends with her siblings in Ohio after a Sunday service at Old First Presbyterian. Lucianne goes into business for herself at last, trying to run a telephone-order male escort agency (strictly above-board and Social Register only) out of her room, while Mrs. Mossler attempts to solve the mystery of the Biedermeier’s skyrocketing phone bill and frets over Christmas tips for the hotel’s few remaining employees.
And while the three thieves who stole twenty-four gems worth three million dollars from the American Museum of Natural History on October 29 have recently been caught, not all of the jewels have been recovered—and Patricia and Carol have behaved terribly strangely for the better part of a month. Christmas is a season of wonder and mystery, after all.
OPENING LINES
Girls who would be considered unemployable at any other time of year (and it was largely this type who inhabited the Biedermeier)—those without experience, training, education, or a pair of gloves not obviously mended—were nevertheless, in some indefinite sense commercially essential to the Christmas season.
GUEST REVIEW by Sophia Rose
Picture it, the 1960s in New York City for the Christmas season, but instead of strolling 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 the earlier release of Women’s Hotel. Christmas at the Women’s Hotel takes 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 invested in them and their concerns. Katherine, the first-floor manager, receives an unexpected letter that has her wondering if family reconciliation will be under her tree for Christmas. Lucianne’s entrepreneurship has her running a tasteful 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 more pressing concerns. Thieving is something of a specialty for two residents who have been behaving sketchy lately.
And, all the while, the dialogue, manners, and historical setting had me immersed in life and the holiday season of a 1960s NYC. From World Fair exhibits to decorated shop window displays, it was all vivid and lush. Warmhearted and amusing, with ‘found-family’ anticipating Christmas at the heart of it all. A historical holiday women’s fiction that puts one solidly in the holiday spirit.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Daniel Lavery co-founded and co-edited the editorial site The Toast from 2013 to 2016. He served as Slate’s Dear Prudence advice columnist from 2016 to 2021. He publishes the biweekly literary newsletter “The Chatner” at Substack. His first book, the New York Times bestseller Texts from Jane Eyre, was published in 2014.
ABOUT GUEST REVIEWER, Sophia Rose
Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, piano-playing, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, baseball, cats, Scooby Doo, and chocolate.
As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. In 2012, she submitted her first book review and is currently an associate reviewer.
Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener, which allows her to experience many wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance. Sorry, no horror...or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
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