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Book Summary and Reviews of Christmas at the Women's Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery

Christmas at the Women's Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery

Christmas at the Women's Hotel

A Biedermeier Story (Women's Hotel #1.5)

by Daniel M. Lavery

  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Published:
  • Oct 2025, 128 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

New York Times bestselling author Daniel M. Lavery returns to the world of Women's Hotel in this delightful and heartwarming novella about one especially lively Christmastime at the Biedermeier.

Christmas at the Biedermeier Hotel means work. For much of the year, employment comes infrequently to Biedermeier residents. But during the Advent season, they're in high demand all over the city: as holiday window dressers, sales-girls at the card stores on Forty-Second Street, Broadway usherettes, assisting the Lincoln Center laundress at the Nutcracker, or working for Pinkerton as off-season security guards at the World's Fair.

Katherine explores the possibility of reconnecting with a younger sister moving to New York. Lucianne goes into business for herself, running a telephone-order, strictly Social Register male escort agency 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 gem thieves who broke into the American Museum of Natural History have recently been apprehended, not all of the stolen jewels have been recovered—and Patricia and Carol have been behaving very strangely recently. Christmas is a season of wonder and mystery, after all.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"[W]insome...There is plenty of holiday spirit to be found in the Biedermeier, but marvelously little treacle. As warming as hot cocoa but not so sweet that it will make your teeth ache." —​Kirkus Reviews

"Admirers of the last novel might appreciate the extended view into the women's lives, but others can take a pass." —Publishers Weekly 

"[A] fun-filled romp with adorable characters who hilariously navigate the awkwardness of living closely in the same building during a tense Christmas season…A feel-good holiday read that will delight Lavery's fans." —Booklist

This information about Christmas at the Women's Hotel was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Daniel M. Lavery Author Biography

Eustache Boch

Daniel M. Lavery is a former "Dear Prudence" advice columnist at Slate, the cofounder of The Toast, and the New York Times bestselling author of Texts from Jane Eyre, The Merry Spinster, Something That May Shock and Discredit You, and Women's Hotel. He also writes the popular newsletter The Chatner.

Link to Daniel M. Lavery's Website

Other books by Daniel M. Lavery at BookBrowse
  • Women's Hotel jacket
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Read-Alikes

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