Just so much fun, and really rather Beautiful. Protagonist Vivi has the most wonderful, self-deprecating , unapologetic (even when full of self loathing) perspective on her unconventional life I. 1940s New York. Plus a supporting cast of gloriously authentic, unconventional characters. Can’t wait to watch the inevitable TV adaptation one day

I wanted to love this but sadly wasn't immersed enough: the narrative was very inside the main character's head, which for me detracted from the actual plot. I can tell however that the book was meticulously researched, and I'm sure others will love it.

Unfortunately this one didn’t live up to the hype for me. It was good but not good enough. I heard great things & lots of others have loved it. Just wasn’t for me.

I found this to be boring and just could not engage with any of the characters.
The story line was disjointed with the only plus point being I managed to finish it.
Why is it that books that are seriously hyped up end up being a disappointment!

What a gem of a find. This is not a book that screams out to you to be read but was a beautiful story about Vivian and her moving to and growing up in New York. With romance and friendship but without overtaking the whole story about how a young woman chooses to live her life and how she gets through the hard times and finds what makes her happy.
The book initially called out to me for he sewing link and it was a nice side piece to her story but I am so glad I read it, maybe a little long winded in parts but overall the writing flowed nicely and painted an image that made you feel like you were right there at The Lily.

I really enjoyed this book. 19 year old Vivian goes to live in New York , staying with her Aunt Peg who owns the run down Lily theatre. Vivian is an accomplished seamstress and finds her niche making costumes for the 3rd rate shows the theatre puts on. At night she is out on the town, getting drunk and having sex with many different men. A scandal sends her back to her parents with her tail between her legs, but she is soon back in NYC helping Peg to put on shows for the dock workers when America enters WW2. The story covers many years and gave an insight in to the changing society, and particularly the role of women. I recommend this as a good read. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
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Sometimes a book comes along that takes you by surprise. I don't know what I was expecting when I picked this one up, but it turned out to be an absolute delight to read.

Vivian is 19 and has just failed college. Her parents send her to live with her eccentric Aunt who runs a theatre in New York. She finds herself flung into the life of theatre and showgirls, and this book is Vivian recalling her personal experiences of 1940s America.

I really enjoyed following Vivian on her escapades. The sexual freedom that the girls had in this was so refreshing, as I've always felt as if women enjoying sex is treated as a taboo topic in literature. Did I always agree with the decisions that the characters made? Definitely not. Yet I found her story to be so compelling and interesting. The author tackled some really big topics (e.g. homophobia, racism, misogyny, and class division) and I thought that they hit the nail on the head with them all. Everything was handled well and in a manner that I felt was true for the time period.
My only gripe was how it was wrapped up in the end. The whole book was written in the format of a letter, but I was disappointed by the reveal of who the letter was for. When I finished, it left me feeling a tad deflated, so this is why I gave the book 4-stars.

Overall, I thought that this was a fantastic and fresh take on a wartime historical fiction. The sexual freedom was incredible to read about and I'd highly recommend picking this one up!

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This historical fiction sees the author grooming characters in her gritty and glamorous City of Girls. And she is certainly deft with humor. The author explores the meaning of lust, love, freedom, feminism and family. She explains what it means to live life on the edge and on one's own terms. She reveals that the world isn't straightforward, but its nonetheless a beautiful place where you can discover or cultivate meaning and meaningful relations for yourself. Life is fleeting and must be cherished.

I didn't enjoy this as much as I'd hoped, found it rather indirect and slow in parts, but it was a fascinating insight into the girls' lives.

Elizabeth Gilbert is such a wonderfully, gifted writer. I love how she draws you into her books so that you are completely absorbed into the worlds she creates. I've read several of 'Ms Gilbert's books and none have disappointed - Eat. Pray Love, Committed and Big Magic, all spoke to me in many different ways and City of Girls is no different. I related to the main heroine, Vivienne and adored the time period in which this novel was set. Fascinating, hopeful and just a sheer joy. I highly recommend. Thank you to Net Galley for a free ARC of this novel in return for an honest review.

This long book was incredibly well written. I was instantly transported back to the time and could picture the outfits Vivian made and the noises of the theatre. The main character breaks down boundaries and makes her own way in life which was great to see. The ending was so tender and written full of love. This was a wonderful book that I loved every minute of.

I was drawn to this book because the description seemed to promise lots of tales of the excitement of New York in the 1940's , however it seemed to me that most of the characters 'excitement' was found between the sheets with various men. Now I do not consider myself to be either a prude or old but I do feel that this book was just a novel about the various sexual exploits of the girls in it and because of this I found myself becoming bored with the story and feeling very indifferent towards the characters, which was a shame as the beginning seemed to promise so much.

This was my first novel by Elizabeth Gilbert since Eat, Pray, Love, and as a fan of her creative work with Big Magic and her presence and activism on Instagram, I was excited to tuck in. I appreciated the author's introduction to the novel, which specified her goal was to write "a book that would go down like a champagne cocktail- light and bright, crisp and fun," because that was exactly what I needed and wanted. Hello, lockdown. Hello, City of Girls.

As our young heroine Vivian Morris comes to grips with Aunt Peg’s Lily Playhouse in New York, packed off by her baffled parents after she crashed out of Vassar, I adored the first half of the novel. Vivacious and charming, with spiky female characters including an eccentric aunt, not to mention the colourful setting of the theatre far from Broadway, this really worked for me. I longed to be young and careless in 1940s New York. But as the novel developed into something slightly different, it felt more like a story being 'told' than a story unfurling in front of the characters, and made me wish, just a little, that the novel had been a bit shorter.

Fab dialogue, colourful settings and interesting female characters kept me turning the pages. Gilbert said that she "longed to write a novel about promiscuous girls whose lives are not destroyed by their sexual desires," and I'd like to read a lot more novels about that, too.

I'd recommend this for fans of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Thanks the publisher for the advance reading copy.

I recently finished reading 'City of Girls' and oh my how I adored this book.
I usually tend to go for much darker literature, that's my instant go to.
However after two really obscure unsettling reads I was in the mood for something light and hopeful. This was IT.
I never would've thought that a novel set in the very brim of WWII could leave you with such a hopeful after taste. It was the first time in ages that I experienced such a book hungover.
I grew so fond and attached to Vivian from the beginning. She's such a raw, flawed nineteen year old but so fierce and vivid at the same time! I loved her instantly and I wished that I could explore New York City and the Lily Playhouse alongside Vivian, Celia and sweet odd Marjorie so badly.
It is a story about falling in love with a foreign city burning brightly in front of you. About the glamour of theatre and showgirls. And it is a story about personal growth above all else.
I don't want to give too much way but it's a big fat five stars for me, hands down.
I cannot recommend it enough,enjoy the ride ✨
Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury for my e-copy. This book will stay with me for the longest time and I will make sure to pass it on.

The novel starts off with a note from the author. An explanatory note - that in and of itself made me wonder if the author was justifying herself. And although I enjoyed the vivacious protagonist, I did feel that the author was using the novel to make her point. And I just don’t like fiction that is used almost as propaganda.

The positives were a feisty main character who reminded me of the protagonist in the Ya-Ya Sisterhood novels or Mrs Maisel. A fascinating look at New York City in the 40s in the theatre district with a host of unique and memorable characters. The exploration of all kinds of relationships. But overall the negative of feeling like I as the reader was being manipulated made it one that I won’t recommend heartily.

A story threaded with melancholy, following the life of a girl fighting for the freedom to live life as she chooses, then winning that freedom - but at what cost?
Author Elizabeth Gilbert successfully delivers a great sense of New York in the years just before and throughout the Second World War; frenetic, challenging social mores, rebellious and filled with so much fun to be had, yet dangerous too, not just physically, but emotionally and indeed capable of ruining a life.
Our heroine flees a stultifying, bound by convention, desperately dull life with her parents, where she is expected to follow society's expectations of an early marriage and runs to New York, invited to stay with her black sheep aunt, owner of a scruffy theatre. The opportunities the city presents are grabbed with both hands, any moral code she may have had being thrown out of the window in search of freedom, hedonism and adventure. It's like she steps from the ice box to the fire, there's no concept of a journey, of any decision-making, of any thought. Yes, she's 19, but even 19 year olds can (on the whole) make moral judgements. It was this wholehearted plunge into sexual liberation that grated a little - no slow movement towards living a different life, but a sociopathic rejection of everything she had been raised to believe, not questioning herself until she does something wholly unforgivable. It just all felt a bit unlikely.
I enjoyed the read, but I cannot ignore the frustrations.

I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I couldn't understand how one people would ask a simple question about how she knew her father to receive a long winded reply about her whole life and all her sexual encounters. I found parts of the books boring and not relevant to the question. The last part of the book though I did enjoy when it actually got down to the point but it felt like two different books in my opinion.

I loved being transported to 40's America, although the sewing but the sounds and smells of the theatre was captured with such enthusiasm. I would love to go back and revisit vivian and her friends.

A very long, slow-paced story that I really struggled to finish. However, I did enjoy being transported back to 1940's New York City.

Entertaining and engaging, with an appealingly glamorous cast of characters and a vintage vibe, this novel explores the love lives of a group of theatre girls in New York in the 1940s. It's well written and sharply imagined, but I felt like it could have been two separate books, as the later part of the novel feels a bit separate from the rest of it.

This is an escapism type story which I can see playing out on the screen - the setting is glam, there are eclectic beautiful people and situations. I imagine that the aim of the author was to create an escape to a fabulous world pushing boundaries and romanticising youth.

Personally, I didn’t connect with the narrator/ protagonist but I will say that it was good to see the character acknowledge her own privilege a couple of chapters in - “…maybe this is a hallmark of privilege: certain well-bred young ladies simply cannot conceive of the possibility that somebody will not be along shortly to rescue them”. The protagonist is a snob when she arrives in the city to live with her aunt. She’s selfish and conceited - she writes a 400 page response letter/autobiography to the question ‘What were you to my father?’

It’s a very visual story and as one reads it, it is possible to see how the author imagined it would look on screen. Having said that though, not much happens in terms of drama or arcs and the desire to make it glitzy and fabulous makes the story drag.

The intention I assume is to present us with a woman going against what was expected at the time and owning her sexuality. The author went about it in a weird way and missed the mark with some scenes which are just awkward verging on gross to read - e.g. the first time she has sex with a man…

The author also includes a note to put the novel in context, she says it was pre- #MeToo movement and that the world (and her own life) looked very different to when she began writing.
Despite the annoying (sarcastic?) misuse of ‘woke’, I agree that context is important and so it is important to know that the protagonist is a caucasian, conventionally pretty young woman in the 1940s - her experience would have not been universal. That’s not to fault the writing or the novel itself, I agree with the author when she says that it is a story of abandon and I’m sure it will be well received by its specific target audience. Personally, it feels out of place at this moment in time, maybe six years ago when it was started was the perfect time to finish it.