A page turner from a classic storyteller! Certainly couldn’t read this just before bed as it moves between characters and time lines but it’s well worth the quiet time to read..

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Another good book by this author who has a very immersive writing style. Good setting and plot which kept me reading and enjoying it to the end!

Another enjoyable read from Kat Atkinson. Such an unusual choice of subject matter and written in such an engaging way. The characters and the depiction of the era was so believable making this a thoroughly immersive and pleasurable read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

While I enjoyed reading this novel, it didn't capture me in the same way as Life After Life (my favourite Atkinson). Nellie Coker is undeniably a great character, and I liked Gwen as the librarian-turned-spy, but I found DCI Frobisher frustrating and most of the other characters didn't really get enough pagetime to fully come to life. A solid historical novel with a strong protagonist, but nothing truly special.

I was looking forward to reading Kate Atkinson's newest novel, Shrines of Gaiety and I wasn't disappointed. This story is told from the perspectives of several different characters as the plot unfolds. Atkinson's writing really brings to life the darker side of 1920's London and the contrast between pleasure and corruption is stark. There are two interconnected storylines throughout, the mystery of a series of missing girls and the other focused on the downfall of Nellie Coker, infamous nightclub owner, and this makes for a very interesting and absorbing read. Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for a digital copy for review.

I got Shrines of Gaiety many moons ago on NetGalley but I really enjoyed this fun (but also occasionally quite serious) historical novel about criminals, clubs and runaways in 1920s Soho. So much great historical detail and I loved the atmosphere, the mix of characters, the way the story is woven together...

one of my favourites of the kate atkinsons i've read! so immersive in the setting and world building and my favourite scenes surrounded the interactions of the coker children

Novels set in the roaring twenties typically feature the dazzling lights of New York or Chicago. So a novel by one of the UKs most lauded authors promising to explore the underbelly of 1920s London and exploring a notorious nightclub owner seemed destined to intrigue and shine.

Nellie Coker is based on Kate Meyrick, known as the 'Night Club Queen' and even inspiration for Waugh's Ma Mayfield in Brideshead Revisited. Atkinson weaves an intricate web of activity and mystery around Nellie, her children and her nightclubs. The alternating perspectives take the reader from dazzling nightclubs, to gritty streets of London, from gentlemen and Peers to the drug and sex trades.

The world Atkinson paints is vibrant and vivid. While the style takes a little while to get into, once the story gets going it is utterly absorbing. Nellie is an incredible character and one who will linger in the imagination. She's a fierce matriarch and a shrewd business woman. Rivalling Coker is Gwendolen, a librarian who is in search of a runaway school girl, and so becomes embroiled in Nellie's world.

Shrines of Gaiety has a little bit of everything - it is full of drama, mystery and suspense, as well as humor and romance, and even a dose of thrills and adventure.
It's a witty, funny novel which captures the spirit of the time so well, and is an utterly joyous read. It has all the gaiety that the title promises, as well as a great deal of mystery and intrigue.

Kate Atkinson is one of my favourite authors and her books never disappoint. Nellie, the main character, and she dazzles in this mesmerising read. A truly brilliant book, I really enjoyed it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. I have chosen to write this honest review voluntarily and it reflects my personal opinion.
I started this book thinking that it was full of atmospheric detail with well-described characters based on the post-war heyday of London gangsters and clubs. I didn't understand where Freda, the runaway, and her friend, Florence, fitted in, they merely seemed a filler- in to elaborate on the seedy underbelly of the capital city at that time. However, by the time I had read 50% of the long novel I felt as though very little had happened and I was not sufficiently engaged to read any more. This book has not impressed me sufficiently to want to read any more by this author.

Another thoroughly enjoyable novel from Kate Atkinson set, this time, in the slightly seedy world of Soho during the 1920's. As usual we have several stories being told at once, yet each has a bearing on another. I couldn't put it down. Five stars!

Wonderful sexy powerful and dynamic characters. What a family a force of nature set in a time and place that was oozing with badness and sophistication what a blend thanks for sharing

I’ve enjoyed previous Kate Atkinson books, which is why I requested this one from #netgalley. I will be honest - it was hard going in places and I finished it because I’d invested time in it, not because I enjoyed it. I realise it was based on a true story and character but the cast was huge and not particularly likeable. Narrative threads weren’t seamlessly linked. It won’t stop me reading Kate Atkinson in the future but this wasn’t for me.

A slow-burn novel with lots of characters, and I felt like two more books could have been filled with the story of young Nellie Coker, Frobisher or even Gwendolyn's life before the actual plot. I enjoyed these mini-stories even if they slowed the book further down.

The language and writing is very distinctive, a pleasure to read. My first book by Kate Atkinson, but not the last that's for sure.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK / Transworld Publishers for an ARC.

An excellent book focusing on 1920s Soho, the delicious nightlife, the crime fuelled streets of gangsters, and Nellie Coker - the most ambitious woman in London! Full of seduction and betrayal, I simply could not put this book down, I was hooked from the first page

A gripping book that I struggled to put down. Brilliant plot with a host of interesting characters, I will definitely read more by this author.

Fine entertainment. Shrines of Gaiety is a cocktail, bubbles and fizz on the surface with something dark lurking at the bottom of the glass. Full review at https://lizzysiddal2.wordpress.com/2023/01/09/shrines-of-gaiety-kate-atkinson/.

It’s 1926. A crowd has gathered outside Holloway Prison. Ma Coker, the Queen of Clubs, is being released.

In a country still recovering from the Great War, London is the focus for a delirious nightlife. In Soho clubs, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign signatories with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.

There, Nellie Coker is a ruthless ruler, ambitious for her six children. Niven is the eldest, his enigmatic character forged in the harsh Somme. But success breeds enemies. Nellie faces threats from without and within. Beneath the gaiety lies a dark underbelly, where one may be all too easily lost.

As always, this latest novel from Kate Atkinson paints detailed, almost Dickensian, descriptions of her settings. Her command of the English language is second-to-none and her precise vocabulary depicts a huge cast of characters in such a way as to make them three-dimensional in every way.

Whilst this is a setting that has been explored before – think Peaky Blinders meets Bugsy Malone – it’s refreshing to read about the London gang scene from a female perspective.

I experienced this novel in its audiobook version, which was read by Jason Watkins. The narration was expressive and did help to bring the story to life, however I was not particularly keen on the way that Watkins read some of the female characters.

This was not my favourite of Atkinson’s novels, and I found the plot to be rather meandering at times. However, the beautifully-creating characters, evocative setting and the author’s mastery of language still made this a worthy read.

Kate Atkinson has done it again! It's a fantastically atmospheric read that kept me mystified and on the edge of my seat. Thanks for the ARC!

Nellie Coker, fresh out of prison, slots straight back in to running her business of five nightclubs in 1926 London. She is a very cleverly drawn character and a force to be reckoned with. Her family are all involved in the business to some degree and she uses her many connections, with a wide range of powerful people from the lowest criminals to the very rich and powerful, to protect them when necessary. There has been a spate of girls going missing in the locality and Chief Inspector Frobisher is tasked with finding the perpetrator. Nellie is his main suspect so he comes up with a cunning plan to infiltrate her den of iniquity. The descriptions are rich and believable and I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Thank you to Net Galley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.