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.

Vivian Morris is a free-spirited 19 year old who flees the confines of her small-town childhood to move in with her Aunt, Peg in Manhattan. Peg owns and runs a theatre and as Vivian becomes involved in the life of the theatre she discovers a whole new way of life. Later on, older, calmer and wiser she rekindles two major friendships from her younger years, and lives happily for many years, independently, on her own terms.

I came to this with interest as I have had a mixed experience with Elizabeth Gilbert. I loved The Signature of all Things particularly, and enjoyed Eat, Pray, Love, but I didn't get on with Big Magic. The tone of this novel is totally different again from each of those and shows that Gilbert has a very creative capacity to reinvent herself. I think my favourite writers are always those that are recognisably themselves, but I still admire her ability to write in so many different styles and genres.

So the novel begins in a relentlessly jaunty, frothy style which I think is meant to evoke the spirit of the flighty and narcissistic young Vivian  - and which I found as wearying as the character herself. However the older Vivian, looking back, is a very likeable narrator and she recaptures her younger self with honesty. The notions of freedom and independence for women, including sexual freedom are really important to the novel and I loved the way that Vivian comes to embrace and celebrate this part of herself. The final chapters with Frank had a nice circularity and were really moving aswell.

Nevertheless, I found it an uneven novel as a whole. Although the scene is set in detail, I felt that not enough happens until the character Edna arrives. Once Edna does arrive, the rehearsals and performances of 'City of Girls' are depicted in great detail and are quite gripping, but the way different events were depicted didn't always fit with the narrative frame of the letter. The war years were skipped over in a rush and I didn't feel that the transition from younger Vivian to older Vivian was very smooth. I would have really enjoyed a more evenly paced version of this novel but as a celebration of an independent woman, it's enjoyable.

I found this book very  slow paced. I did read it to the end. But I struggled. Well written but I didn’t enjoy reading it.

I found this book to be quite slow moving and self-indulgent. I did read to the end but I found that it was difficult to relate to the main character (or any of the characters to be honest). Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an egally.

Wow I enjoyed this book, I found the storyline fresh and exciting. Ideas the book over the course as I honestly couldn't put the book dpwn. It has easily been one of my favourite books of the year.

This book was an absolute delight from beginning to end!

Our narrator is Vivian Morris. Recently kicked out of Vassar, Vivian goes to live with her aunt Peg who owns and runs a theatre in New York. The theatre is all small reviews, showgirls, dancers and music and Vivian is in love with it all from the very beginning until she makes one big mistake and everything starts to fall apart and she is banished, left to lick her wounds and find out what it is she really wants from her life.

That's a really short summary, but really, you need to read it yourself and get caught up in the joy of it all. Vivian is writing about her life in a letter to the daughter of a man who played a huge part in her life and her voice is just a delight. I was in love with her from about page ... one! She was selfish, witty, vain, vivacious and so very young and just learning to live life to the full, enjoy sex, drink far too much and not worry at all about what tomorrow brings. You think you'd find her utterly vapid and not worth knowing about her, but there is just something about her honesty in writing about her foolish youth decades later that makes her loveable and brings back some memories of your own youth - although most of us haven't lived the youth she did!

Long story short. I adored this book and would happily recommend it to all comers!

I found this very much a book of two halves.  I initially thought I would hate it, as Vivian seemed to be a very unappealing character.  However the first part of the book dealing with Vivian's time in New York working in the theatre was quite an engaging story, although I could have done without the details of her sex life, which didn't add anything to the story.  The second part of the book was much less interesting, and much less engaging.  It seemed to drag, and the writing seemed much more wooden.  All in all I think that some people would really enjoy this book, but I wouldn't recommend it.

A sharp, witty and insightful tale of a young girl in New York, and the collision between her restricted upbringing and the bright lights of the city.

A magical historical fiction, so different from anything I've ever read by Elizabeth Gilbert. 
I throughly enjoyed it, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction!

This was my Second Book by the author.. being Eat Pray Love the other one in rad by her long time ago.

The book is completely different.

historical fiction, told in the way of a narration by the protagonist. 

This book has a good character development. has joy, heartbreak..
And the representation of love. 

Also the descriptions were so nicely written I can tell the author made a wonderful research job.