It's like nothing I've ever read before, and I devoured it in a few sittings. The characters and setting are so perfectly fleshed out, and the world is instantly relatable to any woman who has encountered one too many decorative succulents along millennial pink walls and "woke" upper middle class 20something self-proclaimed witches. The twists and turns are so delicious and made me never want to stop reading. It's one of those books that you're sad to finish, because you just want it to keep going forever.

I really enjoyed the first half of A Special Place for Women. Unfortunately a little over half way through the book it shifted in a direction that really didn't resonate with me. Overall this is was a quick read but it fell flat for me.

I really enjoyed this authors other book, but I simply couldn’t get into this one

This one is a DNF for me

What a wild ride! Laugh out loud funny at times, it's also very sharp, extending real millennial culture to it's logical extremes and finding scary things there. Start with care, this is one you're going to want to stay up late to finish.

I liked this one! I am excited to see what they write next! The plot did seem farfetched and I will never understand why someone likened it to The Secret History...

A Special Place for Women hit the sweet spot between women's fiction and thriller in all the right ways. It was smart, juicy and scandalous in all the best ways. I found it hard to put this book down and just wanted to keep turning the pages. It did take a turn I was completely not expecting and ended up very different than what I was expecting this book to be like, but it certainly made for an entertaining read. I would definitely read more from Laura Hankin in the future!

This was an unexpected book - I generally felt like I could guess where it was going but there were definitely some twists that I didn't see coming. I felt like it was very easy to read and engaging - I was hooked from the start. It was a little 'eye roll-inducing' with some of the plotlines but overall an enjoyable read.

This book had such a promising start. I mostly read books without reading the synopsis. And it was going really great until the fantasy element kicked in and it went all over the place. An attempt to connect modern world women with ancient world didn't go great for me. The mystery part of it was interesting though.

A Special Place for Women ending up being a DNF for me. I found it hard to connect to the characters in this book.

I thought this one was entertaining, but a little different than I expected. I did interview Laura and enjoyed speaking with her.

YAASSS! This was such a unique and unputdownable book. FINALLY! I feel like I've been in such a book slump and this was finally the one to break that horrible spell. I've always liked books about secret societies or cults and this one hit the mark and scratched that itch. I needed this. It was by no means formulaic and Laura Hankin isn't afraid to beat to her own drum. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more from her in the future.

Last year, I read Happy & You Know It and it was juicy and full of drama and I knew I wanted to read Laura Hankin’s newest book, A Special Place for Women.

At first, I was so enthralled with this story and wanted to know more about this exclusive club of powerful women, but unfortunately the story did not maintain it’s luster. It was an entertaining read, but it took a very different turn from what I was expecting. I loved the focus on female friendships and female empowerment, but the second half just struggled to hold my attention.

This would be great for fans of stories surrounding lies and secrets, cults, and magical realism or if you are looking for a very different women’s fiction story!

Thank you so much to Berkley Pub, Netgalley, and Berit Talks Books for my gifted copy! All opinions are my own.

This book is a great theme for women supporting other women from beginning til the end. The main character Jillian was so relatable and I loved her so much.

This book is witty with a side of romance and mystery! It’s so hard to put it down. I devoured this book in a day!

I really enjoyed this novel, although I didn't find it quite as addictive as the author's previous novel, HAYKI. I found the premise interesting and the exploration of themes very relevant to today's culture!

Jillian is a journalist who has recently lost her job and her mom. When she decide to infiltrated New York’s most exclusive female club in order to write and article, she gets way more than she bargained for.

This book was wild! It was so good - it was definitely a rollercoaster. It was crazy, but then it got crazier and crazier! You should put this on your TBR list, but only pick it up when you a free day to devote to reading - you’ll want to finish this in one sitting.

Thanks to @NetGalley and Berkley for my ARC!

I'm so glad this one was all over bookstagram because I'm not sure it would've been on my radar otherwise! Loved everything about this book and need to get my hands on a physical copy for my "forever pile"

I absolutely adored this story focusing on a daring female reporter who infiltrates a female-run secret society, whose well-connected members seem to be up to something nefarious. The writing is fantastic as usual (Hankin always brings it!), and the pacing is brilliant. I could not put this one down even as I was confused with the direction of the story. The ending was so far away from what I was imagining yet I loved it.

I didn’t love it. I really wanted to, I was excited about the premise, but for me this book was just meh.

New York's hottest club has secret societies, maybe witches, undercover journalists, and probably "Gaslight. Gatekeep. Girlboss." emblazoned in some powder room somewhere. In all seriousness, this was a fun ride. The characters were all well textured -- they started as archetypes, but Hankin revealed something more to each of them. The ending personally made me happy, but I also do feel like it may have been a bit rushed. I'd be interested to see if this would get a sequel -- it seems like it was pretty wrapped up, but I would be intrigued to see where it could go next.

File under: Not My Kind of Book...but I enjoyed it anyway.

I was a bit put off by the cringey-bad title and the screaming pink cover, but this is a fun and enjoyable. Think of it as your coworking space, but even more elitist and (possibly) invoking the supernatural for its own gain.

This book looks like your average millennial twenty something takes on the big city novel (and it is that too, in the end), but amidst the major career drama and minor relationship drama, things get wild.

Jillian isn’t an especially realistic protagonist, but I liked her. She’s got some moxie and a solidly self-deprecating sense of humor. The other women of Nevertheless (great name for a women’s group, right? Speaking of, why not call the book that instead?) were interesting characters, though Margo and Caroline offer less than Vi and Libby, despite being far more important to the story.

None of this wild tale feels very plausible, but it’s sweet and fun and a perfect summer beach read.