City of Girls ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert


G👀dreads:

In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance. Her affluent parents send her to Manhattan to live with her Aunt Peg, who owns a flamboyant, crumbling midtown theater called the Lily Playhouse. There Vivian is introduced to an entire cosmos of unconventional and charismatic characters, from the fun-chasing showgirls to a sexy male actor, a grand-dame actress, a lady-killer writer, and no-nonsense stage manager. But when Vivian makes a personal mistake that results in professional scandal, it turns her new world upside down in ways that it will take her years to fully understand. Ultimately, though, it leads her to a new understanding of the kind of life she craves-and the kind of freedom it takes to pursue it.
Now ninety-five years old and telling her story at last, Vivian recalls how the events of those years altered the course of her life - and the gusto and autonomy with which she approached it.

In one of the 5★★★★★ reviews the reviewer said "It was often an Audiobook HOOT! But also something much deeper". She also mentioned the reader again "Audio book...narrated by Blair Brown - FABULOUS READER!!!! Kudos to Blair Brown!!!!"

I connected with her overuse of exclamation points!!!! That's so me! Plus attracted to the review of the narrator because you know me, I like to listen to a storyteller.
Then she went on with:

Not a book for everyone...
Read through many positive and critical reviews. There are many of both.

Some words from critical reviewers:
Too long
Boring
Didn’t hold readers interest
Too much sex
Quirky characters
Trash
Silly and predictable
Self Indulgent
Debauchery, sex, and alcohol
Shallow fluff

Positives words from readers:
Captivating
Entertaining
Like a tray of Champagne cocktails
Better than Harry Potter
I couldn’t put it down
All the feels
Great female characters
Champions independence
Weeping and can’t type
A beautiful story
A memorable story
Nostalgic
Lots of sex
Lots of sex
Lots of sex
Glitz and glamour
Intoxicating by freedom & a scintillating lifestyle
Thought provoking
Life lived to the fullest
Amazing characters

Genre: Historical Fiction, Adult Fiction, Contemporary, New York.
Circa: 1940.

Not a book for everyone can be said about them all. Like quirky characters listed as a negative? 🤯What? Not in my world. I seek them out!

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 4.25 🌶🌶

It's more than a little fluff. It's pretty spicy. 🌶🌶 Not explicate details, so just two 🌶🌶s.

The story starts with the protagonist going back to when she was 19 and moved to New York. Reference to the review that the audiobook is a HOOT, I'm at about 20% and the story of her losing her virginity WAS a HOOT. Her friends set her up with a doctor, who they have sex with all.the.time, to provide the "service". He pays them for sex but not in an "I'm a prostitute" kind of way. Somehow. After the deed was done she asked him what kind of doctor he was, assuming he was a gynecologists. He said veterinarian. She tells her friends "you set me up with a VETERINARIAN?! I felt like I had been spayed!" The voice inflections really made me LOL. This was during a time your grandmother (or great grandmother) would tell you that back in her day casual sex wasn't a thing and they saved it for marriage. Oh.no.they.didn't. Lots of sex is already happening.

It's definitely entertaining.

It started dragging in the middle so I increased the speed! I'm still interested but was like, okay, I get it, point made, move along already.

I liked it. Smidge slow in the middle but overall a good story and very entertaining. It starts off with her getting a letter from her dear friend's daughter asking "what did you mean to my dad?" She said "I can't tell you what I meant to him, but I can tell you what he meant to me." Then it turns into a biography. Her whole life story between the ages of 19 and 95. And what a life story it was.
Some people downgraded from that with "imagine asking a question and getting a 500 page response". Well, if she responded with "we were friends" it would have been a greeting card, not a book.

🎧Blair Brown

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