Kate O'Riordan's spell-binding novel twists and turns through the complexities of human relationships, exploring a broad swathe of emotions from complacent marital love to pure hate. She weaves a tale of fear through a story of grief, and leaves her reader reeling over the dizzy edge of realisation that all is not as simple as it seems.

A sequel to the original Finbar's Hotel, both edited by Dermot Bolger, this book follows the original format of having several well-respected Irish writers each write a chapter (unattributed) regarding a different room or charactor (porter, owner) on the same night in a Dublin Hotel. For this book, all the authors are women, including the popular Maeve Binchy, and the hotel has been spiffed up from its former seediness. Perhaps the seedier side of the Liffey is more interesting, for this has all the excitement of your basic hotel room decor. While the scenarios and problems of each charactor are varied (birth mother meeting son 27 years later, a nun with a rendezvous, a penniless faded film star with an illict guest in the penthouse she can't pay for) the writing and charactorizations never strike out beyond the realm of predicatability. In the first book, the common thread of charactors popping up in each others stories added another layer of interst, but each story could stand on its own merit as well. In this, the plot and places feel forced, the mention of charactors from other stories imposed on the story. While in the first, half the fun was trying to figure out who wrote each story (authors names are not given to any story), for ladie's night, it hardly matters. One story feels much like another. While the stories are pleasant reads, they never reach beyond (I hate to say it) Ladies Magazine fiction to the level of true literary fiction.

I bought this book because I saw Maeve Binchey's name on it. As much as I love her writing, I have not read much Irish fiction, and this looked like a fun book.

The book is a set of short stories that have inter-connecting characters in the stories. Each chapter was written by a different author, and I had fun trying to figure out who wrote which chapter. The story itself was light and fun, but not as much as I had hoped.

I enjoyed reading Ladies Night at Finbar's hotel, and would highly recommend it as a vacation or beach read. Nothing too deep to get lost in.

This book us a follow-up to Finbar's Hotel where 6 Irish writers wrote short stories about a decrepit but lively Dublin hotel Ladies Night is all Irish female writers, with the unique female perspective on many issues related to women: pregnancy, artificial insemination, old loves who have done you wrong, youth and aging, sexual jealousy. Although the topics can be dark, the writing is tight, witty and stylish so you can appreciate the humor even if you are crying over a piteous situation, hoping it will all turn out all right in the end. But does it? Read each story and see!