Cocktails + Cozies • Girls' Night In

Girls' Night In
edited by Lauren Henderson, Chris Manby, Sarah Mlynowski

Publisher: Red Dress Ink

Publication Date: September 1, 2004

Source/Format: Bought || Paperback

In this must-have short-story anthology, Jennifer Weiner revisits one of her Good in Bed characters (and tells the story from, ahem, his point of view), Jill A. Davis (Girls' Poker Night) offers a darkly humorous take on starting over in New York and working with "the Elizabeths," Sarah Miynowski (Milkrun) tempts fate (and an on-again-off-again boyfriend) and Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez (The Dirty Girls Social Club) considers how different the words lady and woman are when paired with cat. Girls' Night In features stories about growing up, growing out of, moving out, moving on, falling apart and getting it all together. So turn off your cell phone and curl up on the couch; this is one Girls' Night In you won't want to miss. 

The reason I picked up Girls' Night In was because two of my favorite authors wrote short stories for it - Meg Cabot and Sophie Kinsella. Plus, I love a good short story and Girls' Night In promised to contain a bunch of stories geared towards a female audience for the most part. Girls' Night In called out multiple reactions from me - some stories I loved, some stories I liked and some I didn't end up caring about at all.

I, of course, have my favorites:

1. Party Planner by Meg Cabot - I thought this was a cute read, and a lovely short by Meg. The characters were lovable and I liked how it was told through emails. I think I love everything Meg writes.

2. Changing People by Sophie Kinsella - I think I love everything she writes. Seriously. So yeah, this one was a good one too.

3. Revenge by Emily Barr - This was highly amusing! I found myself laughing at the extremes the character went to. It's just a fun read.

4. The Truth is Out There by Marian Keyes - Okay, now this was a lovely, unique story tossed in amongst everything else. I thought it was really cute!

All the other stories in Girls' Night In were okay reads, nothing that really stood out for me. I do like the fact that all these authors came together for the compilation. It's a good mix of chick lit stories, but not something I feel the need to own necessarily. If you can borrow it from your library, and you love chick lit, you should do it!