Girls' Night In

by Jessica Adams (Editor), Fiona Walker (Editor), Chris Manby (Editor)

Over thirty-five women from the global A-list of contemporary writers request the pleasure of your company for a Girls' Night In ...

Indulge in sexy stories of face-sucking, lip-smacking lust; discover the perils of email romance and Brad Pitt lookalikes; wallow in poignant stories of heartache and lost love; enjoy the dirty details of disastrous dates; and curl up with tender tales that promise that love is out there, somewhere.

And by buying this book you can help make a positive change in the lives of children caught up in the horrors of war. Proceeds from Girls' Night In will go to the charity War Child, and will fund education and communications projects for children in war-torn countries across Africa.

So take the phone off the hook and enjoy Girls' Night In – the ultimate all-night chick-flick.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Chick Lit, Romance, Anthologies, Contemporary, Novels

708 pages, Paperback

First published July 3, 2000

About the author

Jessica Adams is an astrologer and author. Her books include 2020 Vision, Handbag Horoscopes and Astrolove (Penguin) and Essential Astrology for Women (HarperCollins). Her recent book 2020 Astrology: Your Five-Year Horoscope Guide, was a #1 Amazon bestseller in America and Australia. Jessica has worked as a team editor on the Girls' Night In and Kids' Night in series, for Penguin and HarperCollins, with contributors including J.K.Rowling, Stella McCartney and Nick Hornby. She is the Editor of The Holiday Goddess Guide to Paris, London, New York and Rome (HarperCollins). Jessica lives in Australia and her astrology has appeared everywhere from VOGUE (Japan) to GQ (Great Britain). Her latest book is Your Birthday (Hachette/Running Press) with Rachel Wells. She is the astrological consultant on The Aries Billionaire by Rachel Wells (Audible UK).

Reviews

[Jacinta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stars: 2/5 even though my CAWPILE says 3

I'm not going to elaborate on this book much. I was disappointed. It's a collection of short stories about women - hence the girls' night in title. I expected light and fluffy - i'll read a couple each weekend. Nope. I liked one maybe two and honestly I don't remember which they were. Some were interesting, some I did not understand. It took me 11 months to read. That's too long. (yes, I should have DNF but I really hate doing that)

Characters: 5
Atmosphere: 4
Writing:6
Plot: 6
Intrigue: 6
Logic: 7
Enjoyment: 4

[Carolina Abelardo · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 ⭐️

I knew this wasn’t going to be anything special going into it - but I’m trying to get through all of my hard copy books!!

I did like the short story layout for a change, and tasked myself with reading one short story a night until I finished the book - there were about 45.

Some stories were good, some were confusing and felt unfinished or were ill explained and confusing.

In any case, there goes another 700 pages off my bookshelf!!

[Nadja]

In and Out **
Dougie, Spoons and the Aquarium Solarium **
The Power of Two *(*)
The Truth is Out There *(*)
Rudy ***

[Lily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not what i expected. There were a couple of stories that were OK, but so many thatI didn't like that I can't remember the ones that I did.
Pretty sure there was one that glorified a suicide, and there were definitely plenty of cringey moments and horrible people and not enough fun chick flicky stories that I had expected from such a cover and title like "Girls Night In". Surely with a title like that there should be stories I would like to read on a girls night in, but nope.
Really the only reason I'm giving this two stars instead of one is because there were a few stories I actually liked but they were sprinkled in among all the others that I didn't that this book is really probably not worth anyone's time.

[Tvishi Mongia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating - 3.5 stars.

The book has an interesting collection of stories. I really enjoyed the pot luck of different writing styles. Most of the stories kept me interested and some I even hoped would become actual stand alone books, I would so read them.

An easy and light read, ideal holiday read!

[Bree T · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can remember reading the first first Girls Night In release when I was at university and living on 2 minute noodles and peanut butter on toast. My nan had bought it and then decided it wasn’t really for her (she’s not keen on short stories, I think she was swayed by the wonderful line up of names). She passed it on to me and my house mate Claire and I ended up both reading it. She was a reader too, one of my few reading friends and during the time we lived together (almost 3 years, 2 years in a dorm on campus and then 1 year in our own place) we spent countless hours discussing books we’d read, books we loved, books we were recommending to each other and books we’d heard about. It’s probably what cemented our friendship as we had little else, if anything, in common.

Since then there’s been several other releases, some featuring male authors by invitation. This is a ‘best of’ collection, a coming together of stories from the previous volumes. I’m not sure what happened to my copy of the original – I suspect Claire may have ended up with it when we divided up our belongings! However I was pretty sure it wouldn’t matter that I’d probably read some of these before – after all that’s a decade and many, many hundreds of books ago. Turns out I was right. There’s very little in here that I remember, other than the story by Nick(ola) Earls. There are plenty of some old favourite authors: Marian Keyes, Fiona Walker, Cathy Kelly, Liane Moriarty, Monica McInerney and Sophie Kinsella, to name just a few. Names that have adorned my bookshelves for almost two decades in some cases. Names that are still autobuys.

I have to admit that like my nan, I’m not really a short story person. I like to sink into a novel, to get involved and the often cryptic endings of short stories can leave me confused and unsatisfied. However there were some really brilliant ones in here – Cecilia Ahearn’s The End which is a story told backwards about a break-up, Isla Dewar’s The Alma Club about a group of successful women and the hairdresser that changed and shaped them, Wishing Carefully by Marian Keyes and Mothers’ Group by Liane Moriarty.

Despite the size of this collection, it was a very quick read, each story flying along because they’re only a few pages. I read it in two sittings but it would be very easy to snatch a story here and there – would make a great book for public transport or perhaps for bed time. It also supports a worthy cause, with all the proceeds going to War Child.

[Kasia James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had the second Girls Night In for years, and so picked this up when I found it. To be honest, I think they started to get the hang of it with the second one, which has much more variety than this compilation. I was starting to wonder how many ways you could tell the jilted lover / all men are bastards / finding true love story. Not that any of them are poorly written particularly, just this is a big book with limited variety. A good one to do into occasionally, rather than read cover to cover.

[Sheila D W · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4 🌠
In and Out (Freya North) - 2.5/5
Dougie, Spoons and the Aquarium Solarium (Jenny Colgan) - 3.75/5
The Power of Two (Fiona Walker) - 3.5/5
The Truth is Out There (Marian Keyes) - 5/5
Review: Heartwarming, empowering!
Rudy (Lisa Jewell) - 3.75/5
A Swimmer's Tale (Stella Duffy) - 1.75/5
Review: Didn't care for neither the narrator nor the flowery writing.
Post Haste (Isabel Wolff) - 4/5
Cassandra (Cathy Kelly) - 2.5/5
Access All Areas (Jane Owen) - 2/5
The E-Male of the Species (Wendy Holden) - 3.75/5
Love on the Underground (Jessica Adams) - 3.75/5
Fairweather Friend (Patricia Scanlan) - 3/5
Review: To be fair, I had read this before in another series and I was so tired of the book's theme by then.
Something Different (Clare Naylor) - 2.25/5
The Itch (Polly Samson) - 2.5/5
Morro (Alecia McKenzie) - 4.5/5
Flung (Adele Parks) - 3.5/5
Pull Me in the Pullman Carriage (Helen Lederer) - 2.5/5
The Plain Truth (Claire Calman) - 4/5
Mr Charisma (Yasmin Boland) - 3.5/5
The Sun, the Moon and the Stars (Pauline McLynn) - 4/5
The Shell of Venus (Victoria Routledge) - 3.75/5
Man with a Tan (Anna Maxted) - 4.5/5
Storm Clouds (Sheila O'Flanagan) - 3.5/5
Caravan (Rosalyn Chissick) - 4.25/5
The Seven Steps from Shag to Spouse (Tiffanie Darke) - 3.5/5
Lip Service (Karen Moline) - 3.75/5
Saving Amsterdam (Chrissie Manby) - 3/5
A Form of Release (Daisy Waugh) - 4/5
Hurrah for the Hols- Helen Simpson - 4.25/5
No Worries (Sarah Ingham) - 3.25/5
Re: The World (Amy Jenkins) - 2.5/5

[Kiara Rowe · Rating 2 out of 5]

It definitely what I was expecting for this book, it’s like a short story in a way about women but other people may like it but it just wasn’t my cup of tea ig. Honestly I didn’t want to finish it but forever myself into finishing it, I won’t go further into it but yeah other people may like it and that’s amazing but it just wasn’t for me

[Lynda Watts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. The writing was good but the stories were not. Some had weird endings and left me perplexed. And sometimes wanting more as if the story wasn’t complete. They were not happy chick stories but could be quite depressing. I would give this book a miss.

[Magpie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kerry 2017

[Aimeereadsromance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book I really enjoyed this and was a really easy read definitely under rated.

[Paola Zamora Jojot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the book I thought at all...

Some stories were interesting, but found a bunch not fun or good at all...

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although a rather 'fat' book, the money goes to charity so that's good. Took me a little while to read but as it is a collection of short stories it was easy to pick up and put down and pick up again. Some of the stories didn't grab me, others did. Is mainly though aimed at women rather than men and teens but that is who the book is aimed at. Loads of funny, sad and interesting quirky stories by some famous others rather unknown authors. I have some of the other books in the series and am looking at sinking my teeth into them at some point.

[Elizabeth Best · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved these anthologies and would eagerly await the new one each year.

It's so great to have some of your favorite writers exploring short form work and creating contained stories. I particularly liked Jessica Adams' addition.

Good fun short stories, perfect if you wanna read a little before bed, but get annoyed at getting sucked into a page turner that keeps you up. Just limit yourself to one story a night though!

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of Short Stories by some talented authors. I was however disappointed with this collection, as I didn't think it was good as it could have been. It is however a perfect read for the beach (although it is a little bulky in size) or a bus or train journey.

[Ann Scriven]

This book is the 3rd in the series called "Big Night Out". The authors are the usual Girl's Night In suspects, plus heaps of celebrates & rock stars... such as Bob Geldof, Jamie Oliver, Donna Hay, Maggie Beer & many many more! Will start reading it sooon!

[Leanne Bishop · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very boring and unenjoyble stories. Even though I have read some of these authors before, their short stories in this book were not up to their usual standard. I have not read one of these Girls Night In books before and won't worry about reading one again.

[Linda]

I was so excited to start reading but I got about 10 stories in and felt frustrated. Short stories end suddenly OR leave you wondering where the rest of the book was! One way of knowing that I prefer a whole book.

[Claire P · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked some of these stories, while others didn't do much for me (as it often goes with short story collections). Overall it was a pleasant book, good for some bedtime reading, but without a wow-factor that would have led me to give it higher stars.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is the one I picked up in Australia. Larger than the American one. A couple of stories overlap, but a good read.

[Lizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was on holiday in Portugal and it was left in the villa so I picked it up and read it. Perfect holiday read for by the pool, as some stories really made me chuckle.

[Jenny Delandro · Rating 2 out of 5]

short stories not always with a happy endings
some were good
some were weird

overall entertaining but not riveting

[Calismitten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful collection of short stories. There are plenty

[Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed "A Swimmer's Tale" by Stella Duffy.

[Daniela · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved reading all these little stories...they all pretty much made me laugh :)

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light holiday read, served in tasty bite-sized chunks :)

[Sharyn O'Neill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great stories, a couple that I skipped cos they were pretty ordinary IMO. Great intro to some authors I hadn't read before : )

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some entertaining stories, but some were very average. Wondering whether that's a reflection on the usual work of some of these authors?

[Linda Collings · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it!