First published 2024
When the Waldorf Hotel turns away Daisy Harriman because they won't accommodate unaccompanied women, the young society matron decides to create her own solution. She establishes the Colony Club, Manhattan's first women's club, where female visitors can stay overnight, dine with friends, discuss new ideas, and tackle social issues. Daisy hires Stanford White, New York's most coveted architect, to design the building. White brings in actress Elsie de Wolfe to handle interior design and assigns her a young assistant, Nora Bromely, a tenement-raised woman fighting to become an architect despite constant sabotage from male colleagues. When White is murdered and the sensational trial exposes his scandalous private life, nervous financial backers start pulling their support. The club's survival hangs in the balance. Daisy, Elsie, and Nora must overcome not only society's rigid expectations but their own biases about class, wealth, and each other to make the Colony Club a reality.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, architecture
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, overcoming-adversity
Setting: Colony Club, Manhattan, Waldorf Hotel
Period: 20th-century
384 pages · Paperback · William Morrow Paperbacks