Cover Image: The Jane Austen Society

The Jane Austen Society

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Member Reviews

I love anything and everything dealing with Jane Austen so this was a sure hit for me. Charming, engaging, and a wonderful summer read. It would make a wonderful addition to a classroom library.

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As an avowed Janeite, I am always ready to read anything related to Jane Austen. This novel imagines a group of people coming together right after WWII to save and preserve Jane Austen's legacy. I absolutely loved the characters in this book, from all walks of life, especially Evie Stone, the irrepressible teenager determined to discover the value of the the books in the Great House's library. I look forward to reading more by this author!

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I love Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice is my absolute favorite book. I knew this would be a winner for me and I was completely right. This is set in Jane's last town of residence and was just a wonderful story. It was made even better by all the nods to Jane throughout the book. I absolutely loved it!

5 stars

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Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the free book.
This is such a sweet story. It is full of tragedy and heartbreak, yet all of these characters come together because of their love for Jane Austen. I, admittedly, am not a reader of Jane Austen, and I found myself wanting to read her work after hearing about these stories and how they made each character feel different things. I just love it when books bring people together. I did end up listening to the audio and Richard Armitage is one of my favorite British male narrators, so that made this story that more enjoyable.

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I really enjoyed this story set in the childhood town where Jane Austen grew up. In the story, an unlikely group of people in the town - the old widowed town doctor, the young widowed teacher, a young caretaker, and a few others - join forces to try and refurbish the childhood home of the Knight family where Jane spent a good deal of her time. I really liked how characters from so many different walks of life and social status all came together over a writer and her stories. I want to thank the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for giving me an e-copy of this book, in return for an honest review.

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A charming story about individuals banning together to save the history of Jane Austen!

It was cute, but a little slow for me as I listened on audio, which is what happens at times for me!

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This is my first Natalie Jenner book, but definitely won’t be my last! I zoomed through this story in just a few days. Even though it’s not a fast paced read, the characters are so interesting and likeable that I couldn’t put it down. You don’t need to be a Jane Austin super fan to enjoy this one. It’s just all around a super cute story!

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The Jane Austen Society is a historical fiction novel that takes place after WWII. A diverse cast of characters come together and unite to save one of Jane Austen's homes.

I loved reading about what drove each character to want to save the historic home and how they were all connected to each other and how some of the connections deepened as the story continued.

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As other reviewers indicated you do not need to be a big Jane Austen expert or fan to enjoy this book. It is a lovely story in its own right, though certainly it pays some homage to the legendary writer. I am excited to see that the author here, Natalie Jenner, has another excellent sounding book out soon. I look forward to reading it as well!

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Such a beautiful story! I've always been a huge fan of Jane Austen and this one caught my eye with that title alone! I loved all of the different characters, who might not have much in common at first glance, but Austen brings them together. The writing also had me engrossed and I really loved the book in the end! Looking forward to reading more from this author!

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There are so many characters to choose from and all of them with their problems and troubles. Their lives come together during the story, that makes it more interesting and that’s when I think you can be more hooked: how their relationships evolve.

All the characters are very different from each other but Jane Austen united them 🙂 It is a great way to get all of them together and how they discuss some of Jane Austen’s characters is one of my favourite bits on the story. Jane Austen is their centre but we can see how friendship is key.

There are so many references to Jane Austen’s work that you will definitely love it for it too!

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RATING: 2.5 STARS
2020; St Martin's Press

I will try anything with Jane Austen, but not all are winners. I didn't love this one as much as everyone else seemed to, but I also didn't think it was horrible. I was able to finish it in one sitting at work. It's a cute story, but reminded me WWII novels that seem to have plots that blend with all the others.

***I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.***

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After reading Jane in Love, I listened to The Jane Austen Society. I enjoyed this a lot - I normally have a hard time starting historical fiction, but I am always glad when I get into them. Set after World War II, this is a fictional account of a group of villagers in Chawton who band together to save Jane Austen’s home. It is told using multiple POVs, and each member of The Jane Austen Society has used Austen’s works to get them through hard times. (I was a little disappointed to find out the characters were total fiction and not based on actual people.) If you are a Jane Austen fan, you’ll like this.

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I found this to be an enjoyable read, keeping me on my toes throughout. The storyline was written well and flowed seamlessly. I look forward to reading more by this author!

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It took me a while to get into this book - in some ways, I think I would have enjoyed a nonfiction book about how the Jane Austen House Museum actually started - but once I was invested in the characters, and wanted to see what would happen, I read through the rest of it fairly quickly. It does make me want to visit Chawton again badly though - a rushed visit as a student was not enough to fully appreciate it in my opinion.

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With this debut novel, Natalie Jenner has established herself as a very talented author.

The cast of characters she created is interesting and the plot of the story has captivated me and transported me in that place in time.

This would make a great classic movie and it’s a book you’ll want to read again.

Thank you NetGalley and St.Martin’s Press for this ARC of The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner.
Being a big fan of Jane Austen, I was excited to read this novel and it did not disappoint! I look forward to her next novel.

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Loved this book! The way the characters come together is so well done. I’m a huge Jane Austen fan so this kept me on the top of the chair for many hours.

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The Jane Austen Society takes it beginning in charming if rural Chawton Village in Hampshire, just as WWII is drawing to its conclusion. Here we are met with a band of different characters, seemingly with nothing in common except 1 thing; Jane Austen and her works.

The focus of the book was the pain of WWII and how Jane Austen helped to heal and guide people after and during their pain and loss of the great war of 1940-1945. And each character in the book had experienced losses in one form or another. We are introduced to Dr Gray, who has lost his wife, Mimi Harrison (American movie actor) who has lost her father, Evie who is a housemaid who has lost her chance of schooling, Andrew Forrester who has lost the love of his life, Adam Berwick who has lost his father, Frances Knight who loses her father and her home, Adeline Lewis who loses both her husband and baby – this band of characters who Natalie managed to bring to life and make this reader feel their pain, confusion, and hope during the plot.

Secondly, the fictional part of the plot follows how these seven characters help to form the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton, and how they struggle to acquire the library from the Knight Estate and the small if well-loved cottage, many fans of Miss Austen’s both know and love to visit to feel close to the lady and her genius – where she wrote 3 out of 5 much read, many times translated, discussed, performed, filmed and enjoyed books.

Natalie especially caught me with this following quote, “And that’s exactly what Austen gives us. A world so a part of our own, yet so separate, that entering it is like some kind of tonic. Even with so many flawed and even silly characters, it all makes sense in the end. It may be the most sense we’ll ever get to make out of our own messed-up world. That’s why she lasts, like Shakespeare. It’s all in there, all of life, all the stuff that counts, and keeps counting, all the way to here, to you.”
In my opinion, Natalie nailed it with this quote, because she’s so right with this statement, Austen lasts and has lasted for more than 200 years so far, and is as well-loved as she ever has been. Her books I find is truly like a tonic, when you need an escape from your own messed up world because no matter how messed up the plot gets, you know it all makes sense in the end.

The story had its ups and downs, but every page was a revelation with many references to the works of Miss Austen, including a heartwarming proposal, very much like a well-known character, who is older than the heroine and is too proud to admit to his faults, and in this scene, Miss Austen’s “Emma” reference was used perfectly.

“She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and smiled at him lovingly for the first time in as long as that. “Are you sure?” “Frances, I just watched you have your whole world ripped out from under you, and you have borne it as no other woman in England would have. It would be my honour, truly, to be your husband.”
Wow, did I sigh and have to remove a tear at that scene! It was simply wonderful, and the reference was just perfect! Emma might not be my favourite, but gosh did I suddenly have to rush out to find my copy and locate the matching scene to read it again, after finishing this lovely book.

Another thing I noted was Adam Berwick and the way Natalie wrote him, and how much I could identify with his search for meaning and why some things matter a lot and some not at all, – and how that resonated with my personality and my way of seeing the world around me. Though I could identify with more or less all of the characters in one way or another, – but mostly with Adam and his escape into the worlds of others’ making.

“He had gone to work every day merely to survive, saving for himself a few hours every night to disappear into fictional world of others’ making. He was hoping to find some answers for why he didn’t care about some things and cared too much about others.”
Another way Austen is being used to heal and guide people, in Adam’s way of searching for answers, – I think we can all identify with the escape from our world. Though likely the character who understood Miss Austen best in this book, and her search for ‘greatness’ was Evie, the youngest member of The Jane Austen Society. Especially when she locates a certain letter from a Miss J. Austen, and I am guessing it would have been to Miss C. Austen. I think my adrenaline spiked when that letter was found, just reading it, I could feel it, nearly see the yellowed paper between ones hands and feel how fragile it would feel and recognise the handwriting!

As Evie turned the pages of the large dense volume still in her hands – pages so thick that it took actual effort sometimes to pry their edges open – she could feel a slight bulging in the section coming up. She skipped eagerly ahead to it, and as she flipped over the final page, a letter fell out. The handwriting was familiar to her from some of the earlier annotations, inscriptions, and margin markings she had found. No postmark was on the outside folded cover, the letter apparently having never been mailed. She could not believe her eyes as she read it, at first too quickly, as if convinced the paper might disappear as mysteriously as it had been found – and then three more times, each time more slowly than before. It was the very thing she would have been looking for, if only she could have guessed what that could possibly be.

She had had moments before in the library, late at night, that had approached a small degree of the euphoria she now felt as she scribbled away, but nothing else had ever come close to this. She finally understood why she had spent so many futile nights sitting here, on her little stool, alone. This was why she had never given up. And this was why Miss Adeline had been right all along. She had, with this discovery, brought the world closer than it had ever been before to the greatness. She had, as Miss Woolf herself once described it, caught Jane Austen in the act.
And yes indeed she had caught Jane Austen in the “Act” so to speak! And lastly, the ending perfectly rounded off, and all the characters got their own form of Happily Ever After. So I can completely content with this book, it was such a pleasure and privilege to read it. I can only congratulate Natalie on a wonderful book, with all the deserved praise and accolades it has already received.

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A group of very different people get together to preserve the home and legacy of Jane Austin. They live in the last town she lived in. This is a unique homage to Jane Austin and has wonderful characters and plot. I really enjoyed this book. I truly recommend it.

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This book is perfect for WWII historical fiction readers, and will especially appeal to Jane Austen aficionados. A group of villagers from Chawton get together to preserve the cottage where Jane Austen wrote her last 3 books. Each villager has suffered a loss of some kind, some as a result of WWII and others for different reasons. Banding together to prevent the loss of Jane’s cottage helps ease the pain of their own losses.
I loved the individual characters, they were so well described and relatable. Also, many of Jane Austen’s own characters are referenced in places for readers familiar with her books. I received this book, 4 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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