I picked up this book solely because it had Jane Austen’s name in the title and I’m an avid fan of her works.
The first few chapters are sent bringing in all the characters and I wasn’t at all sure what I had signed up for. A farm laborer, a doctor, an actres, a school teacher. What could these folks have in common? Well, it turns out it’s a love for Jane Austen and a desire to preserve her home and legacy in the town of Chawton.
This is a sweet, cozy, historical fiction. Don’t go into it expecting to learn a lot. It’s much more focused on the imaginary characters than anything about the time or place. We have two strong willed heroines, the handsome cad, the good doctor, the spinster and so on. As with Austen’s own works, there are several unrequited loves and the fun is to see how they work themselves out. There are other parts of the story that echo back to Austen’s books, including the sharing of a name by the “boob”, as Evie calls him, of the story.
I recommend it for folks that like Rhys Bowen. I would not recommend it for those that aren’t fans of Austen. Another positive note is that this book propelled me to listen to an audio version of Emma.
My thanks to netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book.

This is ultimately a book that makes you happy you read it. It is like the Mitford series, full of characters that you have to like and enjoy set in a peaceful locale, plus Jane Austen. Really what else do you need in a book?

Wonderful story, I loved it! This reminded me very much of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The characters are complex. The writing flows and is wonderful. I have never read a Jane Austen book but still found this interesting.
4 stars

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this story. All opinions expressed are my own.

Set in Chawton, Where Jane Austen once lived, in the years after WW2 . This story follows a group of eclectic townspeople, each dealing with a painful past, who come together to celebrate their love of Jane Austen and discuss her works.

This reminded me very much of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I loved it!

The story is mostly set in Chawton, England, where Jane Austen lived in her final years, in the years following WWII. Some of Austen's last known artifacts and her home are being threatened and a group of Austen fans come together to preserve her legacy.

The characters are complex. The writing is beautiful. The romance is so touching. Each character's relationship to Austen's work holds different meaning and I loved how well this was done. Any Jane Austen fans - this is a must read! This was such a lovely, thoughtful, read that I will gush about to any Jane Austen fans. The characters are nuanced and well developed.

A disparate group of residents band together to save the cottage where Jane Austen lived in Chawton. The group consists of a young widow, a local doctor, a Hollywood actress, a laborer, a young house maid and the daughter of the property owner. The Jane Austen Society explores the love for Jane Austen's books and how much they mean to different people from all walks of life. A thoroughly enjoyable book which reminded me of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society with the triumphs and tragedies that Jane Austen's books portrayed beautifully.

If Jane Austen was still alive today, she would love this book.

A group of people who have seemingly nothing in common, come together over one single longing, the written words of Jane Austen. I've always loved Austen and her way to bring a strong woman to life during a time when the world was against women with a voice. This book really tells the tale of people who need something from her words and how we all need each other to get us through the hard times.

The review will be live on the Book Confessions blog on 5-27-20

The Jane Austen Society is about a group of people each dealing with their own traumas, who band together because of their love for the famous author. The book is set mostly in Chawton, England where tourists flock to see the house Jane Austen wrote in.

This was a nice, relaxing read. I enjoyed learning about each of the characters. The characters have a lot of discussions centered around each of Austen's works, comparing and contrasting Austen's beloved characters.
I think this book will make a wonderful addition to the bookshelves of Jane Austen fans.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Natalie Jenner for the advanced copy of The Jane Austen Society in exchange for my honest review.

What a delightful, heartwarming work of fiction. Jenner's book introduces readers to a delightful, sorrowful, cast of characters in the small village of Chawton, England. Each of the characters is dealing with pain and loneliness in their own way as they come together to save the legacy of Jane Austen in their home village. Through this action, the characters find themselves addressing the past and facing their futures in a way that wonderfully, and at times surprisingly, unfolds through to the final pages. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to enjoy a great work of fiction.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a DARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to netgalley for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. i enjoyed the later half of the book once the society got started but the book did take a while to get there. I enjoyed reading how the characters enjoyed Jane Austen and how her novels helped them in their every day lives. Which made me think about rereading a few once i was done with this book. If you're a fan of Austin I think you'd enjoy this book.

Liked this one so much I ordered a physical ARC from a friend for another friend! A very great book for those who enjoy Jane Austen, reading clubs, or light historical fiction.

This book is every bit as cozy and charming as the quaint English countryside town in which it’s set. The author’s love for Austen shines through brightly, and the passages in which her protagonists engage in lively literary debates about their favorite characters or the meaning behind certain plot lines were hands down the highlights of the novel for me.

I will say, though, there isn’t a ton that actually happens in this book. I usually wouldn’t mind that, but I found myself looking down and realizing I was 70% done and still waiting for it to feel like it had truly gotten started.

This is definitely one I think you have to be a serious Austen fan to enjoy, since both the dialogue and characterizations rely so heavily on references to her material…but if that’s you, I would recommend it as a fun and comforting novel that will almost certainly make you want to go reread your favorite(s)!

I received an advance reader's edition of "The Jane Austen Society" from the publisher. I hate to admit that I have never read a book by Jane Austen but I do know who she is. This debut novel by Natalie Jenner was a wonderful introduction to Jane Austen and the impact her books have on our literary history. It is about a group of villagers who took their love and passion for Austen's books and turned it into friendships and love and healing. Each of the characters had their own painful pasts but their mutual interest in preserving a part of Austen's legacy bring them together on a mission to establish a society and keep their village's collection of Austen treasures local.

Loved the book. People who loved the novels written by Jane Austen came from all walks of life - a young war widow, the doctor, the farmer, the movie star, a young servant, among others.

I am still thinking about different quotes by different characters in the novel with insights into the novels and characters created by Jane Austen.

Fans of the Jane Austen Book Club and the Guernesy Literary Potato Pie Society will love this novel.

Fans of Jane Austen revel in Natalie Jenner's #TheJaneAustenSociety. Marrying historic Chawton with Austen's background, her novels come to life. Perfect for Janeites or historical fiction readers, Jenner creates a society rooted in Jane's beloved Chawton. Cleverly crafting Austen's text to influence Jenner's characters, Jane's protagonists provide them instruction to living life.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for the early read in exchange for an honest review. As a former English major and admirer of the classics, I felt connected to the story. Most writers attempt a modern-day telling, historic encounter or depict the author's.work. Jenner's novel pens all three with humor, articulate prose and memorable characters.

I know what you’re probably thinking – another Jane Austen book? And normally I would agree. But The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner is not just another Jane Austen tribute book, I promise.

The story begins in the early 1930s as fans of Austen’s work come from far and near to visit Chawton, her final home before her death. The townspeople accept these visitors as just another part of their life, albeit an at-times annoying one. The narration then jumps to 1945, after the war has ended. When the future of Chawton becomes threatened, a small group of locals, plus a Hollywood actress and an auctioneer, come together to save the estate and preserve Austen’s legacy.

The Jane Austen Society was not quite what I expected when I saw this book on NetGalley, but it was very charming, with the quaint English village as much a character as the ragtag group who spend hours discussing Austen’s books, comparing Emma to Lizzy and debating plot points of the books. I especially enjoyed the parts where they argue about Darcy. The language of the book is very reminiscent of Austen’s herself.

There is of course some romance but it’s not the focus of the book, and I would consider this a clean book with no sex scenes. Each of the characters is also dealing with their own issues – the farmer battling demons from the war, the widower country doctor who believes he will never love again, the young teacher whose life has not turned out the way she’d always dreamed. There’s also a plucky teenager who saves the day in an unexpected manner.

If you’re wondering if you need to have read all of Austen’s work to enjoy The Jane Austen Society, I would say the answer to that is not really. I have read Pride & Prejudice many times, and also really enjoyed Emma. I read Sense & Sensibility long enough ago that I remember very little of it, and I DNF’d Persuasion. There were some references I didn’t get, but it didn’t take away my enjoyment of this charming novel.

The Jane Austen Society is based on the true story of the townspeople who created the Jane Austen Society and the Jane Austen House Museum, which still stands today, though the characters are not based on anyone who really lived at that time, with a few exceptions noted in the Historical Note at the back of the book.

A wonderful read! This book definitely makes me want to travel to the village of Chawton.
A bit slow in the beginning but the pace definitely picked up. Written in typical Austen style, it felt familiar and easy to read.

First I would like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this story.

I rate books on how they make me feel and how much do I think about the story when I'm not reading and long after I have finished the book.

I have kept thinking about the people of Chawton, their lives and even though I know they are all fictitious what happened to them after the book ended. Reading this book made me want to go to Chawton, to walk the lanes, look around the village, go to the church. I felt for these characters, I caught myself talking to them, while I was reading. To me that is the mark of a really good book!

I look forward to reading more books from this author, if she can draw me in again, to another village, to other lives, then she is a good writer!

Just after the Second World War, the residents of the sleepy village of Chawton seem to be languishing. When Adam suggests forming a society to preserve the final home of Jane Austen, he doesn't realize how a mutual love of Jane Austen will change the lives of the townspeople. While the initial chapters felt disconnected, once you get into the narrative, Jenner pulls you into a delightfully predictable story with a tidy happily-ever-after. I will admit, that even though I'm an Austen fan, I found the characters' endless discussion of her works to be rather tedious.

4.5 stars. What a wonderful read! Set just after World War II in the small town of Chawton, England (the final home of Jane Austen), a diverse group of characters — including a browbeat spinster, a widower physician, an American movie actress, a teacher and a farmhand — have one thing in common: a love for Jane Austen and the aspiration to save her home and legacy. To that end, they eventually band together to form The Jane Austen Society and work to save the remaining books and antiquities from the house where Austen last lived and to create a museum in her honor. Each of these characters, however, deals with his/her own private struggles, traumas, and misfortunes along the way.

Written in somewhat Austen’s own style (which I found to be extremely engaging and beautifully done), this novel is replete with many themes that stand out in Austen’s novels, particularly unrequited love. And, as in most of Austen’s works, the “ending” for each of the main characters is wholly satisfying, albeit fairly predictable. While it is not necessary that a reader love Austen to appreciate this novel, any Austen fan (or even one who is only somewhat familiar with her writings), should find this novel delightful. I found it completely charming and was utterly absorbed in every aspect of it!