Great unique characters, I was immersed in the world and really think this is a great historical fiction read.

This is my first book by the author and it is an enjoyable one. I loved that it centered around three strong women working in a bookstore. Wanting to bring women’s fiction in to be more important in the store and the resistance they met. A little bit of romance and a lot working towards one's dreams. I enjoyed the characters and the journey. I must go look up the Jane Austen Society.

After reading and loving The Jane Austen Society, I was delighted to recommend this in our live Summer Reading Guide Unboxing for the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club.

An entertaining historical novel set soon after WWII in London about a somewhat stodgy bookstore and the three women who work there in defiance of male norms. Their story - and determination not to be ignored - provide the framework of the novel. The pace is somewhat slow but made more interesting by the appearance of some secondary characters such as Daphne du Maurier and Ellen Doubleday.

1950: Bloomsbury Books has been in business for 100 years, run by men, following the general manager’s 51 unbreakable rules. The women who work in the store have plans, though. There is Viven Lowry, whose aristocratic fiancé died in World War II and who butts heads constantly with Alec McDonough, head of fiction; Grace Perkins, who supports her family since her husband’s breakdown after the war; and Evie Stone, one of the first females to graduate with a degree from Cambridge, looking to remake her future at Bloomsbury after being denied a career in academia.

This book is a sequel to <i>The Jane Austen Society</i> but can easily be read as a standalone. With the influx of World War II novels over the past decade, it was refreshing to read one set a few years post-war. The story started a bit slow for me but soon picked up as I became invested in the store and everyone’s lives. The three women all had their own distinct personalities but were strong in their own ways. A solid 3.5 star read

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

Thanks so much to the author and St. Martin's Press for the gifted advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts! And thanks as well to Netgalley for the gifted e-copy. All opinions are entirely my own. { partner } All of my reviews can also be found on Instagram @Tackling_TBR and on my blog at tacklingtbr.home.blog

TW: misogyny, racial prejudice

I was so in love with The Jane Austen Society when I listened to it in 2020, so when one of my favorite characters from that book was going to be a part of a new story, I knew I had to read it. And I was so excited and grateful to have gotten an early copy and get to read it early! It certainly lived up to everything I was hoping from it.

This book is a good, old-fashioned battle of the sexes, but set in a bookshop in 1950. Because of the setting it had a little bit of the upstairs-downstairs feel that you'd get from something like Downton Abbey, but also the storyline of something more like a workplace contemporary. I really found myself wrapped up in this story, in a way that I had to keep reading because I wanted to know what was happening next, but I also kept putting it down because I didn't want it to end. Although in the end I did end up staying up far past my bedtime to finish it. (And on vacation too! So you know that means a lot.)

The three women at the center of this novel are such firecracker characters! The types of characters that I always have issues figuring out if I want to be them or if I want to be friends with them, and honestly the answer is usually somewhere in the middle of the two.
Obviously after falling in love with her in Society, I was THRILLED to get more of Evie! And I feel like she really comes into her own in this book. All of the brains and qualities that we saw and loved in the last book feel like they really pay off and come full circle in this one.
Grace has the kind of life that I always wanted to have (with one exception being her current relationship with her husband) - married with kiddos and working in a bookshop. Kind of the dream, right? And I really love seeing a character who might not realize how lonely they are, but then they find their core group and they really bloom. And boy does she bloom! She is so wise and so caring and supportive, and just overall a really wonderful character. I want to be in any friend group with Grace, because she would definitely be the best version of the "mom" in the friend group - gives great advice, stands up for you, makes the best coffee. The best.
And Vivien is so glamourous! Her life obviously isn't perfect, and she has been through so much, but she has come out of it all and is not only strong but also not afraid to have fun! It would be so easy to write a character with a difficult past that is closed off to connections and experiences, but Vivien is still so full of life and just overall a really enjoyable character.
I would read so many more hours of stories with these women at their centers.

Overall, this book was a warm hug. I loved it so much, and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind a fairly slow-paced read. I think that the perfect way to read it would be on a slow Sunday morning with a cup of tea or coffee.

Bloomsbury Girls follows the lives of the three female staff of Bloomsbury Books, in post war 1950s London. Evie, Grace and Vivian are all very different characters but I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them all.

Although Evie is a character from the author’s previous book, The Jane Austen Society, (I hadn’t actually realised going in that it was going to be a follow up) it can still definitely be read as a stand-alone.

I really appreciated that the romance aspect of the book, while charming, wasn’t centre stage, and that instead the book felt more like it focused on the female characters in their own right.

This is a slower paced historical fiction novel than others I’ve read recently but I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Just as lovely and as bookish as The Jane Austen Society. I ended up listening to this on audio (from the library) while following along with the digital copy and highly enjoyed it that way.

Jenner once again captured a group of women determined to make a change and stick it to the man - I love it.

I thought I would love this one. I was so anticipating it. I loved the premise. Three ladies in the 1950's who work in a charming old bookshop in London. It just fell a little flat for me.

Evie, Grace and Vivian work in a big old bookshop in London together. They are surrounded by men who basically have all the control even though the ladies truly run the shop. The book features many powerful themes within. Themes of inequality in the workplace, discrimination of gender, race and sexual orientation. There were also several real life historical figures that make appearances. I think if you enjoy classical literature you will appreciate that.

I enjoyed this book and appreciated getting to read it early! I recommended it to several friends who also read it!

A story for book lovers, which transports the reader to London in the 1950s. The intrigues of a bookstore and the literary world. Three women who decide to forge their future and control it. This is a delightful read. Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for the advance copy.

What a perfectly delight read this was! Bloomsbury girls follows Evie from the previous "The Jane Austen Society", so if you loved that book, you're sure to love this one and even more so if you ask me.

This book takes place post WW2 in London, following three women as they plot their future in this changing world, and the bookstore underlying it all. Oh how I just loved coming alongside each of these incredible women! They all added so much to the story and I couldn't pick a favorite. What strong, plucky, persistent women who you couldn't help but root for!

If you love bookish books just as I do, then you will adore the bookstore element in this wonderful story! Bloomsbury Books was almost a character in and of itself. And just when you think it couldn't get better, many famous authors of the literary world make debuts here.

Bravo, Natalie Jenner! This book is historical fiction perfection and a new favorite of mine. Compelling and memorable storyline, check. Strong, well-developed female characters, check. A great setting, check. I couldn't get enough of this heartwarming story!

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the gifted e-copy!

This was a great book.
Friendship, peril, and family all set back in the day.
I don't want to give anything away, but this book is fantastic.

Books about books and set in a bookstore. 😍 I really liked this story of Vivien, Grace and Evie. They are three strong women with fascinating stories. I love historical fiction but was getting a little burned out on WW2. This book takes place after the war.

“A compelling and heartwarming story of post-war London, a century-old bookstore, and three women determined to find their way in a fast-changing world.” This description sounded like a pretty perfect book for me, but it ultimately fell a bit flat.

I guess this is technically the second book in The Jane Austen Society series, but that was not made clear. While it isn’t 100% necessary to read TJAS first, I think it would have been helpful as multiple characters from that book appear in this one and it felt like the reader should already knew who they are.

The story itself was a good one, but it was so drawn out. I was able to skip full paragraphs without feeling like I missed anything.

This was a pleasant, slightly boring read for me. I thought the author did a good job of individualizing each character with their quirks and motivations. There are a number of romantic subplots throughout but they are very understated and definitely not the focus of the story.

I found the instantly close relationships between the secondary female characters (writers, publishers, etc) and Vivien (and the bookstore, by extension) to be unrealistic. It felt too much like rah rah sisterhood. I'm sure some of the information re: the characters is historical - the book feels very researched - but it felt unrealistic in the setting of this book's plot, and almost Pollyannaish.

This book gets 3.5 stars from me, with a bump to 4 for featuring strong female characters and bookstores, which all books should have. :)

By far the best historical fiction book I have read in 2022! Bloomsbury Girls was the warm hug of a book I needed. There are hard things, but it is just so. well done. I will never forget these characters. It is hard to stand out in the genre as so many books follow such a similar pattern, but the characters and plot here are near perfect.

I thought I would love this one. I was so anticipating it. I loved the premise. Three ladies in the 1950's who work in a charming old bookshop in London. It just fell a little flat for me.

Evie, Grace and Vivian work in a big old bookshop in London together. They are surrounded by men who basically have all the control even though the ladies truly run the shop. The book features many powerful themes within. Themes of inequality in the workplace, discrimination of gender, race and sexual orientation. There were also several real life historical figures that make appearances. I think if you enjoy classical literature you will appreciate that.

I'm sorry to say, I'm an outlier with this one. I found it rather slow moving. I can appreciate that the writing is good and there are powerful themes in the story but alas it must be the style of writing for me. I could not truly warm to the characters and their perils. There are many people who enjoyed this one more than me and I encourage all to read the many raving reviews.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press, for the opportunity to read an advance copy of Bloomsbury Girls. The characters in this book were endearing and I did enjoy reading it, however it seemed a little long for the story. What took more than 350 pages could have been accomplished in under 200, which is largely why I gave the book 3 stars. The setting for this book is a charming book store in London and the men and women who staff the store. Each character is developed and their motivations for working at the store are thoroughly explored. Relationships with wealthy women in publishing seem rather unlikely and seem a little magical, but this part of the story sends an important message about women helping women. I enjoyed this book but had no idea it was part of a series. Based on my experience with this book, I'm putting the first book in the series, The Jane Austen Society, in my TBR pile!

I enjoyed this historical novel set in 1950 in England.. It is the story of 3 women and their lives and friendships in a changing world. Grace, Evie, and Vivien have all experienced hardship and are working to make their way in the world despite the challenges posed by the men of the time. It is a bit slow paced but I found myself rooting for the women and of course there's the bookshop setting which is hard to resist for an avid reader.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.