An interesting Historical Fiction read with a character from Jenner's first book, The Jane Austin Society (not that you need to have read that book prior).

I enjoyed the bookstore atmosphere and getting to know the women characters as well as see how their roles were able to change through out the story and how their friendships blossomed.

I didn't really connect with any characters, so I felt that I read this story from a distance which is ok, but ultimately left me also feeling like it was just an ok story.

I was able to listen the audiobook as well and loved the narration!

Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for an Arc of Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner.

I really enjoyed this one! I loved following the lives of these characters and how easily the writing flowed. Jenner definitely is on my auto read/auto buy list now after loving both of her books. I did like the diversity in this book and how bookish it was. I hope we get another book in this companion series as I am so invested with these characters and really want to know what unfolds for them next! I wish we had a bit more time at the end.

This book is full of strong female characters and friendships. The women all really want what is best for one another, as well as womankind. This book was truly touching and up lifting. .

I thoroughly enjoyed Natalie Jenner’s first book, The Jane Austen Society, which was a fictionalised account of the setting up of the society, which secured Chawton cottage, now the Jane Austen House Museum. One of the characters from that novel, Miss Evie Stone, has progressed from Chawton, through Cambridge, as one of the first women to receive a degree. Evie is talented, intelligent, and a hard worker, but she isn’t part of the inner circle, the old boys network, or even merely male, and these things work against her. She ends up missing out on a research position and through the recommendation of another of the Jane Austen Society, finds herself attending a job interview at Bloomsbury Books in London.

The bookshop is home to six other members of staff, the senior members of staff all being male, regardless of talent. This doesn’t matter to Grace, an oddity in being a working wife, her husband being medically unable to work due to his mental state following the second world war, but Vivien is talented, energetic and ambitious, and it grates so hard on her that she is sidelined purely for her gender:

'Women such as Vivien and Grace had hoped for a fresh beginning for everyone; but five years on, new opportunities for women were still being rationed along with the food. Those in power would always hold on to any excess supply, even to the bitter end.'

The women of Bloomsbury Books have differences, but there is one thing that they have in common. All of them are being held in place by men – Evie has missed out on academic opportunities, Vivien is held back in her job, and in her writerly aspirations and Grace constrained by her husband’s controlling ways and society’s rules. A temporary reorganisation in work means that Vivien has more power. And she is going to use that to her advantage, while staying strictly in line with the 51 rules of Bloomsbury Books.

Aside from earning a crust, Evie has another motive in working for Bloomsbury Books. She is looking for a lost novel by a female author:

“I thought you were a scholar of obscure eighteenth-century women writers.”

Evie stared at him. “They’re not obscure. They’re neglected.”

“Sorry.” He smiled. “Obscure sounds deficient. I am corrected.”

One thing I really enjoyed was the building of characters and relationships in this novel. The women are the main characters and they are all sketched out so well. Despite Evie being the character already known from The Jane Austen Society, the other female characters were drawn more vividly for me. I particularly felt for poor Grace, the secretary at the shop, whose private life was so drudgingly sad – a women who married and had children and then realised that the person she had married was not who she had thought. Who was unhappy in her existence as a wife but happy as a mother, and whose husband cast a shadow over her life that she couldn’t escape from. These days divorce can be a financial hardship and affect the children but I would think the societal stigma is minimal, rather than crushing and practically unthinkable as it would have been back in the late 1940s/early 1950s.

Vivien was an interesting character too, very modern in outlook but with a melancholy backstory of loss and class difference. It made me feel aggrieved that women and their contributions have been for so long overlooked.

Although the main characters are undoubtedly the females, we also get to know the male employees of the shop to an extent, and the shop’s owner. There is a very strong feminist streak running through this book. You get the feeling reading this novel that we are on the cusp of change, but knowing how slow change actually is, I found it hard to buy in to some of the events and timescales in the novel, particularly at the end of the story. I enjoyed it but I didn’t really believe it.

There are characters from real life added into the fiction too, such as authors Daphne du Maurier and Samuel Beckett and people from their social circle which was a fun touch.

I found the story extremely readable. Although in some ways the story is slow in building there are many mini interests along the way. There is one particular point in the story where I just HAD to see what was going to happen next even though it was at a tangent to the main plot. It’s lucky nobody tried to take it from me!

I would recommend Bloomsbury Girls to people who enjoy mid 20th century stories, stories about friendship and working together to overcome the odds and a big dash of feminism. I would rate it as a 4 star read.

*This is my honest review of the book, which I read for the blog tour

Bloomsbury Books has been a mainstay in postwar London for a hundred years. Run by the old-fashioned Mr. Dutton and his fifty-one rules, it counts among its employees three women. Vivien, who lost her fiancé in WWII, has been trying to compete with Alec McDonough in the fiction department, but will never succeed as a woman. Grace took the job of secretary as a way of escaping her increasingly terrible marriage. Evie, who was the chambermaid in The Jane Austen Society, who is searching for a book after being denied a job at Cambridge for being a woman. I was immersed in the 1950 literary world of London and couldn't put this book down. You don't have to read The Jane Austen Society first, but I loved the little nods to the first book. I'll be watching for what Natalie Jenner does next!

Really enjoyed this follow up to Natalie Kenner’s Jane Austen Society. I fell in love with all the characters and hope to see more from them. It sent me off on many research tangents!

This was an excellent read about strong women in a time when men ruled all. I really enjoyed this group of women, and cannot wait to learn more about them in the author's previous book.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

If you're a historical fiction fan and a lover of books you won't want to skip this one. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for my review.

My Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/ 5

This is a historical fiction taking place in 1950s England about three different women working at Bloomsbury Books. It is also the follow up to the Jane Austen Society (which I did not read). The bookshop is managed by Mr. Dutton, who has created 51 rules that all staff must adhere to. These three women: Vivian, Grace, and Evie have all suffered from workplace inequality amongst their male peers. Evie, the newer employee, has a motive to search high and low for a rare book based on her previous research at Cambridge - she is adamant it must be there somewhere in the shop.

There is a lot going on. Grace, with her unmotivated, abusive husband Gordon, to the hate/love relationship between Vivian and Alec, the secret relationships amongst the staff, the racism that Ash feels as an Indian man in England at this time, and efforts of different members of the staff to take over the shop. I liked it, but there were large portions of the book that moved painstakingly slow. The ending made me feel good, but also felt rushed at the same time. The subtle flirtation between Lord Baskin and Grace is cute, but I wish there was more of it. I am in the minority of those that did not LOVE it, but glad I read it.

Thank you to St Martin's Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Writing this review months after finishing this book has allowed the dust of my thoughts to settle and what remains standing are the memorable characters, who are both recognizable and complex, the writing that combines insight and tongue-in-cheek humor, and the themes that weave the character's together and echo with insight into our own experiences.

This book will resonate with all who have ever struggled to learn from the past while moving forward, who have tried to balance safety with the courage to change, or who have grappled with loving others in the ways that they need. Bloomsbury Girls does a fantastic job of drawing the reader into the experiences, issues, and feelings of the marginalized without simplifying the characters, trivializing the challenges of questioning the status quo, or getting preachy. The characters are all shown sympathetically, and life in it’s beautiful messiness is revealed. “There was poetry in there, too, in the seams and in the spaces between the perfectly selected words.”

THE CHARACTERS
• Unassuming and unobtrusive Evie, has “long known the value in being underestimated.” Her longtime focus on books has left thought for no other thing or person.

• Beautiful, yet detached Vivien, who “by looking so in control of herself… succeeded in keeping everyone else at bay.”

• Grace, stuck in a marriage that is barely tolerable, she stays at the bookshop for friendship, wages, an escape from home and children, the convenience of the bus route to and from work, but mostly “the fear of drastic change,” which underlies her choices. “Did Grace even want to go home? The mere fact of this question had been troubling her for years.”

THE SUBTLE HUMOR
• “The role of customer seemed to bring out the worst in certain people.”
• “There’s nothing like celebrating New Year with an assortment of villagers drunk on cider.”

THE THEMES
• The experiences of women & minorities:
“New opportunities for women were still being rationed along with the food. Those in power would always hold on to any excess supply, even to the bitter end.”

“That the rules of the majority could, by definition, never fit the intrinsic beliefs and needs of everyone, was meaningless to Alec.”

“It is about how women are made to feel shame, largely by men, for wanting the very same things as them.”

Her head held high, her world so small and getting smaller still, for all the things she must not want.

It was only starting to dawn on Ash that in making this decision for them both, he was nonetheless depriving her of some say in the matter.

They don’t know me—why I came here, what I want from them, because I must want something—and that makes them hate me, the not knowing.

It was a form of practical servitude, in a way, this not being able to live the way you wanted to.

• Books:
“Her subsequent years immersed in books had taught her to fixate on words and their placement as objects and makers of meaning.”

The books, she believed, spoke for themselves. You just had to find them

• Writing:
They wrote for the reader, but an ideal reader, one they birthed into existence themselves.

We must experience first, in order to understand. I write to experience and then better understand myself: that is my only concern.”

‘Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.’”

• Forms of love:
“Being understood, appreciated, and not judged: these, surely, were the cornerstones of real love. The love that helps us move forth in life, no matter what it throws at us, no matter what we lose.”

He could not pin her down. She refused to conform to anyone’s notions of how a woman should act, least of all his.

• Lessons of the past:
People had only the past to learn from, yet already they seemed to want to forget and move on to the future. But there were no lessons to be found there, only promises instead.

She realized that in being so preoccupied with objects right in front of her, she had missed out on some of the romance and beauty of the world.

• Hope for the future:
In coping with pain, however, they all harboured the one hope that privilege can bestow: the ability to anticipate, and seek, a new horizon.

Bloomsbury Books might soon be gone, but there was always the promise of something new arising in its place. Whatever it was, it would only come about by completely breaking with the past.

• Desire for safety:
“Viv, I can live with the status quo. What I can’t afford to do is end things only to make them worse.”

He had put safety and comfort ahead of everything else, and in that unbalanced approach to life, he had created an isolated perch for himself that could only topple in the end.

“They had each tangled up that need for approval with resentment over needing it at all. Was that what the war had done to them all in the end—made needing anything or anyone so risky that it was better to harden and deaden oneself inside instead?

• Courage to move forward:
“Look, Evie, trust me, you could do everything right and still get it wrong in the end. We can’t control other people—sometimes we can’t even control ourselves.” “So you’re saying, why bother?” “No, I’m saying the opposite.” Mimi paused again. “I’m saying, ask for more.”

You deserve the world.” Here his voice caught in his throat. “I can’t give that to you.” “Some of it I can get myself.”

“What will you do next?” he asked. She stood up, her green coil-bound notebook in one hand. “Take over the world,”

I enjoyed this follow up to The Jane Austen Society. The bookstore setting was delightful, and I loved being visited by characters from the previous story. There are also several author cameos throughout the book that are fun. Recommended for readers who enjoy historical fiction or books about books.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of review.

Natalie Jenner’s debut novel, The Jane Austen Society, was one of my favourite reads of 2020. When I learned she’d have a new book coming out this year, I was thrilled. Bloomsbury Girls won’t hit my top ten list for 2022 but it was a really enjoyable historical fiction that I loved reading.

Here’s the book’s description:
Bloomsbury Books is an old-fashioned new and rare book store that has persisted and resisted change for a hundred years, run by men and guided by the general manager's unbreakable fifty-one rules. But in 1950, the world is changing, especially the world of books and publishing, and at Bloomsbury Books, the girls in the shop have plans:
Vivien Lowry: Single since her aristocratic fiance was killed in action during World War II, the brilliant and stylish Vivien has a long list of grievances - most of them well justified and the biggest of which is Alec McDonough, the Head of Fiction.
Grace Perkins: Married with two sons, she's been working to support the family following her husband's breakdown in the aftermath of the war. Torn between duty to her family and dreams of her own.
Evie Stone: In the first class of female students from Cambridge permitted to earn a degree, Evie was denied an academic position in favor of her less accomplished male rival. Now she's working at Bloomsbury Books while she plans to remake her own future.
As they interact with various literary figures of the time - Daphne Du Maurier, Ellen Doubleday, Sonia Blair (widow of George Orwell), Samuel Beckett, Peggy Guggenheim, and others - these three women with their complex web of relationships, goals and dreams are all working to plot out a future that is richer and more rewarding than anything society will allow.
The biggest issue I had with this novel was that there were simply too many characters to keep track of. Jenner made that work with JAS but I had trouble caring about and connecting with every single character who popped up in this book – and I wanted to care about them all! They were all important in their own way, but I can’t help but think the story could have been tighter and better if some of the side characters remained strictly to the side and didn’t try to become a more developed character.

If you’re not a fan of slower historical fiction stories, you might not enjoy this one. I, however, quite like them and it was great to read and get a sense of what it would have been like in 1950s London, especially for women. The three main women, Vivien, Grace, and Evie (who readers will remember from JAS), were all so different and that made the story really interesting to me. They were approaching life in different ways but they were all hemmed in by the same rules for and stereotypes about women.

I was, unsurprisingly, a huge fan of the setting of this book. Not only that it was set in London (and I was reading it just as my sister was there) but that it took place at a bookstore. I mean, swoon! I desperately wanted to be wandering London with the characters and spending all my time working in Bloomsbury Books. It made my book loving, wanderlust heart very happy.

Bloomsbury Girls was a really lovely historical fiction title that I think many readers will enjoy. Natalie Jenner has a knack for finding interesting historical tidbits and weaving them into a story full of characters you enjoy meeting. I cannot wait for her next book!

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

3.5/4 stars. It may have had a slow start, but quickly picked up. I also think it would have helped to read The Jane Austen Society first (I didn’t realize this was #2!), however it is a stand alone novel with some references and characters overlapping. It takes place in post-WW2 London in the kind of bookstore I love discovering in my travels. There are good messages about strong women and overcoming adversity. It is fun to see how she incorporates real historical figures (Samuel Beckett, Daphne du Maurier, Ellen Doubleday, etc) into the story. Great choice for someone who loves historical fiction, books and a little romance.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. Bloomsbury Girls is available now.

Bloomsbury Girls follows three women in post WWII London and into the 1950s .
I’m an outlier in my opinion; I struggled to connect to the characters which made it hard to be invested in the story.

This book was a guaranteed win for me. Loved the author’s first novel, The Jane Austin Society, and as a former librarian I gravitate to any stories of libraries or book stores.. Bloomsbury Girls includes a couple of the characters from Jenner’s earlier work which adds an element of familiarity but it also introduces us to a whole new cast of strong women and exasperating men.
London in 1950 was definitely a time and place of inequality between the sexes, both in pay, and opportunity. This story of the employees at a well-respected but terribly stodgy 100 year old bookstore turns old expectations on their head. There is plenty of conflict, suspense, and social commentary to satisfy the most modern of readers but also lots of humor and love to attract the romantic. It is also a wonderful examination of the creative process of an author. You will recognize a number of literary lights of the era including Daphne du Maurier and Peggy Guggenheim which naturally leads you to wonder how much of the story is fact and how much fiction. Whatever the answer, the author has combined the elements into a very satisfying story.

I was expecting to love this book. I just had a hard time getting involved in the storyline. I didn't read far enough to find a plot, but perhaps others would appreciate this book. . I might go back at some point a d try again, as I was reading several other books at the same time, so perhaps didn't give it a fair chance. Thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read the ARC. I normally like stories set in this time period.

I picked up this book because bookstores, postwar London and women's friendships are catnip. I'm not a huge Jane Austen fan, though, and the series title put me off a bit. But Natalie Jenner delivered on her book blurb. This is an entertaining story with endearing characters and a setting as promised. A number of historical literary figures make cameo appearances, many of which sent me down an enjoyable Wikipedia rabbit hole to sort out fact and fiction.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I apologize but I was not able to finish this book. I was in a different headspace at the time of requesting / recieving this book and the time I got it.

I'm not going to lie I liked Natalie's Jenner first book better than this one. However I did enjoy seeing Evie again. I did love the friendship that formed between the three women.

Historical fiction fans will fall in love with the shopgirls' quest to achieve their dreams. What I most appreciate about the book is the exquisite character development. Each of the women and most of the male characters mature and change over time, which is crucial to the advancement of the plot.