When I picked up Bloomsbury Girls from NetGalley I didn’t realize it was by the author of The Jane Austin Society. Nor did I understand some of the characters from the book would be featured in this one. What a delightful surprise! Thank you net Galley in Saint martins press for my DRC.

London 1950 in a changing bookstore world is an intriguing place to get wrapped up in and wrapped up in this world I did. Grace, Vivian, and Evie are an intriguing group of women whose individual and collective stories bring this tale to life. I was rooting for each one to have her breakthrough moment and was delighted by how they came together to accomplish their goal.

Another aspect that elevated this story are the famous women of that time who joined forces with the trio. It is always refreshing to see women supporting other women and this book has it in spades.

A sharp story filled with women breaking the mold and setting the tone for a new decade - Blooomsbury Girls is a must read.

Meticulously researched and beautifully written, this book will delight historical fiction and literary fans everywhere. Jenner is at her finest!

A great page turner in the covid era... a great escape for an afternoon, a day at the beach, a vacation or plane read to divert ones thoughts from everyday life.

Set in the 1950s, Bloomsbury Girls focuses on the bold women about to help change history by standing up to the men that own and run a bookstore, this was in a time when women were expected to be house wives and stay in the kitchen. After years of being run by a stale and hard man with his 51 outdated rules, the bookstore becomes a stale and bland shop that starts to go under. When the women come in and take over, adding a fresh take on things, the shop quickly becomes a much more appealing and inviting place for new customers.
I love how this book mentions so many of my favorite "classic" authors and books. If you enjoyed the previous book by this author The Jane Austen Society, I promise you will really like this book alot!

If you enjoyed The Jane Austen Society, you'll appreciate this book just as much. It's got the same cozily steady plot development, wonderful characters, celebration of women as multi-faceted, interesting, and fully human, and thoroughly satisfying conclusion. I loved Bloomsbury Girls and I think that Jenner has now earned a spot on my list of authors whose work I consider a must-read.

My interest was peaked just as I started to wonder where this story was going and from there the story continued to build at the perfect pace. My favorite character was the narrator as she is quick and witty. The setting provides a wonderful view of London post WWII. The characters are unique, humorous, a bit mysterious and it was enjoyable to be part of their lives during their years at the book store. I noticed in the acknowledgments that some of the author's inspiration came from 84 Charing Cross Road which I smiled at when I read that, as I thought of that book while reading this one.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early release in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Three women work in a man-owned and man-run bookstore. The store rules dictate their behavior and hinder sales. As the story unfolds, the women each decide to take back their lives and change the rules. The end result benefits the women, men and store.
I enjoyed reading this book. It's engaging and fun but also includes enough drama to keep my attention. And the female empowerment and psychological details encourage and inspire me. There is some backstory from the author's previous book that's woven seamlessly into this book. I would definitely read more books by this author.

Even though the book makes you believe that the book is about three women, in fact the book involves everyone in the bookstore and how they interact with each other and how each of them effect one another. At first, I didn't know quite where the story was going but if you stick with it you will find a very evolving story. The book starts with the obvious stereotypes for the 1950's but as you read you will find very interesting relationships forming and a changing of the guards, in a good way. But, there is a lot of tension when change comes calling and a lot of assumptions before the truth is revealed. I enjoyed the Vivan's women companions a lot and the role they play in the auction and I also like how Lord Baskin helps in the change.
I like that some get their comeuppance and others obtain what they deserve because they work hard to achieve it.
There is an auction that I was very happy with it's results and it is very satisfy ending.

I want to thank St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this open minded book

Though it was a little longer than it needed to be due to over-explanations and longer descriptions, this story was a good one. I enjoyed the time period, the relationships between the characters, the creativity of the characters to obtain what they needed even in the face of adversity. This was a time where women struggled to get anything not given to them or allowed by men in their homes and their workplaces. These women showed their strength of character and creativity.

What a story of overcoming what others think based on what they see of you! There is much more to all of the women and some of the men in the story, each one rising above their circumstances by using their unique skills and talents and working together. I was cheering all the women on to outwit the men who had no idea what the women were capable of. Great story, characters that revealed themselves slowly, and fun surprises. Love this book!

First, thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with a digital ARC of this title via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
I have been fortunate enough to also receive an advance copy of the Jane Austen society here and was delighted to be given the opportunity to read this follow up title as well. I loved the characters in the Jane Austen society and was totally drawn into the little English village with them. I felt Bloomsbury girls was a little slower to connect with, but I am really glad I kept on reading. The further into the book, the more I enjoyed it and felt reconnected with past characters and the new characters we meet at the Bloomsbury bookstore. I love a good book set in a bookstore and this did not disappoint. Really enjoyable read so don't give up if the beginning also seems slow to you. Well worth reading the Jane Austen society first, but not necessary to enjoy this second title as they give you enough recap to understand the previous story

"Bloomsbury Girls" is the most enjoyable book I have read recently. As a bibliophile and book collector, a story set in a bookstore and involving old and rare books is appealing. Though the story is about a lot more than just the bookstore and its books. Bloomsbury Books & Maps is a London bookshop approaching its hundredth anniversary. The store is just barely breaking even, and that is unlikely to change under the leadership of Herbert Dutton, General Manager, with his 51 Rules and his traditional views on how a business should operate and gender roles (which is some ironic, as there is a very "unconventional" aspect to his own life). However, in 1950, a medical emergency, a new employee (Evelyn (Evie) Stone), and chance encounters that develop into friendships between Vivien Lowry (shop employee) and influential socialites and female authors (Ellen Doubleday, Peggy Guggenheim, Sonia Blair (George Orwell's widow), and Lady Browning (Daphne du Maurier)) will irrevocably change the lives of the staff of Bloomsbury Books & Maps, as well as the future of the store itself.

The book has many subplots, but the one I enjoyed the most was Evie's efforts to find the only known copy of a book "The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century", that was first published in 1827 and may be one of the first science fiction novels ever written, and the author was a seventeen-year-old girl, whose later career was subsumed by her husband's work. She had access to the book in the past, but neither she nor anyone else recognized the significance of the book, and it was purchased at auction by Frank Allen, Head of Rare Books at Bloomsbury, and then misplaced in the chaos of the rare books section of the store. As part of her research while at Cambridge (one of the first female graduates), she ran across references to the book, and she became determined to find it, with hopes of having the book republished with its author recognized. Evie's dream is to discover and republish the works of forgotten women authors.

There are so many good things about this book -- the eclectic mix of characters, the various subplots, the ambitions and dreams of the various characters, the various societal issues that the story addresses, etc. -- but I will leave those things for other readers to discover. "Bloomsbury Girls" is a book I highly recommend. (And now I need to read "The Jane Austen Society", Natalie Jenner's first book, which features some of the characters in "Bloomsbury Girls.")

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

As a former librarian who naturally loves bookstores, I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It was a fun read with a happy ending and lots of interesting characters throughout. Definitely worth reading.

The women who work at the Bloomsbury Bookstore and are totally underappreciated by their three male counterparts. When a young woman arrives for her interview she stumbles upon the manager having a seizure. Fortunately she saves his life. Naturally she gets the job. With the manager forced to take time away from the store, one of the males is promoted to manager and, in an unlikely turn of events, one of the women is promoted to Head of Fiction. The book is filled with famous people who visit the shop: Daphne Du Maurier, Ellen Doubleday, Sonia Blair (widow of George Orwell), Samuel Beckett, Peggy Guggenheim. All of them add to the impact of the bookstore. This is a thoroughly enjoyable novel by the author of The Jane Austin Society.

Bloomsbury Books is a neighborhood institution, having existed for hundreds of years in England, run by men and a general manager who are resistant to change, but in 1950, things are changing quickly in the world, and the girls who work at the shop have some ideas. Vivien has dreamed of becoming a writer, but the closest she can get currently is working in the shop. But she has been butting heads with the head of the fiction department, Alec, who is also an aspiring writer. Grace is married to a man who has never been the same since he had a breakdown after the war. She is left to work at the shop in order to support her two sons and husband. But she is increasingly getting tired of her situation and just might find the strength to make some changes. Evie is one of the first women who graduated from Cambridge but is still in a world controlled by men who take all of the jobs. She is currently working at Bloomsbury Books while she figures out how she can get what she wants in her life.
The three women in the shop want more from their lives. And they finally start to achieve their dreams when they create a community with each other and several famous women literary figures. Their friendship allows them to finally go for what they want. This is a story about women finding themselves and fighting for what they want. Themes of friendship, strength, ambition, love and perseverance abound in this book. I enjoyed the book, especially the last 25% when the book really started to come together.

I thoroughly enjoyed Bloomsbury Girls, a sort of sequel to the wonderful book The Jane Austen Society. The story takes place in early 1950s London and follows a richly developed group of men and women working in a bookstore in Bloomsbury. The role of the bookstore in their lives is well drawn and we see how important it is to each of their futures. The 1950s were a time of tremendous social change. It was a time where women, once desperately needed to step up and take the jobs done by the men who had gone to war, were once again treated as lesser employees. This book covers many societal changes while being an entertaining read. I have struggled to finish so many books during the pandemic but I flew through this one. It was informative, entertaining and heartfelt.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC.
This was a lovely book, I enjoyed it a lot. It's set in post-war London in an old book store run by men with 3 female characters: Evie, Grace and Vivien. All 3 are very different, but have the same goal: throwing off the restraints of the men in their lives who stop them from being the best they can be.
The appearance of so many historic characters was such a treat. The friendship between Vivien and Daphne Du Maurier made me jealous, but reading about Du Maurier was a delight; she lit up my teenage years with her wonderful books.
Of course the happy ending also added to the enjoyment of the read. All in all the book put me in a good mood for several days after tearing through it, so I definitely recommend it!

I haven't read Natalie's first book, and didn't realize this was a sequel until reading other reviews. It could be a stand alone book, it was easy to follow the story - but I'd suggest reading the first book for some of it to make better sense.

Three working women in 1950's London are the main characters - with a host of others, including the men they work with and for and a variety of historical characters that also make appearances. The characters are intriguing, strong women with their own reasons for working and their own secrets.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review.

Bloomsbury Girls is set in London, after WW2. 3 women, Vivian, Grace, and Evie, are employees of a century-old bookstore which has been run by men. Each chapter begins with one of the 51 rules that have been set in place by management - some are good for a laugh! The story explores the plans and dreams of the women to make changes to the bookstore, expand, and learn. They each have their own personal experience and hopes and dreams, and the bookstore is a place where those dreams can be further explored.

The stories intertwine, and snippets about rare books, book auctions, and well-known literary figures make the story quite interesting.

Post war London and men hold all the positions of power But things and changing. The three women employed at Bloomsbury Books are at the forefront of the changes that are coming. It isn't easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is. We owe all the women who stepped out then for our improved times now.