Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner is a powerful story about love, war, trauma, and friendship. This fictional story takes place in Italy and has two timelines. One story takes place towards the end of WW II, and the second story takes place during the mid 1950’s. Natalie Jenner does a superb job of intersecting both time periods. Vivian is a British writer who decides to visit Rome in her quest to find out what happened to her fiancé during the war. She discovers much more than she anticipated about politics, deceit, and trauma. It is an eye-opening story about war and the lengths people will go to in order to survive both the war and its aftermath. I highly recommend Every Time We Say Goodbye for readers of historical fiction. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I loved Natalie Jenner’s previous books so I was delighted to receive an ARC of her latest novel, “Every Time We Say Goodbye.” This novel focuses on post-war Italy in 1955, where the main character, Vivien Lowry, has gone to write screenplays in Rome, escaping a nasty review of her latest play performed in London. She also hopes to find information on her late fiancee, who she recently discovered did not die in North Africa in 1943 but instead was taken to Italy as a prisoner of war.

Interspersed throughout the 1955 narrative is the 1943 account of a young female resister (La Scolaretta or Schoolgirl in English) who assassinates a German officer, one of several assassinations of German officers she carried out during the war in German occupied Italy. While in Italy, Vivien encounters some of the individuals who were involved in La Scolaretta’s resistance activities.

The novel’s characters are complex and well-drawn, and the book brings to life post-war Italy with its beautiful descriptions of the countryside as well as a critical examination of post-war Italian politics and the role the Vatican played in everyday life there. There’s a plethora of books on German occupied and post-war France but very few that describe the Italian experiences in those same time periods. This book sheds a light on that era, describing as it does the resistance, collaborations and the guilt felt by survivors after the war. I highly recommend this book to historical fiction fans who enjoy well-researched books, with beautiful prose and finely drawn characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Vivi lost her fiancé during World War II. No one knows exactly what happened to him. She is angry and cannot move on. After writing a play that received less than stellar reviews, she is invited to work in Italy helping to rewrite a script. She also hopes to learn more about her fiancé while there. EveryTime We Say Goodbye, by Natalie Joyner, takes the reader into the world of Italian movies of the 1950s, the beautiful women who star in them, and the Catholic Church who censors them.

Almost everyone carries scars of some sort from the war. How each one lives with those scars is as varied as the people themselves. This is a psychological novel that looks at these people to see how, or if, they can move forward. It is a poignant story of the postwar world of the 1950s. I was able to read an ARC on #NetGalley.

This book is the third Jane Austen Society trilogy and it does not disappoint! I was given the chance to read an advance copy thanks to netgalley & St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review, thank you to both of them! This is exactly the kind of book you'd expect from the Author Natalie Jenner. Her fine details help you picture it like you are there. 5/5 stars from me!

5.0 stars
HIGHEST recommendation

I received a complimentary Kindle e-book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Thank you to Natalie Jenner, Allison and Busby, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

This is the beautiful conclusion to the Jane Austen Society trilogy - I would definitely recommend reading the previous two books first to fully appreciate this final book.

The novel is primarily about Vivien who travels to Rome after a theater disaster in London. She is a playwright who is hired to tighten up a screenplay that needs a lot of work. There are two timelines - 1943 with the resistance fighting the Nazis for Italy and 1945/1946 Rome. The two timelines are connected and are so important to be told together.

Natalie Jenner writes beautifully and this is the third book that I have read by her. I truly hope to read more books by her as I have enjoyed them all so much!