Kate Quinn's The Briar Club is another fantastic dive into history, and while it still features her signature well-developed characters, it felt a little less dramatic than some of her usual, more sweeping narratives. Set in 1950s Washington D.C., the atmosphere is wonderfully captured.
Quinn really shines in bringing her characters to life, making you genuinely invested in their individual struggles within this tense era. You get a vivid sense of what it was like to navigate the paranoia of the McCarthy era in the nation's capital, where loyalty was constantly questioned and secrets could ruin lives. While the personal stakes are high for these individuals, the overall pacing and scale felt a touch more contained, perhaps reflecting the quieter, more insidious nature of the political climate she's portraying. If you appreciate Quinn's ability to craft complex, engaging figures against a meticulously researched historical backdrop, and enjoy a more character-driven pace, you'll definitely find a lot to love here. I really enjoyed it!

If you’re looking for a book that almost reads like a short story collection and provides a look into a time period of American history other than WWI or WWII, this is the book for you! The Briar Club delves into experiences and issues affecting women during the early 1950’s as the story follows the tenants of an all-female boarding house in Washington, D.C. After Grace March moves into the top-floor bedroom and starts befriending the other boarders, the women slowly find themselves sharing meals and trusting each other with pieces of their personal lives. When a thanksgiving murder leads to a startling discovery, the members of the briar club must decide where their loyalties ultimately lie.

While I initially struggled to engage with this story, I ended up really enjoying the reading experience and its short story-like format of the book. I didn’t love the first perspective of Pete, but after that I found myself easily engaged with each character’s story (although I liked Nora’s best). I thought Kate Quinn did an excellent job of weaving together so many pieces of 1950’s history. I always appreciate it when a historical fiction introduces me to new pieces of real-life events and inspires me to do more research on my own. While this story is a bit of a slow-burn, the ending weaves together well, leaving me happy I spent time with the briar club women.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

Such a great book! Masterful storytelling to develop each (of many) characters. Loved the twists and turns in the story. Good for readers to understand the McCarthy Era, the fear and suspicion that was rampant then. Women supporting other women.

I am very grateful to NetGalley for allowing me access to this title - I wish I could have read it before the publish date, but I knew I would want to savor this one. I am happy with my decision to do so! Master historical fiction author, Kate Quinn, delivers another stellar, unputdownable title set in the 1950s when the world was recovering from WWII, involved in the Korean War, and suspicious of each other and everyone else due to Sen. Joe McCarthy's Communist witch-hunts.

An extremely dissimilar group of women find themselves drawn together in the Briarwood Boarding house after Grace York moves in with a breath of fresh air, kindness and empathy. The women's secrets are shared one-by-one in the book allowing readers to connect and sympathize with their plights (all of them except maybe Arlene.) I simply loved everything about this book - the format with its interstitials of Briarwood House's perspective, the faults of the characters and their ultimate humanity and support for each other. The mystery of the deaths had me until the end - even in the ending scenes, I was heartbroken when I thought one of the most beloved characters was one of the victims.

Kate Quinn's books must be savored - so hold off reading one until you are in a position to not close the book until you finish the last page. Speaking of last pages, the author's notes on the historical accuracy were very interesting and sent me to some side research of historical events spoken of in the pages. The inspiration for Grace's room is also searchable and is as truly breathtaking as Quinn's description. For historical fiction fans - put this at the top of your TBR list as soon as possible!

3.5 stars. This was my first book by Kate Quinn, and a very enjoyable introduction it was. Excellent historical fiction, much of it based on real people and events. In fact, one of the most enjoyable parts of the book was the author's notes. Very engaging characters, with different parts of the book focusing on different residents of this women's boarding house, and also very suspenseful, as the book sets up shootings at the very beginning but teases out what happened to the very end. Recommend.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

This was just an okay read for me. Kate Quinn definitely has some better books out there in my opinion. The ending was pretty far fetched for me. That being said, I would love a whole book dedicated to Nora.

This has become one of my favorite books, the character depth, the art of the storytelling, the timeline, the ending. There was something that drew me in to each character and made me love them, this book was so cozy while also getting into the struggles and heartbreaks of war and a lack of freedom for women/poc during that time period. I cannot recommend this book enough. Well done to the author for bringing so many different perspectives and paths of life into one book.

"The Briar Club" by Kate Quinn is another foray into the kind of historical fiction you want - you need. It never bogs you down in the drudgery of past timelines but forces you to keep turning pages. Quinn continues to write intriguing, smart women who deal with issues poignant to today's modern women. Intriguing, beautiful read.

I loved this book. The characters were all different, well developed and intertwined with a great suspenseful plot! I would highly recommend this read.

Kate Quinn’s The Briar Club offers a captivating exploration of female friendships set against the tense backdrop of McCarthy-era Washington, D.C. The narrative centers around Briarwood House, a women’s boardinghouse, and its diverse residents, each harboring their own secrets and aspirations.

Quinn masterfully develops each character, making their individual stories resonate deeply. The camaraderie that blossoms among the women is both heartwarming and authentic, highlighting the strength found in unity during tumultuous times. The historical setting is richly detailed, immersing readers in the paranoia and societal pressures of the 1950s.

While the story’s pacing is generally steady, some sections delve deeply into character backstories, which, although enriching, occasionally slow the momentum. However, the intricate web of relationships and the overarching mystery keep the reader engaged throughout.

Overall, The Briar Club is a poignant and immersive read, showcasing Kate Quinn’s talent for blending historical accuracy with compelling storytelling. Fans of character-driven historical fiction will find much to appreciate in this novel.

Honestly surprised how much I ended up enjoying this one!! Probably because I started and stopped the audiobook multiple times before sticking with it🤷🏻‍♀️mood reader problems??

Historical fiction + mystery + found family + female friendships‼️

It starts off with a thanksgiving day murder at the Briarwood all-female boarding house and then works its way from the past to the present (the murder) through multiple POVs,including the house itself👀!

Okay, YES, it is slower paced and is character-heavy but I still reaaaallly liked it!! Major props to the audio narration🎧👏

Some POVs I liked more than others but 😮‍💨 I learned so much and was (unfortunately) able to relate to too much of it today’s political climate. Me 🤝 highlighting every other paragraph.

McCarthyism, early birth control studies, Russian spy suspicions, crime families, immigrants, homophobia, evolving female roles! Each POV and Briar Club lady was so well thought out and I loved how it all came together!

Beguiling and addictive! An all-female boarding house in Washington DC during the McCarthy era is a perfect place for this cast of complex and nuanced females with all their juicy secrets. I loved the house as a narrator—absolutely brilliant!
My favorite line in the book: “A successful dinner party needs just one person all the others loathe, Pete—it gives everyone something to unite against.”

--Dianna Rostad USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of You Belong Here Now

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy.

Kate Quinn is one of my favorite historical fiction authors, and The Briar Club is an excellent read. It's refreshing in that it isn't a WWII plot, but it takes place in 1950. It immediately caught my interest because the very first pages tell you there's been a death in the house. You don't know who, why, how, so there's nothing you can do but keep reading to find out what happened.

Briarwood House is an all female boarding house in Washington DC. All of the boarders are very different in background, age, profession, etc, and at first are not friends. When Grace March moves in to the house, she starts hosting dinner parties every Thursday night in her room, and there the women and the children of the landlady become a found family. Each boarder gets their own chapters to tell their story and it's all linked together at the end.

This book wasn't unputdownable for me, but I did really enjoy it and I read it fairly quickly. The more I read, the more intrigued I became about the women that lived in the house and how everything was linked.

4.5 stars.

Kate Quinn is hit or miss for me and unfortunately this one was a miss. I just could not get into the storyline and although I think her books are well-researched, I often find myself comparing her to Ariel Lawhon whose books are researched to the hilt.

I love love love kate Quinn but this book was too slow paced for me. I couldn’t get into it and there were so many characters it was hard to keep up especially on audio.

Kate Quinn's latest is another suspenseful and informative historical novel. The characters are fully developed and each have their own intricate story, then they are woven together in a murder mystery with a surprise twist at eh end.

There are a lot of characters in this story and at first I found it hard to keep them straight, but then gradually it all made sense. They were all favorite characters, except one (not counting the secondary characters) and in the end everything worked out for all of them. Except for Grace. I did not like her ending, I understand why Ms. Quinn wrote it the way she did (Grace explained it in the text), but I wanted more for her. I did find it a little disconcerting for the "house" to be talking, but as long as you were using the literary convention, she did it well. I think the notes at the end were also helpful to understand where all the characters came from and the events they were involved in, there may be many readers who do not understand who Joe McCarthy was and his influence on the political scene and how it spilled over into people's everyday life--it should be a lesson for today.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Loved this book and while I didn’t quite get the hype about the book, the mystery and storyline were an interesting bending of expectations. A little different narrator with the house itself, but the switching perspectives and storylines through the different characters provided insight — but still a few surprises as to why and who. Definitely worth the read for a good mystery and depth of characters/storylines.

This was my first Kate Quinn book, but definitely not my last. The pacing was perfect, and I was really hooked on this story. I usually don't read historical fiction, but I have been really enjoying it lately. Can't wait to read more!

Thank you to the author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Briar Club by Kate Quinn!