Bloomsbury Girls | Blog Tour

Bloomsbury Girls Published by St. Martin's Press by Natalie Jenner
on May 17, 2022
Genres: Adult, Books About Books, European Literature, British Literature, War, WW II, Women's Fiction, Chick-Lit, Historical
Pages: 370
Source: Publisher
Format: ARC, Paperback
Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram
Also by this author: The Jane Austen Society
Find the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

ISBN: 1250276691
Rating:

The internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society returns with 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.
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.

So when I first read–and quickly finished–The Jane Austen Society, I was hooked on Natalie Jenner’s ability to tell a story. So hooked that I was incredibly eager to read Bloomsbury Girls.

Bloomsbury Girls is a sequel of sorts to The Jane Austen Society. Granted, two of the three main characters are new, but Evie Stone–the remarkable Evie Stone who is one of the founding members of the Jane Austen Society–returns in this novel, as a new employee of Bloomsbury Books. There, she meets and befriends both Vivien Lowry and Grace Perkins. Both formidable women, in their own right.

Bloomsbury Girls is a story set post-WWII in England, in 1950. A time when women were still not on even terms with men in any profession.

Grace, Vivien, and Evie navigate the ins and outs of working in a bookstore run and own entirely by men–men who unsurprisingly seem to be as good at it as they think they are.

The story being about all three women, is incredibly fulfilling in that it gives each woman their own time to shine, with their own incredible story arcs–while also bringing the three women together in friendship and camaraderie in a way only women can be.

There are some slight romantic elements to this story–just enough to satisfy. While also keeping with the tone of the book–these three women are a force to be reckoned with while also being real women–vulnerable, strong, and capable of achieving dreams even in the most unlikely of situations.

You don’t need to have read The Jane Austen Society to enjoy this book– but, it would make the experience more enjoyable.

I am so incredibly hooked on Jenner’s writing–I can’t wait to see what’s in store next!

 

 

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