Natalie Jenner just warmed my cold, quarantined heart! How did she know that I needed a Jane Austen fix even more than tea and biscuits? Even if you are not an Austen aficionado, this delightful story about the residents of the small village of Chawton after WWII will make you feel alive. Jenner's characters like Dr. Gray and Frances Knight will remind you not only of Elizabeth Bennett and the Crawford siblings as they experience the aftermath of war, hope, love, loss, and change of fortune but make you think of your neighbors and friends. My only hope is that I can join The Jane Austen Society too!

Post WWII, a group of Austen lovers come together to preserve her heritage in the village of Chawton. They create the Jane Austen Society. Each of the members is in their own way traumatized by events of their past and they each find healing through this project. The novel was heartwarming and gives off delightful Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society vibes. Be warned, your Jane Austen knowledge will be tested, so make sure you have a working knowledge of all her novels to best enjoy all the references.

I wanted to like it more but for me it fell a little flat. The characters were a bit bland and the plot was too slow for my taste. If you've read Austen, you'll get extra satisfaction though as a reader in recognizing her timeless themes and characterization. The plot even finishes in a very Austen-esque way. But, for me, I had to make myself keep reading rather than being immersed. However, I would still recommend it to any Austen fan.

Note: I received a free electronic copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank them, the publisher St. Martin's Press, and the author Natalie Jenner for the opportunity to do so.

I love Jane Austen and this book was a charming novel for any Jane Austen fan! The book contained many references of Jane Austen, so if you have not read her books before I would recommend to read them before reading this book to help with context. This book will be wonderful for the niche Jane Austen market, but may confuse others if they start reading it. I enjoyed the romance in the book and that both males and females read Jane Austen.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley!

A charming, warm-hearted story about an unlikely group of people brought together by a passion for Jane Austen. I loved the small-town setting and the glimpse into the lives of those who seek solace through the classics. A testament to the fact that the Jane Austen fandom only gets stronger with time!

At the beginning of this book, I was ready to stop reading. It was just so sad! All of these tragic things kept happening, but then it turned a corner. The characters were really interesting, and it was great to see how their personalities meshed as the story went on. The plot didn't quite go how I thought it would, so I enjoyed that. I don't love Jane Austen, so I glossed over some of the parts where the characters went into depth about Austen's characters, but I loved how they learned about themselves through literature. Definitely worth reading!

What a charming story. It is a nice, comforting read for times like this. Curl up with a nice cuppa and enjoy! While knowledge of Austen’s writings may be helpful, you don’t have to be an Austen scholar to find pleasure in this book

Calling all Jane Austen fans! The Jane Austen Society is bursting with facts, references to, and discussions of Jane Austen's novels as well as her life. Even if you are not an avid Austen reader, you will still love the charming story of how some mismatched characters from the town of Chawton, England (Jane Austen's home town) came together to form a society dedicated to preserving her legacy.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and #NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Loved this book and the parallels between the characters from Austen's time and the people of post WW2 Chawton. Austen's insights remain as true today as they did 200 years ago.
I enjoyed seeing how her books brought characters from diverse circumstances together and helped them move past the difficulties in their lives.

** “You need to fully appreciate how (your loss) has changed you, so that you can indeed move on and live, but as this changed person, who might now want different things.Who might now want different people about them. And, yes, God forbid, different people to love again.” **

Take a step into the post-World War II world of Jane Austen in Natalie Jenner’s “The Jane Austen Society.”

In this novel set for a May 26, 2020, publication, an unlikely group of people come together in the mid-1940s to try to find a way to honor hometown author Jane Austen in the small village of Chawton, England:

Adam Berwick — a farmer inspired by a chance encounter with an actress to start reading Austen;

Mimi Harrison — famous American actress engaged to a Hollywood producer;

Dr. Benjamin Gray — village doctor and widower;

Adeline Lewis Grover — former teacher and now pregnant war widow;

Andrew Forrester — solicitor;

Frances Knight — last known heir to the Knight estate, former familial home of the Austens;

Evie Stone — young housemaid at the Knight estate, with a keen eye for the importance of the estate’s library; and

Yardley Sinclair — of Sotheby’s auction house and friend of Mimi.

As this group comes together to try to save Austen’s legacy, they also learn to find trust for one another while overcoming various adversities.

“The Jane Austen Society” is a lovely historical piece that will delight Jane Austen fans. Throughout the novel, the group’s members discuss Austen’s life, her stories and the development of her characters — particularly “Pride and Prejudice” and “Emma.”

My only complaint about the story line was a couple of chapters occurring in Hollywood and revolving around Mimi — they were a bit more course in language and sexual innuendos and situations, and I felt they were completely off tone from the rest of the book.

Besides writing a fun historical fiction, Jenner filled “The Jane Austen Society” with several deeper themes, like the impact of remembering and dwelling on the forgotten past; overcoming grief and pain; coping with loss; feeling trapped and desperate; finding the key to those happier worlds we read about in stories; and sometimes all we have is hope.

She also hints at the importance of literature: “Inside the pages of each and every book was a whole other world (one you can disappear into).” Jenner shows us how the characters not only relate to Jane Austen’s characters, but they also feel saved by Austen.

Four and a half stars out of five.

St. Martin’s Press provided this complimentary copy through NetGalley for my honest, unbiased review.

This is a very lovely and enjoyable historical fiction novel. There are several characters introduced in the story and as the story slowly progresses you learn they all have something in common. But don’t think this is a light fluffy novel, some of the characters deal with heart wrenching tragedy and hardships. I found myself comparing their stories with characters in Jane Austen’s novels. I think you will find that the ending comes to a satisfying conclusion just like an Austen novel.

I am a huge Jane Austen fan and the stories of the cottage and glimpses into Jane’s life were so fun to read about. I would love to travel to Jane Austen’s house in Chawton Village, maybe one day. Until then, I am satisfied with this virtual trip around Chawton.

I was lucky enough to have access to the ALC audiobook narrated by the amazing Richard Armitage. I swear, he could read my junk mail and I wouldn’t mind. Sigh...moving on...there are a lot of characters in this book , which can be challenging if you are listening to it on audiobook. I think if you stick with it, you will begin to differentiate between the different characters after a while.

Recommended for Jane Austen fans, historical fiction readers, anyone looking for a lighthearted and heartwarming tale.

4/5

Thanks to #NetGalley and #St.Martin'sPress for an advance copy.
I absolutely adored this book. For Jane Austen fans, it will be a gem! However, there is enough reference shared that even if you are not (yet) an Austen fan, you will be enticed.
This disparate group of readers will enthrall you with their love of the words of Jane Austen. Each displaying their frailties in love, abandonment and disappointment - they are human, just like we are. Each of the main characters are shouldering the grief of their unresolved life and still they display the most wonderful trait of optimism. They live through such uncertainty and upheaval that they well could be characters in Austen's books. Tragic and wise.
I would love to have a copy of this book in my hands, while having a cup of tea or a 'small glass of sherry' as some of the characters do!

I can't help but imagine what fun it would be to have these characters as participants in your book club.

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably in the mood for a book that feels like a warm and comforting hug. “The Jane Austen Society,” a charming historical fiction novel releasing later this month, absolutely fit the bill when I read it last week!⁣
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“The Jane Austen Society” takes place in the English village of Chawton, Jane Austen’s last home, just after the end of World War II. The book delves into the lives of eight super fans of Austen’s work, all with vastly different backgrounds. They are brought together by their desire to protect Austen’s legacy and house, but also find friendship and support as they each move forward from past hardship.⁣
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This book was so cozy and charming, with a wonderful cast of characters and small-town feel. I absolutely loved the novel’s exploration of how literature can bring people together, when it may at first appear that they have nothing in common. It reminded me of “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,” another lovely post-WWII era novel about books and friendship.⁣
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Unsurprisingly, there were quite a few references to Austen’s work, some of which went over my head. This didn’t bother me at all (and inspired a re-watching of the 2005 “Pride and Prejudice” movie!), but the book would probably be most appreciated by fans of Austen’s work. I do wish that several issues raised in the novel were given a bit more depth, but overall this was a delightful read that I think Austen herself would enjoy!⁣

I am a Jane Austen fan, and I enjoyed this fictional book about the lives of some villagers (and one American) who band together to preserve Jane Austen's estate during the late 1940's.

The characters are slowly built up, and at the beginning I had a hard time really getting into the book. By the end, I enjoyed all the characters and the story wrapped nicely.

Overall it was a nice read, although a little slow at the beginning. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys English countryside books, and Jane Austen.

I received an ARC as a reviewer for NetGalley.

Unfortunately, I had trouble getting into this book. The title initially drew me in, and I thought I would enjoy it. However, the book went in too many different directions to begin with. I failed to see where it was going and did not feel motivated to continue reading it. Furthermore, I could not relate to any of the characters.

Fans of Jane Austen will enjoy this new historical fiction novel about the founding of the Jane Austen Society in Chawton, England. This heartwarming and gently paced debut is sure to delight readers.

For the love of BOOKS (and Jane Austen)!

Reading this book worked like a small mental vacation from lockdown stress. The story follows a bunch of romantics in the village of Chawton where Jane Austen lived her final days as they struggle to pick up the pieces of their post-WWII lives, facing loss and grief, while finding solace in books. Of course, where Jane Austen is mentioned, a measure of good old fashioned romanticism is expected, Hence, the romantics start their struggle to preserve the legacy of the author who made their small village a Mecca for her fans by forming a society to that end. Faced with the materialist postwar world and the darkness lurking in the corners of their own lives.

What I liked most about the book was the dynamics that borrowed and echoed from Austen's own work: second chances from Persuasion and misconceptions from Pride and Prejudice to name a few. And the most amusing part for me was that while reading the book I kind of expected come the end of the book I'll find an author's note stating that the story is real but the author took some creative liberty and reformed into a fictional work (which is something I come across in novels quite often and puts a damper on how creative the author really was. It's like authors don't want to do the research to make it a non-fiction work and decided to fill in the gaps and sell it as fiction.) But what I found in the author's note here was quite the opposite. The story is com[pletely fictional. None of it, except for the places, was based in real life. Regardless, it felt completely plausible.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St.Martin’s Press for this heart-warming reprieve in exchange for my honest review.

I will be honest. I have not read a Jane Austen novel before. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about them and I absolutely love that she was one of the first female authors around.

This book is not like anything I’ve read before. I have tried getting into historical fiction and sometimes it works for me and sometimes it doesn’t.

I interchangeably listened to this audiobook on @libro.fm and read the book gifted to me from @stmartinspress. I for the most part enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the voice of the narrator of the audiobook and he made me more interested in this book than I would’ve been just reading it myself.

There were so many different characters in this story that at times I would get lost and a bit confused. One of the last distant relatives of Jane Austen’s estate was getting near end of life, and a mix of people obsessed with Jane Austen wanted to obtain the estate to keep it intact, and they had a wide range of different backgrounds, stories and tragedies in their lives but the one thing they had in common was the love of Jane Austen, so they started their society. They tried their best to make sure the last heir didn’t give it away and have it turned into a resort.

Overall, this was an interesting story. I am grateful for this beautifully written story and love this gorgeous cover.

#bookstagram #books #TheJaneAustenSociety #historicalfiction #booklover
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It took me about a third of the book to really get into it, and start to care about the characters. There are quite a lot of characters and the first chapters of the book are spent introducing them. There is a famous Hollywood actress, a farmer, a former schoolteacher, a spinster descendant of Jane Austen, a housemaid, a lawyer, an appraiser from Sotheby’s, and the village doctor.

Once I wrapped my head around them all and they started to interact more I became quite invested. I mean, how could you not adore characters that love Jane Austen as much as you do (possibly even more)?!

The book is set just after WWII, and while some of our characters have grown up with each other, others cross paths quite fortuitously. Much like an Austen novel, the characters are each working through challenges of their own, grief, independence, lost love, turmoil, and family. Through the course of the story you get to watch them discover themselves, open their eyes to the joy and love that is right in front of them and ultimately get a happy ending.

In short, I enjoyed this book immensely, and it has got me craving a re-read of all of Austen’s novels.

The audiobook is narrated by Richard Armitage who does a wonderful job with all of the different characters. I’ve listened to a few audiobooks lately, which were read by a male narrator, who did a great job with the male parts but an awful job with the female ones. This was not the case with Armitage, who carries the story so well you can completely immerse yourself without being distracted by odd-sounding characters.

I was expecting more than this book gave. It went on and on. I wanted some real up close and personal information about Jane. Didn't get that.