In the Jane Austen society, we meet a handful of individuals who are ardent Austen fans, folks who are so into her work they quote passages and analyze the characters whenever possible. The story primarily takes place in England after WWII, though the first few chapters set the stage for the rest of the book.

Author Natalie Jenner captures the essence of Austen with her own characters as they each face their own obstacles in ways that reflect those in Austen’ books. There are both predictable and unexpected plots, heroes and villains, love stories with endings that fit the circumstances perfectly. Even if you are not overly familiar with Austen’s books, you will be able to enjoy this wonderful tale. It has made me want to read or re-read all of her books with some new insight and perspective.

I’m a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice.

With this in mind, I was ecstatic to read a book called The Jane Austen Society.

While a slow read at first, The Jane Austen Society builds itself around the lives of a movie star, a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, a farmer, and a few single ladies. This is a story about love and loss, of hope and healing. It’s a story about what came before, and what the future holds as these strangers-turned friends build the aforementioned society in the small English town of Chawton. I say it was a slow read at first, because the story is slow building, and therefore was a bit difficult to really get into at first. However, like the town of Chawton and its residents, the story grows on you.

I adored the characters in this book, and how perfectly imperfect they are. This book felt like a Jane Austen novel. The writing is different, of course, but the way all these characters come together despite themselves and the messiness that humans are is so very Austen. It doesn’t matter what sort of walk of life they come from. They all share a bond over Jane Austen, and that is special. I also do appreciate that these characters get what they deserve in the end…take that as you will!

Overall, despite the slow start, I really enjoyed this book, and I can tell it was put together with a lot of love and care. If you’re a Jane Austen fan, you’ll be a fan of The Jane Austen Society as well! Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this book as an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for providing me with the opportunity of reading and reviewing this book. I found this book to be very charming, it is the first time I read about the city of Chawton. I wish to visit this city one day so I can relive the words of Natalie Jenner. I liked the rhythm of the story because it is clear, precise, and there are many words that embellish the dialogues between the characters.

This story has several important characters that make up the Jane Austen Society, each one had special importance to this story. One of the important characters is Adeline Lewis, she is a woman who loves Jane Austen's books. Her family's house has an astonishing library with an immense collection of several important books. She spends much of her time in this lovely area of the house reading these works of art. Her favorite author is undoubtedly Jane Austen. Immediately Adeline's reading of Jane Austen is not enough, she wants to share this joy with other people who love her stories as much as she does. Eventually, they decide to form a Society where they would hold gatherings to talk about this amazing writer who marked English literature. I literally felt as if I was witnessing the conversation between the members of the great Jane Austen Society. This was for me the perfect book to enjoy with a good cup of tea.

Thank you to ST. Martin Press and Netgalley for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Can you imagine living or visiting the place where Jane Austen lived and wrote her novels? All I want to do is go see where Jane Austen lived and wrote her beautiful stories!

Just after WWII, in Chawton, England a like-minded group of desperate individuals come together to preserve Jane Austen's home but also her legacy. This group includes - a laborer, a widower, a doctor, a lawyer, a movie star and others. The one thing they all have in common is their love of Jane Austen.

Their common love of Jane Austen not only brought them together but also helped heal their pain from life's hurts. I enjoyed how the last few chapters took all their individual hurts and made everything right again. This hit home with me. I know there is healing when we come together with friends and fight for something we believe in.


The Jane Austen Society is the perfect book for anyone who is a fan of Jane Austen!

I can devour anything and everything that I get my hands on about Jane Austen. Even the name of the novel was enough for me to grab it like my life depended on it. The Jane Austen Society is a novel combining facts with fiction based on half-real characters. I learnt a lot about the village and the house Austen lived in and wrote, and also how her relics and ornaments change hands at auctions, which is kind of sad. However the society consisted of Austenesque literature fans cherish her memory and bring together the bits and pieces that they acquire.
This heartwarming story has lovable characters however it was a little overwhelming for me as every single page is about Austen, every character has a favorite book and quote and they are not shy to share them at every whim, they speak Austenesque language, and it is literally all they talk about. That was too much.
Overall a must-read for Austen lovers on a rainy day but it might disappoint if you have high expectations.

During the 1940’s this group of fictional characters was brought together by their love of Jane Austen.

The characters couldn’t be much more different, though most of them are from the same small town of Chawton. There’s a bit of magic in this particular small town because it’s where Jane Austen wrote a number of her books.

The story starts when Mary Anne aka Mimi visits Chawton. She is a huge Austen fan. She meets Adam, who is a farmer. She encourages him to read Austen, which he immediately starts doing.

The town doctor, Doctor Gray, is a widow still mourning his wife.
Adeline starts the story as a very feisty teacher trying to get her students to love Austen too.

Frances is the last in the Austen/Knight family line. She never had children and her father seems inclined to punish her for this. He is on his deathbed and Frances might lose the family home.

Evie was a gifted young student who was made to leave school to help bring in more income for her family. She starts working for Frances and enjoys going through the Austen family home library.
She is bound and determined to make the best of her life regardless of her situation.

This story definitely takes inspiration from Austen when devising its love stories. It’s not obvious at the beginning of the story who will wind up together.

I liked the characters but the story felt slow paced at times. Towards the end there was an interesting, rather unexpected twist that I enjoyed.

I got to read an early ebook edition from NetGalley. Thanks!

The Jane Austen Society

This delightful name-dropping book was made doubly so by the many Austen characters referred to, mentioned, and even comparisons made with the fictional characters of this tale. It was enough to make a reader thrill with inner yelps of “Oooo! Oooo! I know this! I know this!” Austen fans will approve heartily, I predict. The story unfolds in a very Austen fashion. . . so many reasons things are as they are and always will be and it is hopeless to think otherwise, and about there I wondered and sighed, thinking perhaps a dead end – all these pairings withered, or undone, or mismatched, or mournful. . .how could anything fix this?

My sighs stopped sighing tho, when Evie Stone steps in with her 16-year old relentlessness and will not suffer fools, doddering, lace-covered or official. She gets to the heart of the matter, which is saving everything Austen at all costs, and if love happens, then it is Austen love and worth the price. My head bent in earnest as I finished this lark of a book, and willingly acknowledged it was becoming more historical romance than historical fiction, and even that could not turn me away from the last word spent by the author on this subject, and oh, dear reader, it ends well!!

5 stars, tea-soaked, peony strewn.

A sincere thanks to Natalie Jenner, St. Martin’s Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

So much more than a "Jane Austen is my fav fan club", The Jane Austen Society is an exploration in overcoming grief and finding your tribe. The post-World War II setting transports to a world in flux, where the old estates of the privileged class are sold to the highest bidder. When things are changing, how do you preserve the past but navigate the waters of the future?

While I have enjoyed this book, and can understand and respect the homage paid to Austen, this truly is a book for fans of Austen. If you have not read (multiple times) the entire collection, you will be lost in the references and subtleties of character development and motivation. Having only read selected works once, much of this nuanced story was lost on me.
That is not to say I didn't enjoy it, rather it is a lovely historical fiction that explores life after the war. Delving into human emotions and motivations, love, friendship, compassion, and litterateur are all thematically woven together in a delightful story.

Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite books of all time. I knew I had to read this one. There are so many character and plot references to all of Jane Austen's novels in this book. I would suggest being familiar with her work, but the story is easy to follow along without needing to know major plot lines in Jane's work. I don't tend to read historical fiction, but this was written so well that I was drawn in to the story. My only trouble was keeping up with the different characters at the beginning! Several had a name that started with A!

This is a must read for anyone that loves the works of Jane Austen.

If you are a fan of Jane Austen then this is definitely a book for you. I loved the character and story. It was all charming and beautifully written. I would highly recommend this book for a book club read. There are so many aspects of this book than anyone can take away and love it. It quickly put a smile on my face and I enjoyed it from beginning to end.

For any Jane Austen lover, this book is a must - Pride and Prejudice was one of my favorite books to read growing up and this book does not disappoint.

Jenner paints the story of a group of villagers in Austen's final home of Chawton 150 years after her death. As with Austen's book, Jenner made it easy to connect with so many of her characters since they have such diverse backgrounds. I loved all the different narratives and the way characters were introduced, specifically Mimi and Adeline. Jenner also expertly weaves in analysis and opinions on Austen's works like Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Mansfield Park.

This book has inspired me to put Emma on my Want to Read list and see if I agree more with Adeline or Dr. Gray.

Thanks Net Galley for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have just finished reading The Jane Austen Society, by author Natalie Jenner

I am giving this book 2.5 stars

The story takes place in a small village in England – Chawton, just after the war.

The author creates a feeling much like the writing style of Jane Austen, and the storyline surrounds a group of Jane Austen fans, who want to preserve the home of the famous author

The book makes me want to read more beautiful Jane Austen books, but I found the storyline a bit simple and lacking of lustre

However a rather lovely book

Thanks to St. Martin's Press, NetGalley, and the Author for an early release in exchange for my honest opinions and review

#TheJaneAustenSociety #NetGalley

This is lovely novel, especially for those of us who love Jane Austen. It is the story of a group of people who come together in the town of Chawton and pay homage to their Jane.

The author does a good job of bringing life to the characters.

Thank you Netgalley for this book which will be widely appreciated.

This book was received as an ARC from St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I could not help but to have my heart warmed with a big smile on my face throughout reading this entire book. An unlikely bunch of people are sharing the same cause and the same love for Jane Austen. With the legacy of Jane Austen at stake at her last home that is now owned by another family, her estate is crumbling right before their eyes threatened to be condemned. A movie star, a laborer, a young widow, and the local doctor among others ban together to try to save the estate before it perishes for good. I am a huge fan of Jane and her work and the impact her novels had on all of us. I know this book will bring a lot of inspiration to our community.

We will consider adding this title to our Historical Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

I adored this book. I happen to be a Janeite so I know the real story about the founding of the Jane Austen Society, so I was a little taken aback at first that the author made all this up for the sake of a novel. But once I got over that aspect and accepted it as a fantasy "what if" version, I really enjoyed it. The characters are great, the descriptions of the places in Chawton, Hampshire are spot-on, and the story is truly captivating. I can't wait to see what Natalie Jenner writes next!

Just after World War II in Chawton, England, a farmhand comes up with the idea to start a Jane Austen Society. Several other townspeople and one Hollywood actress step up to join. I cheered them on as they worked to preserve the home still lived in by Austen descendants. And the magnificent family library containing thousands of books! What a treasure.

These townspeople all have their own appealing stories as well. Frances, the lonely Austen relative. Adam, the farmhand who loves Jane Austen. Dr. Gray, the sad widower. How will their lives change with this new association? Anyone who cares about Jane Austen will probably hope they all finish the story happier than when it started.

I enjoyed this book from start to finish and recommend it wholeheartedly.

I didn't finish this book. It was too wordy -- which may have been the author trying to write like Jane Austen -- but it didn't work for me. I think part of it was the jumps in time.

As a lifelong Austen fan, I was really excited and also really nervous to read this book in fear that it might not live up to expectations. I’m so glad to say that my fear was for nothing: this is one of my favorite books I’ve read in a long time. I really appreciated how Jenner weaves in interpretations of and allusions to Austen’s work, but it’s simply masterful that she does so in such a way that does not resist readers who are unfamiliar with Austen’s work. At the heart of this novel is trauma and characters who work through it by reading the stories they love and establishing a tribe of like-minded individuals. This novel brims with quiet, poetic beauty and hope; I can’t recommend it enough.

Set in the years leading up to and during World War II, this charming story is built on an intriguing premise. The residents of Chawton, Hampshire, do not appreciate all that their Jane Austen connection can do for their peaceful village until a visit by an American fan of the early nineteenth-century novelist converts one man of the village from H. Rider Haggard’s adventure fiction to Austen’s domestic fiction. Eventually a couple of independent-minded women, along with influential men who support them, develop a scheme to save Austen’s legacy and improve the village’s economy.

Jenner’s novel relies on characters that could have sprung from Austen’s imagination: an intelligent girl from a large family who has to make her own way in the world, a bold teacher who prescribes a “steady diet of lady authors” for the boys in her school, a mature widower who falls in love with a vivacious young woman, a rich but insensitive husband, a self-educated farmer, an heiress who gave up her chance at love at her father’s insistence. Jenner does not rely only on a reader’s familiarity with the most famous of Austen’s stories, "Pride and Prejudice," but also draws heavily from "Emma" and "Persuasion," while updating the world her characters live in.

Thus, the relatively new medium of talkies plays a major part in Jenner’s novel, from the celebrity of actresses and movie producers to the social activity of going to the movie theatre. Yet for the more intelligent of Jenner’s characters, collecting books, reading them, and discussing them are far more admirable pursuits than the more mundane movie night. While some residents of Chawton complain about gawking tourists, others profit from the growing interest in the life of Jane Austen, not merely her books.

Jenner has written a lively story about a group of people who love and admire Austen. For a diehard Austen fan, the allusions to her books and characters should add some spice to what otherwise might be predictable outcomes. For others, the Austen-style plot twists and just desserts may seem fresh.

Above all, the women in this World War II era are financially and emotionally independent in a way that Austen’s female characters could have only dreamed of, and the men largely want the same thing as their women do, making this an unusually female-centric story. In this way, Jenner has created a place for women to shine.