Bloomsbury Girls

Bloomsbury Girls is the story about the lives and careers of three women - Vivien, Evie, and Grace, who work in Bloomsbury Bookshop in post-WWII London. The bookshop setting is the perfect location for any book lover and through the POVs of these three women, readers get a sense of what life was like for women at the time - the limitations and expectations. 

Readers will remember Evie as one of the characters from Jenner's previous book The Jane Austen Society. Initially, I only vaguely remembered her backstory, but it soon came flooding back and I enjoyed that the two books are connected. (Note: this book can easily be read as a standalone if you haven't yet read the previous book) Evie is in good company with a large cast of characters and thankfully Jenner provides a detailed character reference at the beginning of the book which I found quite useful.

I'm a big reader and stay up to date with current entertainment's 'who's who', but I'm not a big classics reader or old soul, so to speak. So, while I appreciated the inclusion of many references to pop culture, classic books, celebrities and authors of the 1950's - including Daphne du Maurier, Ellen Doubleday and Peggy Guggenheim -- many of these references were lost on me (until I dug a bit deeper - thanks Google!). They added much to the feel of the book, and I am certain readers who are more knowledgeable about that era will be thrilled with their inclusion.

This is a slower paced Historical Fiction read that is set within a London bookshop that meanders between a few POVs. A bit predictable but still enjoyable, this is a story about friendship that includes several real celebrities of the era who are woven into a story that reveals the complexity of relationships and the blatant discrimination in a few forms, with particular attention to the limitations put upon women in the 1950's.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to St Martin's Press for my complimentary digital copy of this title, provided in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Author: Natalie Jenner

Genre: Historical Fiction, Canadian

Type and Source: eBook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: St Martin's Press

First Published: May 17, 2022

Book Description from GoodReads: 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.