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Average rating4
"Delightful." --People, Pick of the Week *Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Katie Couric Media, the CBC, the Globe and Mail, BookBub, POPSUGAR, SheReads, Women.com and more!* Natalie Jenner, 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 in Bloomsbury Girls. 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.
Series
2 primary booksJane Austen Society is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2020 with contributions by Natalie Jenner.
Reviews with the most likes.
This is what 84 Charing Cross Road should have been. It was wonderful to see the characters from The Jane Austen Society again - and I hope this is not the last time! Jenner's books are so relaxing and transport you to post-war England. Loved it!
It's 1950 and the war has been over for five years in London, but the people working in this London bookstore are still struggling. Vivian still misses her fiance, killed in the war. Grace's husband suffered a breakdown and Grace is trying to support the family and care for her children. Evie was one of the first women to be admitted to Cambridge, but the job she'd hoped for was given to a man instead. All three women face the discrimination against women that was endemic during this time.
I enjoyed this story of strong women working in a London bookstore, with all the bookish celebrities of the day popping into the narrative.
I would note (because I didn't realize this) that this book is a sequel to The Jane Austen Society.