Jenner’s tribute to Jane Austen in her debut novel is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, or audiobook formats as well as at your local library through the Libby App. The audiobook is brilliantly narrated by Richard Armitage, who creates individual voices for each character, flawlessly bringing them to life and showcasing their emotions, or lack thereof, to the listeners. The audiobook is highly recommended.

Jenner’s book is set in the mid-1940s in the rural English village of Chawton, the final home of one of England’s finest novelists, Jane Austen. The setting is ideal for her storyline, as one of the main characters is a descendant of the great authoress and the last heir to the diminishing estate. A patchwork band of villagers and outsiders comes together to form the Jane Austen Society to preserve Austen’s home and legacy. These like minded people from all walks of life: widower Dr. Benjamin Gray, war widow Adeline Lewis Grover, farmer and laborer Adam Berwick, Andrew Forrester solicitor, house girl Evie Stone, Miss Frances Knight last heir of the Austen estate, Hollywood actress Marie Anne “Mimie” Harrison and Yardley Sinclair assistant director of estate at Sotheby’s, all find solace in reading Jane Austen be it Emma, Pride and Prejudice or Mansfield Park Austen words bring them comfort and helps them through their suffering and bitter disappointments.

The pacing of the book is drearily slow; nothing happens, except for the characters sharing their love for Austen’s books and discussing their favorite passages or quotes. Nothing of import or interest occurs. The Society doesn’t form until about forty percent of the book, Miss Frances, the direct heir to Austen joins the Society and then a Hollywood movie star joins the group as does an assitant director of estate from a London auction house and still the story mainly revolves around the daily lives of the characters, their plights and losses after the Great War and World WarII.

What will strike readers and listeners as odd and create a sense of disbelief will be the Society itself. For an organization to preserve Austen’s home and legacy, having no fight in them will be like a gut punch. When Miss Frances’ father passes away and the reading of the will reveals new stipulations in the passing down of the estate to any male heir in the family on the British continent instead of his daughter, everyone is stunned. What’s more, when it’s revealed that Adam is the male heir and could fight the other claim put against the estate, they vote against it, to avoid the villagers gossiping. Jenner went against the sole purpose of having created the Society in the first place. Why? Doing this only widens the gap between her audience and the characters; the entirety of the exchange and decision-making process felt inauthentic.

At this point, prolonging the storyline in the same monotonous tone wasn’t in Jenner’s best interest because readers and listeners had lost some respect for the Society’s fighting to preserve Austen’s legacy without fighting, which didn’t feel genuine anymore. In the end, Jenner wrapped things up nicely; the unrequited lovers found each other, the Society bought back a part of the estate, and somehow, Adam is playing house with a man, and no one in the village is gossiping! Imagine that. Leaving readers and listeners wondering why all the worries Jenner alluded to about announcing his birthright would have caused such a commotion in the village.

For the lack of pacing, a story that went nowhere in particular this book would be dull to be sure, but for lovers of books who found each other in hard times and found strength in the works of Jane Austen without shame of admitting how they could see themselves in this character or that one and quote Austen beautifully is what makes this a 3 star read or listen.