Item: Every Time We Say Goodbye (Jane Austen Society, #3)
Rating: 3
Author: Catherine

Every Time We Say Goodbye (Jane Austen Society, #3) by Natalie Jenner
Published by St. Martin's
Publication date: May 14, 2024
Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Historical, Vacation Reading

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I loved both of the novels in the Jane Austen series by Natalie Jenner so was delighted to learn it’s a trilogy with the third book newly released. Every Time We Say Goodbye follows the indomitable Vivien, the writer and intimidating brunette who was introduced in The Bloomsbury Girls. World War II has finally ended and she’s one of the many to have lost a loved one as her fiancé was killed in. When her latest play flops she’s left adrift, feeling as if England offers her only sadness. A fortuitous offer as a script writer for a movie being filmed in Rome feels like the perfect opportunity for a fresh start.

The novel is set in the bifurcated environment of the burgeoning world of 1950s Italian cinema with its exploration of changing social mores by new young directors like Federico Fellini against the all-powerful Roman Catholic Church. Vivian finds herself pitted against a vigilant bishop determined that no film be allowed which is any way challenges the Church’s teachings at the time.

Jenner explores unexpected territory in Every Time. Namely, that of the frosty relations between the Italians and the British. After fighting on opposite sides of the war, despite the Allies saving Italy from a brutal fascist regime, there’s plenty of covert and overt resentment from the people Vivian meets. The stories of the political maneuverings of the Church, the creative vitality of the film industry at the time, and Vivian’s personal demons are more than enough to power this novel through to a finish. Instead, Jenner layers on additional plot points that lend the novel more melodrama than needed and diminished my enjoyment. Every Time We Say Goodbye was good vacation reading, but without the nuance of the previous two novels.

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