The Saturday Evening Girls Club by Jane Healey | Rating: ★★★☆☆

A copy of this novel was provided through NetGalley by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not effect my opinions in any way.

I wasn't sure what to expect from The Saturday Evening Girls Club even at the start. But as someone who loves period pieces and constantly longs for more novels that are based around the friendships between women, with other things sprinkled in for good measure, Jane Healey intrigued me from the moment I read the novels premise. The novel itself wasn't quite what I was expecting in a lot of ways but it was still a read that kept me focused well enough. 

Where the connections--the families, the friendships and all the in betweens--soared and made the novel an engaging story; the dialogue, at times, felt stiff and a mixture of the past and the present.  A lot of it felt like a mismatched series of events and conversations. Which isn't that big of a deal but it did bring down my reading experience by at least a star. Something about it, despite this, remained appealing and in terms of a lot of women's fiction, The Saturday Evening Girls Club sets an example of how human connections should be explored in any timeline. 


Each of the characters we meet is striking because they are vastly different but still tied into each other. I liked seeing how they explore life and seeing the contrast between each of their home-life, especially through the eyes of Caprice. Caprice, Maria, Ada and Thea are all on different ends of archetypes commonly used. This, tied into their cultures, makes them standout characters.

I think that a lot of the times could have been developed better and the dialogue needed some work but there was a genuine warmth to both the prose and the plot-lines that made reading it fun and very quick. While I am not sure I would pick it up again it was a great "in between" novel that explored life as it is and was. If you're looking for a quick read this summer, The Saturday Evening Girls Club is definitely worth looking into.