For my money, this is the best book of 2024, and boy, what a film this would make! Set in the 1950’s, the era of McCarthyism, Briarwood house is an all female boarding house in Washington DC.
Written during the COVID Pandemic, you can feel the desperate need for company and gossip, the loneliness of enforced isolation and the yearning for normality, which is skilfully portrayed in this novel. Each chapter relates to a different woman. We learn of her life story, her secrets, her unfulfilled dreams and desires. As each woman becomes familiar, we start to care about them, the way they come together for their Thursday Night supper party, and each woman gives us a favourite recipe, but I haven’t tried any of them yet!
The narrator is uniquely placed to observe the comings and goings of these women, Briarwood house doesn’t miss a trick, and whereas before, the house felt cold and neglected, it also begins to relax with the company of these women and grows more warmer and protective of their well being.
When two dead bodies are found within Briarwood House, the house is fascinated, it’s the most excitement it has experienced since being built, and it wonders how the guilty party is going to get out of that scrape!
The crime was full of red herrings and many surprises. Set in a political era, but it wasn’t too heavy on the political details as such, but showed more social details, the misogyny towards females, the lack of rights in matters of employment, money and a voice in family matters.
I was pleased to read about the work regarding the contraceptive pill, and the freedom that brought to being able to space out children and to be able to enjoy sex!
I found this to be a very lively and engaging story. It was heart warming, full of loyalty to friend and it also showed a willingness to break the rules to protect those who we are close to.
My thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK, the publishers for my advanced copy, freely given in return for my honest review. A five star read, I just wish I was allowed to give more!
I will leave a review to Goodreads and Amazon UK upon publication.

A fabulously enjoyable tale!

Briarwood House is an all-female boarding house in the heart of Washington D.C., run by a deserted wife as a means of keeping her family together. The residents keep themselves to themselves until, that is, Grace March moves into the attic room and takes an interest in everyone living there. Before long, her weekly supper clubs have brought them all together and they become almost a family. As everyone else's secrets come out into the open, Grace affects them all with a sort of healing balm; but what about her secrets? Who can soothe Grace?

Set during the McCarthy era, this is a wonderfully told story about women from every walk of life living together, each with very different kinds of life. It's fair to say I was completely enthralled throughout, enjoying a peek into the lives of so many in a time before I was born. A thrilling and very, very enjoyable read and one I most definitely recommend. 4.5*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

This book brings 1950s USA to life during the Red Scare and McCarthyism. It follows women living in Mrs Nilson’s guest house and opens with a dead body and a murder.

The book is character driven, a change I feel from previous Kate Quinn books and each long chapter focuses on the lives and backstory of each of the women. They are all brought together every week through a supper club - The Briar Club and here we see the women forming friendships and caring for Mrs Nilsons two children.
As we learn the backstories of these women you get a strong feeling of these characters motivations and decisions. Sprinkled through the book are recipes which add an extra something.
This is a book about women, friendships and secrets set in a time when America found itself fearful of Communism and I enjoyed this slow character driven story.

A new book from Kate Quinn is always something to look forward to and this one didn’t disappoint. Full of interesting characters with believable stories it was a real treat of a book. More soon please.

What an interesting story! Kate Quinn always writes clever and compelling books and “The Briar Club” is no exception.
It tells the stories of a number of women living in a boarding house in 1950s Washington DC at the time of McCarthy and depicts the nation’s fear of finding “reds under the bed”
Each woman has a fabulous back story which is gradually revealed during the course of the novel. Although seemingly ordinary these woman have a lot to hide and a lot to be proud of! Grace March moves in to the building and she manages to bring the women together by instigating a Thursday evening supper club where each person brings a recipe and cooks.
This starts out as a plan to help Pete and Lina, the landlady’s children who have a terrible life, nagged and neglected by their awful mother, but progresses to turn the disparate women into a family of sorts.
There is also a double murder which is revealed early on and the majority of the book is a flashback explaining how it came to happen, with an amazing twist before the end. I certainly didn’t see it coming!
This is a brilliant read, a book full of some really strong female characters. It examines life in 1950s America, the fear of the Cold War, the gangster families present in Washington at the time, the discrimination against immigrants and black people- Fliss an English boarder has not seen such strong and extremely prejudiced feelings in the UK as she sees in DC. Reka, the artist who escaped from Germany and lost her possessions to an unscrupulous sponsor was also an interesting character and served to show how awful some people could be despite purporting to be helpful to refugees.
The author even looks at the Korean War, a forgotten conflict which affected many, particularly doctors and their families. Medics were drafted to run the MASH units and barely saw their families who were left to bring up children alone. This was touched upon in the TV series and film MASH which I loved as a teenager growing up in the UK.
This book gave me so much to think about and I loved all the characters, particularly Grace who pulled them together and cared so much.
I even liked the hapless FBI agent, Harland, who was pining after Bea the injured baseball player. I just knew he would turn out ok in the end despite his tendencies to the contrary!
Even the house itself plays a major role in the plot, watching and assessing the tenants.
This was an enjoyable and entertaining read that also contained a few surprises and many serious themes that left me thinking long after I’d finished.
I definitely recommend The Briar Club as a five star read and would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for my advance copy.

Wow, this is not what I expected, this book exceeded my expectations by a mile!
A boarding house in the fifties has eyes and ears and is witnessing how random women (initially strangers to each other) live their lives and then form a relationship that transforms into friendship. These women initially seem to be just ordinary ladies, but none of them are ordinary. Every single one has a vivid, vibrant personality that won't leave readers indifferent. Their life experiences are interesting, engaging, and relatable.
This story is simply beautiful, it touches you and forces you to stop for a moment and ponder. Just make sure you have plenty of time to read in a quiet place, so you can immerse yourself in this great story.

This is the first book by Kate that I have read and it most certainly will not be my last. I loved reading about this period of history and the way that the ladies were subjected to living together in a ladies only rooming establishment. The book is full of romance , the bad side of life during the early 1950s, recipes, women caring for each other in different ways all tied up with pre historical data and the current life and how it affected the ladies.
The characters were so diverse and well described and it was easy to relate to them all. The historical information was so well slotted in to the story and the recipes for each of the ladies were so fitting with the period.
Having read the book I would tell anyone that you have to read the authors notes after the book has finished as it brings all the facts that were introduced throughout the story into perspective, describing where Kate found the information and the characters from to put into this story. And in fascinating readable way.

I have read and enjoyed other novels by Kate Quinn and was delighted to receive an arc of the Briar Club. Set in a Washington DC boarding house at a time when the Cold War was at its height and fear of communism prevalent. A wonderful cast of characters and several elements woven seamlessly into the story. The research of the period is impeccable and I love reading and learning about a historical period from a woman's persepective. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

I have read every single one of Kate Quinn’s books and she has been very consistent, & the same goes for Briar Club. The story hooked me and kept me reading from start to finish, Quinn is a master at penning characters that we become attached to and grow to love, & this was exactly what happened with Briar Club. I kept reading for the characters and the relationships.

One thing I will say tho, and this is what kept it from being a 5 star book for me, was that the storyline felt a bit convoluted with all the various timelines & storylines intersecting. I sometimes lost track of what was going on where & how the stories connected at what point in time. I recommend reading this rather than listening to it for that reason. There were also some characters whose stories i preferred following than others, but that’s often how it goes with multi-POV stories.

All in all, Kate Quinn consistently delivers a solid, perfectly paced plot with layered, endearing characters & she remains one of my favorite authors that’s writing today.

The Briar girls of Briarwood House unite against a stroppy landlady. Grace joins a household of women living in a dingy tenement in a 1950s New York suburb. She never talks about her past but loves the weekly dinners the friends share, taking it in turns to cook. The recipes appear after each chapter, each of which is narrated by a different character. Love that the old house itself has a voice. We hear its thoughts and fears for the future as it witnesses everything from romance to murder. There's a climatic Thanksgiving ending, where Grace's secret is finally revealed. Another great read by Kate Quinn.

I’ve read and enjoyed a few books by Kate Quinn. The Briar Club is a bit of a departure from her other spy fiction, but I found it absolutely engrossing. It’s not really action packed, but it’s a clever and careful character study of a handful of individuals during a strange time in American history. McCarthyism was rife and even small things could lead to suspicion of communist sympathies. This tale starts with a murder mystery which turns out to be secondary; it’s the lives of each of the ladies resident in the boarding house that drives the narrative. The real heart of the story is an exploration of deep cover activity; a long standing Soviet espionage programme where Russians were trained to infiltrate American society and pass information back to their handler. Not all Soviet moles stayed true to their mission; some found the American way of life far more appealing and during the early years of the Cold War, disappeared in America.

Deftly woven into this narrative are other compelling themes; gay persecution, racism, war games, the Korean War annd even a few recipes. It’s an eclectic mix and I was hooked right from the start. Thoughtful, entertaining and an interesting glimpse into very recent history, all from a very female dominated perspective which makes a welcome change. I found the author’s notes giving the characters and times specific context really helpful and added to the story. This is a real winner.

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn is set in a boarding house in 1950's Washington D.C. and follows the stories of the varied women who live there, In an unusual move the house itself is a character in the story, acting almost like a narrator at times. The book gets off to a dramatic beginning with the revelation that there has been a murder at the house but the identities of both the victim and the perpetrator remain a mystery.
This is very much a character driven story , something I personally enjoy as a reader, I loved learning about the various characters and the parts of their lives that they kept hidden as well as seeing how their stories intersect and weave together.
The arrival of a new borader, Mrs Grace Marsh is the catalyst that drives the narrative forward as she gets to know the rest of the residents. who range from a young English mother lodging in the house while her husband serves as a doctor in Korea, to Nora who strikes up a romantic relationship with a gangster despite coming from a family full of cops, and Arlene, universally disliked by the rest of the residents despite or perhaps because of her attempts to fit in. The diversity of the characters was a real highlight, even if they were not all likeable, there was something compelling about most of their stories that kept me reading. The murder mystery was secondary to my enjoyment of the characters but I was definitely surprised by the revelations and the dramatic conclusion.
I really appreciated the author's notes at the end of the book which explained not just the historical context of the book but also in some cases the real life inspirations for some of the characters.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

The Briar Club tells the story of Grace March arriving at the Briarwood House and how the house and its occupants influence her life but of the others as well. We find out more details about each character from their own story/ chapter but also through the eyes of the other ones. I didn't know what to expect of the ending but I loved how the story was ended. It's a story about friendship, hardship and with lovable characters as well.

Thanks to NetGalley and Publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
In 1950, Washington D.C., Mrs. Grace March is the new addition boarding Briarwood house. She slowly starts traditions both good and bad, helps everyone in need one way or another and one by one everybody's story is brought to light. With war, mobsters, pop culture and whatnot, we see the hatred towards communists, Russians and queer people but also oppression of women. But that's not all the story is about. Now, in 1954, there has been a couple of murders at the Briarwood house that changes everybody's life for good.
This was an amazing historical fiction story with very relatable and unique characters written without shying away from the harsh realities of that time. The author takes us to that time seamlessly and keeps us entranced in their world till the end. Every character had depth and contributed so much to the story. One of my top reads of this year.

A great mystery to get your teeth into

I really enjoyed this a whodunit and who did they do mystery neither are revealed till they are boom boom but your left guessing for most of the time. And it's fun guessing in my world that is.

When Grace moved in to the lodgings the mood was somber I guess but she changed all that well all apart from the Landlady Mrs Grum not her real name. The story develops as we discover the story behind the various lodgers and their interesting stories all different and all challenging in one way or another, but exciting to read. Bit of a few mini series all wrapped up in one book. But all comes together in the fact they live in the same building (house) and their reactions are well as you'd understand/expect them to be, from their own experiences. That's after you've got to know them. Young Peter the only male living in the all female environment but he's the son of the Landlady Mrs Grum but he at a young age is the man of the house or rather given all the fixing chores as was the way in the 50's. He and Grace are my 2 stand out characters by they all add to a great storyline.

The back story of Washington looms large in the background as you'd expect in a historic setting the language and culture is as it was as much as I can imagine. For me this is a well written enjoyable read where i managed to lose myself in and escape the world around me for a while, so a great result all round . Thanks Kate I loved this and can highly recommend it to everyone reading my review..

WARNING: it's another unscheduled stop of the unpopular opinion train!!

I'm honestly still baffled this actually happened. I tend to adore Kate Quinn's writing and she is one of my favorite historical fiction authors. I knew that I wanted to read The Briar Club even before reading the blurb, and I was even more intrigued once I did. I fully expected to have another new favorite on my hands, so imagine my surprise when I had a completely opposite reaction instead... The Briar Club is NOTHING like her previous books, and sadly for me not in a good way. This was without doubt a dud for me!

Things started out well enough and I can't deny that I loved the prologue written from the POV of the house and the murder. What a way to start the story with a bang! It made me even more excited to continue reading, but sadly things fizzled out very soon after that. Why? The Briar Club isn't like your usual historical fiction stories, but instead reads more like a collection of character studies focusing on the people living in the Briar house. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not what I signed up for and sadly it wasn't able to keep my attention. Especially since the murder itself mostly seemed like an afterthought instead.

I think part of the reason I struggled so much had a lot to do with the fact that this story is 100% character driven. There isn't much of a plot to speak of, and instead the story mainly consists of the stories of the different people living in the boardinghouse. There are so many characters, and it is very hard to keep them apart as I found most of them rather dull. I think the story couldn't have picked a worse character than Pete to start the story with, as having to spend time inside is head was both tedious and extremely boring. Nora's POV was slightly better, but still not able to keep my attention completely... Especially since by then I was wondering what was really the point of this book and why there was hardly any mention of the murder at all. Like I said before, it seemed more like a collection of short stories rather than a properly cohesive plot.

I was also extremely surprised by just how much I struggled with both the writing style itself and the tone. I usually love Kate Quinn's writing, so it made it kind of hard believe The Briar Club was written by the same author... I know this is mainly a personal reaction though and the majority of the readers do seem to love this story so far. Still, somehow The Briar Club wasn't for me at all, and I confess that I started skimreading long before the halfway mark. If I'm honest, I probably should have simply DNFed it instead... A true shock considering I have given two of her previous books the full 5 stars in the past.

Another cracking read from Kate Quinn . The Briar club depicts the intertwined lives of a disparate group of women boarding in Briarwood House and the people they come into contact with whilst living in the McCarthy era . When the mysterious widowed Grace March moves into the attic room she brings the residents together and turns the dull house into a community despite the protests of the unlikeable landlady. Starting with a body and the police trying to unravel what has happened the characters stories are introduced one at a time until we finally learn the truth towards the end of the book . I was kept guessing until the end as to the identity of the dead.- brilliant .

I thoroughly enjoyed this story which like the vine painted in the house meandered and weaved through the lives of the female residents of Briarwood House. These women all had secrets to share and relationship issues to work out and interspersed with their recipes from the Thursday Supper club it made for an engaging read. This was a little different from the other Kate Quinn novels that I’ve read, but I enjoyed it just as much.

Washington, D.C., 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heel all-female boarding house in the heart of the nation's capital, where secrets hide behind the white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic, she draws her oddball collection of neighbours into unlikely friendships: poised English beauty Fliss, whose facade of perfect wife and mother cover gaping inner wounds; police officer's daughter Nora, who is entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball player Bea, whose career has ended along with the women's baseball league of WWII; and poisoning gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy's Red Scare. Grace's weekly attic-room dinner parties and window brewed sun tea becomes a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears apart the house, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: who is the true enemy in their midst?

Set in Washington, D.C., in 1950. The Briar Clun is a delightful read. The characters are a mixed bunch. An all-female boarding house is broken into. It's told with chapters telling us about one of the women staying at Briarwood House. This is a character driven story. The pace is on the slow side, and the chapters are quite long. The women meet once a week on a Thursday for their supper club. Each woman tells her own story. I liked the author's style of writing.

Published 17th July 2024

I would like to thank #NetGalley #HarperCollinsUK #HarperFiction and the author #KeteQuinn for my ARC of #TheBriarClub in exchange for an honest review.

Set in 1950s in America and it
follows the lives of the all-female residents of Briarwood House, it's full of great characters and is a great read.