Inspiration from her mother's revelation
Bostwick explains that the novel was sparked when her mother revealed that reading Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" in the 1960s had completely changed her life.
Reviewed
Updated
Read Time
6 min read
Our age bandAdult
Reader rating
4.4 · 34,421 Amazon ratings
reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks scoreShare This Review
Our review
The Book Club for Troublesome Women
The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick Review: What Critics Say
Marie Bostwick's The Book Club for Troublesome Women follows four 1963 Virginia housewives who form a book club around Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. Reviewers split on its sunny tone and ending: Kirkus calls it sugarcoated, while Sonderbooks gives it a starred review.
Tap to enlargeLuvemBooks Verdict
Worth it if
Worth reading if you want a generous, cheer-for-the-characters story that still lays out the era's everyday constraints on women.
Skip if
Skip it if you want a wider cast than four upper-middle-class white women.
Where reviewers agree and split
Readers rate it 4.4 on Amazon. The reviews we read that discuss it in depth split on some points:
- Mixed
Kirkus Reviews · Press review: hampered by rosy optimism, though readers cheer the characters
- Positive
Southern Review of Books · Magazine: feel-good beach read with substance, inspiring revolutionary impetus
- Positive · B-
Dear Author · Book blog: very good book with realistic issues and satisfying character growth
- Positive
Lesa's Book Critiques · Book blog: very good book that sparks justified anger about historical inequities
- Positive
Post and Courier · Book blog: hopeful vision of revolution, powerful reminder of reading communities (from its headline)
- Mixed
Cannonball Read · Book blog: great book marred by ending that stuffed too much into it
- Positive
Sonderbooks · Book blog: loved it, wonderful format for exploring changing attitudes toward women
What readers & critics say
Kirkus Reviews calls it lively and unabashedly sentimental, with an eye-opening picture of the era's aggressions against women, but also a sugarcoated take on midcentury suburbia hampered by rosy optimism. Lesa's Book Critiques, a book blog, found it a very good book that made her angry at the conditions women faced in 1963, while Dear Author's blogger found the conflicts real.
“As historical fiction, the novel is hampered by its rosy optimism, but its take on the many micro- and macroaggressions experienced by women of the era is sound and eye-opening.”
— Kirkus Reviews4.4from 34,421 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
Preview the book
+3
Ask LuvemBooks
Was this helpful?
The Book Club for Troublesome Women follows four Northern Virginia housewives in 1963 who find purpose through reading Betty Friedan. It suits readers who want to cheer for its characters; the main caveat is that reviewers split on whether its optimism costs it credibility.
- Is it worth reading?
- For readers who like generous, feel-good ensemble fiction, reviewers say yes. Sonderbooks gave it a starred review, and Lesa's Book Critiques called it "a very good book" that responded to unfair conditions for women in 1963. The caveats are real: Kirkus found the optimism hampers it, and Dear Author's B-minus came with complaints. Our sources don't settle how rigorous the research is.
- Similar books
- Readers who want more women-centered novels might try Bonnie Garmus's Lessons in Chemistry, set in the early 1960s, or Kristin Hannah's The Women. Kate Quinn's The Briar Club is another close fit for a story about a circle of women, though we don't carry it yet. Lesa's Book Critiques also points to Lorna Landvik's Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons as a similar but lighter book about a women's book club.
- Who should read this?
- It suits readers who want to root for a group of friends. It is a poorer fit for anyone wanting a wider cast, since Kirkus describes the main characters as four upper-middle-class white women.
- About Marie Bostwick
- Marie Bostwick is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty works of uplifting contemporary and historical fiction, including the Cobbled Court Quilt and Too Much, Texas series. Her debut novel, Fields of Gold (Kensington Books, 2005), was a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award.
- How historically accurate is it?
- Reviewers disagree. Southern Review of Books points to concrete grounding such as a married woman needing consent for birth control. Kirkus, by contrast, says its research is hampered. Our sources don't say how rigorous the research is beyond these examples.
- What are the main themes?
- The central themes are expectations for women and the pull between domestic life and personal ambition. Sonderbooks sees it as going beyond a standard story of friends bonding in a club. Friendship and the pull between domestic life and personal ambition run through all four women's arcs.
Summarize this book
Is it worth reading?
Who should read this?
About Marie Bostwick
How historically accurate is it?
What are the main themes?
Summarize this book
In March 1963, Margaret Ryan invites neighbors in the Northern Virginia suburb of Concordia to form a book club, and Charlotte Gustafson steers the group toward The Feminine Mystique. Margaret, Charlotte, Viv and Bitsy call themselves the Bettys.
Follow up
Does it use real 1963 events?
Is the start slow?
Synthesized from verified book data & published reviews · How we review
Ask LuvemBooks
What would you like to know about The Book Club for Troublesome Women?
Answers come from our editorial notes on this book. If we haven't covered something, we'll say so.
Readers often ask
Our Review
We review the evidence: published critics, reader verdicts and BookTube reviews, gathered and weighed with AI assistance and edited by LuvemBooks, rather than one reader's first-hand take.
The Book Club for Troublesome Women is a warm, openly sentimental ensemble novel about four 1963 Virginia housewives and Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, and the reviewers we hold agree on its generosity while splitting on its realism.
Book Club for Troublesome Women plot summary
In March 1963, Margaret Ryan, a transplanted Ohioan with a husband, three children and a station wagon in the Northern Virginia suburb of Concordia, invites a few neighbors to form a book club. Her real motive, per the publisher's synopsis, is to get closer to Charlotte Gustafson, the intriguing newcomer she noticed at the drugstore.
Back cover displaying title, synopsis text, publisher logos, and barcode on olive-green background.
Charlotte suggests the newly published The Feminine Mystique rather than A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Margaret is joined by Viv, a former Army nurse with a large family, and Bitsy, whose veterinary ambitions were cut short.
They nickname themselves the Bettys, after Friedan.
Over the year that follows, per Kirkus Reviews, the story follows the four women through problems at home and the changes the club brings to their lives. The story also takes in real-life figures like the Washington Post's Katharine Graham and touches on events of 1963.
Front cover featuring two women in vintage clothing on a green background with the title and author name.
What critics praise about Troublesome Women
Kirkus Reviews called the book "lively and unabashedly sentimental" and found its picture of the era's micro- and macroaggressions against women "sound and eye-opening." It also said readers "will cheer" for Bostwick's characters.
Sonderbooks, the blog of a professional librarian, gave it a starred review and loved it, saying it goes beyond a standard story of friends bonding in a club. In that reviewer's reading, it is about a woman's role and society's expectations.
Front cover featuring title text, author name, and a warm-toned floral pattern design.
Lesa's Book Critiques wrote: "It was a very good book." It was also the first Bostwick novel that made her angry, over "so many unfair conditions for women that were in place in 1963."
Is the Troublesome Women ending too tidy?
Kirkus is the most reserved of the independent voices. It called the book "a sugarcoated take on midcentury suburbia."
Chapter opening page titled "Help Wanted—Female" showing beginning of narrative text on cream-colored paper.
Jayne at Dear Author, a book blog, gave it a B-minus. Her written review says the conflicts felt real.
A reviewer found the first stretch a little slow, then read straight through once the club began discussing Friedan.
Back cover displaying title, synopsis text, publisher logos, and barcode on olive-green background.
How historically accurate is Troublesome Women?
Southern Review of Books, itself a book blog, points to concrete historical grounding behind the plot: a wife needing her husband's signature for a bank account, and a married woman needing consent for birth control. It also notes that the book touches on how second-wave feminism's gains were pressed primarily for white women, with Viv's ignorance of the barriers Black women faced in the war as one example.
That last point has a counterweight. Kirkus describes the cast as four upper-middle-class white women, and the book's own focus is on that class.
Chapter opening page titled "Help Wanted—Female" showing beginning of narrative text on cream-colored paper.
The sources we hold do not say how rigorous the research is beyond these examples.
Who should read Troublesome Women?
The book is shelved as women's and historical fiction. A Library Journal Starred Review (surfaced via booksbywomen.org) calls it "ideal for fans of historical fiction" and compares it to Bonnie Garmus's Lessons in Chemistry, Kristin Hannah's The Women, and Kate Quinn's The Briar Club.
Per harpercollinsfocus.com, it earned designations as a USA Today bestseller, a Southern Indie Bestseller, a Brenda Novak Book Group Pick, a Gloss Book Club Pick, and a Girlfriend Book Club Pick, and the publisher describes the novel as "bold and plucky."
Interior pages from Marie Bostwick's The Book Club for Troublesome Women: A Novel: open book on wooden surface showing two pages with chapter heading and body text in serif font
The other concrete read-alike in the reviews comes from Lesa's Book Critiques, which recommends Lorna Landvik's 2004 novel Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons as a similar but lighter book about a women's book club. Those who want the research held to a harder standard should weigh Kirkus's caveats first.
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- Cited in this review
- 1
- 2
- Further reading
- 3
kirkusreviews.com
- 4
mariebostwick.com
- 5
- 6
harpercollinsfocus.com
- 7
lesasbookcritiques.com
- 8
postandcourier.com
- 9
- 10
- 11
southernreviewofbooks.com
Age & Reading Level
Our age band
Adult
Our age band groups books for browsing; it isn't an age a review gave.
2 content notes · who it suits
Content to know about
period sexism and condescension toward women
difficult, controlling husbands
Skip if you want historical fiction with hard edges, a wider cast, or an unresolved ending rather than tidy resolutions.
Marie Bostwick on The Book Club for Troublesome Women
Author Marie Bostwick joins Access Carolina to talk about the inspiration and themes behind her novel 'The Book Club for Troublesome Women'.
Uploaded by FOX Carolina News, 2025 · Watch on YouTube ·
Suburban housewives finding freedom through reading
Bostwick describes how the story centers on four unhappy northern Virginia housewives whose friendships through their book club carry them through a transformative period.
Countless right ways to be a woman
Bostwick highlights a core message from her protagonist, Margaret, warning against letting others define how to live or trying to fit into an impossible mold.
From our readers
Reader reviews
Be one of the first readers to answer.
Read it? Was it right for you?
Books like The Book Club for Troublesome Women
Curated picks for readers who enjoyed The Book Club for Troublesome Women, with our reasoning for each match.
If you liked The Book Club for Troublesome Women
Discussion