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Are your January goals getting you down yet?  Me too.  I’ve already decided I have too many and need to do one at a time.  Yes friends, that’s how I’m tackling building some big habits, with baby steps.  Similarly, baby steps are how you’re going to read (or reread) a big book, such as House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1) by Sarah J. Maas.  Yes, we’re pushing you out of your comfort zone, and into a tome of 800 pages, but only because we think it’s worth it, and want you to sign up here to join us for a conversation about all that GoCleanCo and Bryce can teach us about vacuuming as a means of getting our homes in order.  

As is our habit in January, last week we shared our thoughts on Jane Austen’s Persuasion.  Starting this week, we’ll share three retellings of the classic, and our thoughts about them.  This week’s author, Sonali Dev, explains her feelings about Persuasion, which echo my feelings about Austen in general, in the acknowledgements (reminder: do not skip the acknowledgements or author’s notes, ever!):

Jane Austen’s Persuasion laid the foundation for how I felt about love and constancy in the face of society’s influence. 

While I didn’t read or experience Austen young enough for it to be the foundation, it’s definitely an early layer as Austen’s themes are often replicated in literature, film, and culture in general, to the point that knowing them now, I feel like they’ve mostly been there for me, even before I was really exposed to them in college.

Sonali Dev has been working her way through Austen’s novels writing amazing Indian American modern retellings since 2019.  She started with Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors, then moved to Recipe for Persuasion and I may or may not be considering asking Ashley if we can follow her on her journey through these beloved works.  (I have read, and happily recommend Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors as a fabulous retelling, in addition to those we reviewed in 2020.)  Those who don’t like retellings, or stories inspired by classics may want to skip this, but if you enjoy a good retelling or just a good story, please check out Dev’s The Rajes series, which starts with these two gems!  Incense and Sensibility is already out, and The Emma Project is anticipated this summer!  Dev also has several backlist titles (as she’s been mostly putting out one novel a year since 2014).

Darling readers, please note that Dev does not follow Austen’s Persuasion to the letter.  While Recipe for Persuasion is definitely a second chance romance with forced proximity, it is also a dual POV book (which I mentioned last week I adore), and we get some of the backstory about our heroine’s parents.  I do feel there is a need for a bit of a trigger warning here, which my reading buddy oh so wonderfully provided to me – this backstory is tragic, and there are reminisces of suicide resulting from alcoholism (among other things) on the page.  As some of the backstory takes place 30 years ago, in India, and as someone who did a bit of research via interviews with Indian women 15 years ago, I am in no way surprised.  Add in that it took place among privileged, wealthy families, and you could put that tragedy today in any country and I’d still not be surprised.  The worst parts are not described on the page, but the effects of those parts still need healing, so they come up.  Please take care of yourselves, and slide into our DMs if you want to know more to decide if this is the right time for you to read this book, or if this book is right for you in general.  For me, as I knew there was something coming that was likely to hit some of my triggers, it felt a bit cathartic, sort of like hacking my crying, but at 10:30 pm, I decided my need for resolution and hope was greater than my respect for tomorrow, and I was not sorry.

Just as Persuasion is a very hopeful book, so is Recipe for Persuasion.  Amidst the, well, persuasion, and the tragedy of years past, there is hope, there is some healing, and a path to much more to come.  I much enjoyed the perspective of Captain Wentworth Rico, which is short for Frederico, as we moved through the story, and the new addition of how Ashna’s family lost their way (which still honors the original).  While the Musgroves don’t appear quite the same way, there’s a fun familial cast that is the same as that from Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors, and several new characters as well who are really fun and creative.  Two books into The Rajes series, I’m really loving how Dev has taken a large, modern family and is working with them to overlay Austen’s stories about people and family. 

While I’m not sure I’ll reread Recipe for Persuasion, which I’m giving 3.5 stars and rounding up to 4, I’ll definitely be picking up the rest of The Rajes books, and likely Dev’s backlist as well.  Her writing is tight, and modern, with gorgeously painted atmosphere, and she transports me into a different part of the world and a different culture as well.  I don’t have a large, chaotic family, so I love the idea of spending time with one on the page, and very much appreciate that I’ll get to revisit them at least a couple more times, maybe four more, if Dev retells all of Austen’s completed novels, although she may just stick with the romances, which would be fine by me (but oh the idea of a Northanger Abbey retelling is fun to think about too, especially with the Rajes and I already have ideas on how it could work). 

What’s a retelling you’ve read that had a new piece to the story you really appreciated?

~Nikki

What I am about to do is starting to become a habit and I don’t know if I like it or if you’re just going to have to deal with the situation that is my life. This is my confession: I jumped ahead to read Recipe for Persuasion and have not yet read Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors. BIG ENNEAGRAM ONE PLOT TWIST. Skipping ahead in a series that I have not already read is a big flex for me at the moment, and I’m totally OK with having done it. Will I be going back at some point and reading book one of The Rajes series? Absolutely, because having met the characters in Ashna and Rico’s book, I’m here to see how Trisha and DJ’s love came to be. Like any good contemporary romance series, the main characters get some of the best cameos in books that are not their own and I’m so ready for the rest of the family saga. I really hope Dev does all of Austen’s works, even though in an answer to a reader question on Goodreads she states that “I always envisioned this series as four books, each one paying homage to one of my four favorite Jane Austen novels.”

As Nikki covered above, (gah, stealing my thunder) Sonali Dev is an Indian author who writes stories focusing on modern Indian culture. She was born in India but currently lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband, children, and dog. Her writing degree is only slightly more helpful than her architecture degree in having written eight published works, with more on the way. Her Bollywood Series has four books, and as stated above, The Rajes series is planned for four books as well. I’m willing to entertain reading all the books that Dev, “supermom, domestic goddess, and world traveler,” decides to write.

The plot, darling readers, is not much of a surprise, because second chance romance is..well… pretty obvious. Chef Ashna Raje and internationally famous football star Frederico Silva met at a private high school when Rico came to live with his aunt in California after his parents were tragically killed in a car crash in Brazil. His father was a famous footballer, that’s soccer player for us Americans, so he ended up going into the family business after graduating high school. The same is said of Ashna, since she took over her father’s Palo Alto, CA, high end Indian restaurant, Curried Dreams, after attending culinary school in Paris. Ashna had been having money problems since the suicide of her father, and her friends persuaded her to be a chef on a new cooking show, “Cooking with the Stars”. It will come as no surprise to find out that Rico requests to be paired with Ashna in order to get over his feelings from their failed high school relationship. As unrelatable as reality TV is in general, it makes for great meet cutes, and Ashna’s reaction to seeing Rico again puts into sharp contrast how each of them feels about their former relationship. Rico wants to get over her, but is obviously still in love, and Ashna is shook and in hardcore denial about anything except how deliciously sexy Rico’s scruffy face and man-bun makes him. I couldn’t stop reading this book because of how badly I just needed them to get IT TOGETHER, and get together. Ridiculous. But, unputdownable. The family subplots were also heartwrenching and Nikki and I had big feelings and big discussions about that in addition to the trigger warnings I provided.

Recipe for Persuasion is solid 4 star read, as it definitely exceeded expectations but I don’t see myself re-reading it again, even when I continue the series. Which I fully volunteer to do, at the appropriate time in my reading life. Probably during a subsequent Jane in January, but I intend on getting around to book one before getting to book three… here’s to current intentions not becoming future confessions.

~Ashley

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