The heart wants what the heart wants, and our hearts want books.

The following post includes affiliate links. More details here.  As you’re doing your Amazon shopping, we’d be ever so grateful if you’d use our affiliate link to do so as it helps pay the bills around here!

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

PLEASE SUPPORT US WHEN YOU SHOP BY FIRST CLICKING ON THE IMAGES BELOW:

The following post includes affiliate links. More details here.  As you’re doing your Amazon shopping, we’d be ever so grateful if you’d use our affiliate link to do so as it helps pay the bills around here!

Dear readers, we’ve spent the last several weeks in a haze of mostly exactly what we wanted to read and it was glorious.  We invite you to join us in continuing that, as in February, we’ll be using Virtual Book Club for talking about a book that we’re very much looking forward to rereading, in all of it’s 800 page glory, House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1) by our beloved Sarah J. Maas.  Join us on Friday, February 11 at 7:30 p.m. CST, so we’ll all be ready before House of Sky and Breath comes out a few short (or oh so long) days later.  Sign up here so you get the link, and if you can’t attend but would be interested in a conversation around House of Sky and Breath, drop us a comment to let us know.  Oh, and for you planner types, in April, we’re going to read and discuss When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole, so put it on your TBR now!

Sometimes there is nothing like a good classic, and I find the in between times of the holidays and early in the year to be a fantastic time to dig into a story with a slower pace, and language requiring full attention, which feels impossible during the slalom of the first several weeks of December.  That, darling readers, is when I reread Persuasion by Jane Austen.  Somehow I missed reading Austen until a few years ago, when I rediscovered reading as an important part of my life.  That is when I first read it, along with most of Austen’s other works, so it was a delight that I could only remember the main plot points and got to revisit Anne and her hot mess family for this second chance romance novel.  

I typed out several lines about the plot of Persuasion, and then deleted them.  Ashley will covers the plot well below, but for now, it’s a second chance romance.  Try #1 clearly didn’t end in that HEA, therefore, our couple needs another go.  In the telling of the second try, we get Anne’s family dynamics in detail (and hot mess might be kind), and how said second chance comes to be, which is connected to the family drama, as they tend to be in a novel.  Also I want to mention an oversight in our reading plans – I’ll be trying to find the opportunity to pull in a retelling from Captain Wentworth’s point of view, as I do thoroughly enjoy a dual POV romance novel (and am SO excited about next week’s), and am confident there’s a good retelling from the good Captain out there waiting for me.  

I have so many warm fuzzy feelings about Persuasion and I know I’m not doing them justice (at least partially because me and my bad memory need to get back on our regular writing schedule and have not yet done so).  I adore a good train wreck of a novel, likely because it makes me feel better about my (perceived) train wrecks (yes, I’m an enneagram 6).  I appreciate mature characters who’ve done the work to find themselves and be true to who they are, which is very much Anne, and from what we know of him, also Captain Wentworth.  I find stories centering around family loyalty, how people change, and yet don’t, and duty very interesting.  Although Persuasion is more than 200 years old, like most of Austen’s works, the themes hold true to human nature.  For the evergreen themes, the calm, yet still snarky, writing, and the general escapism, I’m giving Persuasion four solid stars.  It wasn’t life changing, but it was a great experience, and I’m confident I’ll reread it again, and also continue to watch and rewatch on screen as well. 

What’s a book that you really enjoy but can’t really explain why?

~Nikki  

It should come as no surprise to you, darling readers, that this is the first time I am reading Jane Austen’s last completed novel, Persuasion. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so, I like it more than Pride and Prejudice. It is the third of Austen’s five completed novels that I have read, but I can confidently state that I remember NOTHING about Northanger Abbey – as I read it in high school, twenty years ago. (Gross.) Like Northanger Abbey, Persuasion was published six months after Austen’s death in 1817. Even though I liked Persuasion better than Pride and Prejudice, it is still not more than a three star, meets expectation title.

My feelings about Persuasion run a little deeper because we have 27 year old Anne Elliot getting her second chance at love and marriage with her first and only love, Frederick Wentworth, a Captain in the Navy. They come into contact again because Anne’s father’s lack of good financial habits forces him to lease out their country estate to pay off the debts he has accrued. Kellynch Hall is rented to Admiral Croft and his wife, the sister of our hero. I find Austen’s commentary on Anne’s family – her father as “a spendthrift baronet,” her selfish and prideful elder sister Elizabeeth, and her temperamental and needy younger sister Mary – extremely enlightening. Since Anne is our heroine, we experience the story through her point of view, if not her voice, and from this narration Anne seems to be the most forgiving, steadfast, and self-aware of the Elliots. It is almost as if Anne has gone through years of therapy in order to achieve her zen-like acceptance of her family and contentment at her place in it. She is the most relatable of the lot even though she is slow at figuring out all the hints Wentworth gives about his true feelings towards her. It is no surprise her prideful family refused Anne their blessing to marry a young naval officer at the age of 19 but gives their blessing after she is 27 and both sides have had a reversal of fortune. 

I still have little love for the cadence of Austen’s language and I purposefully read Persuasion without actively reading anything else at the same time (not my usual MO), so that I could keep my focus. That language, however, allows for this GLORIOUS passage:

He had, in fact, though his sisters were now doing all they could for him, by calling him “poor Richard,” been nothing better than a thick-headed, unfeeling, unprofitable Dick Musgrove, who had never done anything to entitle himself to more than the abbreviation of his name, living or dead.

“Poor Richard” is called out as being nothing more than a dick. Classic move, Austen. Pure genius.

What classic literary works have you read as an adult that have pleasantly surprised you?

~Ashley

PLEASE SUPPORT US WHEN YOU SHOP BY FIRST CLICKING ON THE IMAGES BELOW: