This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR
Rick Wentworth is a gorgeous, wealthy, marine biologist living with his supermodel girlfriend in Australia. He's on his way to England for his book tour to publicise his novel, Sex in the Sea and the tabloids go into overdrive when soon after his arrival his girlfriend dumps him and he's single once again.
He's spent ten years trying to forget his first love, Anna Elliott, who he fell for during a hot summer when they were both working in France before going to university. He'd asked her to follow him to Australia, but her father and godmother persuaded her to take up her place in Cambridge and continue on the path her dead mother had always planned for her. He hasn't forgiven her for listening to her family and rejecting a future with him.
Dr Anna Elliot lectures in Russian Studies at Bath & Western University and lives in a flat in a converted house owned by her best friend and work colleague, Jenny and her disabled husband in Bath. She's independent and happy, but has never forgotten Rick and the time they spent together. She still misses her mother, but finds her pompous father, Sir Walter Elliot very trying. He can never resist the chance to mention he's also 8th Baronet of Kellynch. Her two sisters are also very different from Anna. Lisa is shallow and vain and very much like her father, and Mona who despite having two lovely little boys, spends her time feeling sorry for herself and bemoaning her lack of wealth and closeness in her marriage to Charles.
Rick's sister and brother-in-law are about to open a garden centre in Kellynch and are neighbours to Mona's in-laws, the Musgroves. The two families meet up when Rick is staying with his sister and they're invited to a party at the Musgrove family's large home. Charles has two beautiful young sisters, Henrietta and Louisa, who take one look at Rick and decide to compete for his attentions. When out walking one day, Anna over hears Rick talking to Lou about her and begins to realize there is very little chance of him ever wanting to be with her again.
Slowly though they discover they still have feelings towards each other, but Rick is impulsive, hurt and unable to forget Anna's decision not to follow him all those years before. He resents that she was so easily persuaded to give him up by her family. She never bothered with him once he left England ten years before and he has no intention of allowing himself to get close to her again.
This book is a wonderful contemporary adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, Persuasion and Juliet Archer cleverly manages to bring the original characters back to life in a believable and entertaining way. I thoroughly enjoyed not only the main characters, but also the minor ones, such as Cleopatra Cle, Mrs Clay in the original novel, and her association with Sir Walter.
Persuade Me is the second book in Juliet Archer's Darcy & Friends series where she re-tells Jane Austen's Persuasion and whether you know the original Jane Austen novel, or not, this is a wonderful book with yet another delicious Choc Lit hero at its core.
To celebrate the publication of Persuade Me (out now) and to be in with a chance to win a copy of this delightful book, please leave 'pick me' comment below. A winner will be chosen and announced next Thursday.
You can find out more about Juliet Archer and her books here and you can follow her on Twitter @julietarcher
9/10