Kaitlin Saunders

Persuasion is my favorite Austen & I rarely see retellings of the story. Sense & Sensibility & Emma are streaks ahead in popularity, it seems. So when I ran across this book, I had to read it. It was sweet & bittersweet & a very solid version of the story set in modern time. I was interested to see how it would translate over time & was surprised that a lot of it fit quite well. There's a scene with Anne & her nephews reenacting a Star Wars: Clone Wars episode that just tickled me & spoke to my SW fangirl heart.

The family Elliot is just as insufferable as they are in the original work & while I was glad of that, I did have a difficult time accepting that Anne would be just as reluctant to challenge them. Her sisters freely treat her horridly in private & public but she always defers & capitulates, not wanting to upset them. I didn't need a warrior woman but I felt like she needed to say or do something to assert herself when being mistreated, if for no other reason than to stop the mistreatment. I think though, that's me imposing my own idea of modern western womanhood interfering, not the author's failing in the telling. I did find the issue of cousin, Will Elliot a little odd in the modern rendition. He's dated Elizabeth at Dartmouth & is now seemingly courting Anne, though Elizabeth is still quite keen. It felt strange that in this modern setting, cousin Will (I don't care that he's twice removed) would not have been courting outside of the family, chance of inheritance or no. This is also true for Elizabeth. The other characters all rolled with this happenstance as though it were usual which added another odd factor. It came off as arcane here but I do applaud the author for trying to work with it.

Rick was phenom & his letter to Anne at the end gave me chills, just like the originals does for me. From that point on, I root & hope & need a tissue. I still think that Rick shouldn't need to concern himself with trying to prove to the Elliot clan that he was worthy, those people are twits. Even so, they mattered to Anne, so it was gallant of him to care. No matter the little quirks in this retelling, I still felt for these characters & wanted they to work it all out.

All in all, I liked this & would recommend it to anyone who happens to be a Persuasion fan. It's a very easy read & perfect to take along on vacation or to while away some airport hours. 3.5 stars because it's an adaptation & while quite good, I can't give real points for sheer creativity & newness.… (meer)

Eight years have gone by since she last saw Rick, she has never forgotten the love they shared but can the same be said for him?

At 17, Anne was told that she was too young to get married; she listened to her family instead of her heart. Eight years later, Anne's family has fallen on hard times, they place the family home on the market and a familiar name purchases the vacated residence. When Rick Wentworth suddenly reappears, the feelings she never could shake come flooding back almost instantly. But has he forgotten the love they once shared?

As a JA fanatic and an admirer of Persuasion, I was looking forward to this adaptation but I was a bit disappointed. It was a fun and easy read, which followed the exact plot of Persuasion, therein lies the problem- it was overtly predictable. I would have enjoyed it more had the author made the characters and their relationships a bit more realistic for '2009', thus more "A 'Modern' Day Persuasion". Not bad but not my favorite adaptation.… (meer)

(Review originally posted at IndieJane[dot]org; Review copy provided by author)

A Modern Day Persuasion is just that - a modern retelling of the original (which, in a chuckle-inducing moment, happens to be a favorite read of our heroine). Everything has been repositioned and `translated' into a believable modern tale of thwarted love and incredibly bizarre family relations. There are laughs and cringes and heart-wrenchingly-sad-smiles.

The characters are well-drawn and dimensional, with the result of people whom I've always been "meh" about now are either loved or hated. Quick examples: Mr. Elliot and Elizabeth are just as they ever were, but there's actually some hint of what Mr. Elliot used to be, before his wife died - suggesting that maybe, just maybe, his obnoxious-ism is a result of grieving and not wholly his lack of a soul. Mary, who has always been comical to me, is painted in a light that really shows her shallow selfishness - a different kind than her father and sister, but shallow and selfish all the same. This "Lady Russell" seems to have a truer affection for our Anne, and their relationship is much more give-and-take than the original. I didn't want to strangle her, rather, I recognized in Carol Russell traits that I see in the "older women" of my acquaintance.

Now, for the two main stars: "Rick" Wentworth is a bit of a jerk. And this is a good thing. Saunders has taken the "injured hero" and created a believable man. He's human, he's capable of being rude and jerk-y, but we know he'll turn out okay in the end (and he does). Additionally, Anne is more dimensional and realistic; a young lady whose first - and so far, only - love stormed away in a fury years ago. Where Anne's lack of spirit and uber-passivity has always annoyed me in the original, this Anne? Well, her hero left a legitimate compromise on the table and stormed off. Anne was 17, and anyone who remembers being 17, will acknowledge the power of the attachments we form then - no matter how "wrong". This twist to the storyline really made things stronger for me, and much more readable. Watching Anne work through her own ghosts and come to terms with herself as a person of worth was a rewarding journey that I could relate to, and it made the inevitable ending so much stronger.

The writing is strong, the characters and story are recreated faithfully - but with adaptions and updates that make it both more relevant and (to me) a generally better story. In short, this is my favorite version of Persuasion yet!… (meer)