Once Persuaded, Twice Shy: A Modern Reimagining of Persuasion

Jane Austen’s classic second-chance romance gets a modern twist in Edwards’s (Jane & Edward) lovely new novel. Capable Anne Elliott reconnects with ex-boyfriend Ben Wentworth when his aunt and uncle purchase a winery near her home of Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario, Canada. They propose a project between their budding business and the theater company that Anne leads, entangling their professional lives and, increasingly, their personal lives too. Surrounding them is a whole host of quirky characters that will be familiar to anybody who has lived in a small town (or read a small-town rom-com), including a perpetually disgruntled goose who helps move the action along. The town, too, plays an important role and is lovingly described. Edwards is clever in the way she uses the main plot and themes of Persuasion to create her story without feeling like she must translate it directly to modern times, and she delivers a novel that deftly straddles the line between romance and relationship fiction.