Give me Astrid back, please. Austen does not need to be re- envisioned. The author should just stick with her own great ideas. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. There were good conflicts and resolutions.
My only real gripe is that I felt the characters should have been a little older, considering the original conflict that sparks it all.
I also would have loved an epilogue of some sort, but I guess I'll just have to get the next book and see if I get to meet these characters again. ( )

3.5 Stars ( )

I definitely liked it more than 3 stars worth, but the world building is a bit spotty. I'd rather details be left out than have the internal logic be not actually logical.

Anyway, I love Diana Peterfreund and I'll read whatever she writes in this series because the story is fun and the romance is melancholy and sweet. ( )

Adorable! Another rec (from the friend who told me to read Raven Boys and The Diviners) and another winner in the long run of beautiful rec books.

This was a sweeping retelling of Jane Austen's "Persuasion" and I loved getting to see how Diana rewound the story, refitted it to her world. The pieces that clicked immediately, the passions of the characters, the difference of culture and choice, how love and pride (of many different kinds of both) are at war across this story.

I made sad, confused faces in the right places. I clung to the childhood letters that led you through the past between chapters. I cheered and was taken aback, and swooned through the right declarations. And my heart soared in the end, when the conclusion was what we knew it would be, but what felt all over new with our heroine this time, again.

I'd definitely advise this one to my friends who love classics, who love retellings, who love love and life and survival. ( )