Recipe for Persuasion

Content warnings: Suicide, sexual assault, trauma/abuse

Given that a review of a supposed romantic-comedy starts with that content warning, that should help signify that this is not a comedy. It is a romance, and it is marketed as a rom-com, but even without that additional content, I wouldn't call this a comedy. This is a modern retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion, which is my favorite Austen novel. It's hard to review this book, because I do think Sonali Dev did a good job of creating the charged atmosphere between Ashna (the Anne character) and Rico (the Wentworth character). The aspects of the book that were a romance novel were cute and pleasant. However, the reasons for the rift between Ashna and Rico are a lot darker than the original material, and I don't think Dev did a responsible job of handling that content. And the book wraps up in ways that I think actually should have required stronger conversations and therapy. So enjoyable to read on the surface and yet also potentially harmful to many readers.