A debut that hits a lot of what I love reading in contemporary romance
Based loosely on Jane Austen's Persuasion, By the Book is about Anne Corey a literature professor at Fairfax college in California who is trying to secure a tenured position teaching, but in order to do that she must get a publishing contract for her work-in-progress and the deadline is quickly approaching. To top all that off, Anne's ex-fiance just became the President of the university. Seeing him again for the first time in thirteen years, Anne begins to evaluate her life and how certain events have led her to where she is today. And as she looks back, she begins to wonder if the decisions she's made have led her to the right place.
I really enjoyed this read. It's a light, sweet story. The romance is there but I mostly loved that the story as a whole is Anne's reflection on her life rather than Anne trying to get back together with her former love because she suddenly feels lonely. The ruminations that go through Anne's head throughout the course of the story don't really take her down a new path, therefore, telling her and readers that despite the broken heart, and despite some tough times along the way, she ended up exactly where she was supposed to be. With or without a relationship. Her accomplishments are her own and she doesn't owe them to anyone else. I loved that this distinction is written out very clearly.
But with that said, there is a strong romance plot throughout; that of Anne and her ex-fiance Adam. While we do get the basics on how they got together in the first place, and why they broke up, I wanted a few more of the in-between moments. The moments that solidified their relationship with one another once upon a time. I think this would have made the devastation of the break-up more apparent, which I think it's supposed to be but didn't really come across strongly enough for my tastes.
One of the relationships where Julia Sonneborn really excelled was the friendship between Anne and her fellow professor Larry. They are truly best friends and I loved that they are both totally devoted to one another. One of the things that was on the negative side for me while reading was the predictability of some of the story threads. Most notably, the "new" romance that Anne gets into. If you've read any book by Jane Austen you can pretty much guess how this new relationship will go. It's entirely possible being a retelling of a Jane Austen novel that is the exact reason why the author decides to follow certain edicts, but I think it would have been ok to break out of the box a little more with it. In the background a secondary romance for Larry totally engrossed me and at times had me thinking the book from Larry's perspective would have been delightful to read.
I think that Julia Sonneborn really pays the source material quite the homage with this story, but I did like how it's not too overt, it's subtle. Actually, I would go so far to say that the love of reading / books in general is more blatantly obvious as more than just Austen are referenced throughout the story. You could feel the love for the written word coming through the pages.
Overall, I enjoyed this debut. It hits a lot of what I love reading in contemporary romances. I really look forward to seeing where Julia Sonneborn goes next.
I really enjoyed this read. It's a light, sweet story. The romance is there but I mostly loved that the story as a whole is Anne's reflection on her life rather than Anne trying to get back together with her former love because she suddenly feels lonely. The ruminations that go through Anne's head throughout the course of the story don't really take her down a new path, therefore, telling her and readers that despite the broken heart, and despite some tough times along the way, she ended up exactly where she was supposed to be. With or without a relationship. Her accomplishments are her own and she doesn't owe them to anyone else. I loved that this distinction is written out very clearly.
But with that said, there is a strong romance plot throughout; that of Anne and her ex-fiance Adam. While we do get the basics on how they got together in the first place, and why they broke up, I wanted a few more of the in-between moments. The moments that solidified their relationship with one another once upon a time. I think this would have made the devastation of the break-up more apparent, which I think it's supposed to be but didn't really come across strongly enough for my tastes.
One of the relationships where Julia Sonneborn really excelled was the friendship between Anne and her fellow professor Larry. They are truly best friends and I loved that they are both totally devoted to one another. One of the things that was on the negative side for me while reading was the predictability of some of the story threads. Most notably, the "new" romance that Anne gets into. If you've read any book by Jane Austen you can pretty much guess how this new relationship will go. It's entirely possible being a retelling of a Jane Austen novel that is the exact reason why the author decides to follow certain edicts, but I think it would have been ok to break out of the box a little more with it. In the background a secondary romance for Larry totally engrossed me and at times had me thinking the book from Larry's perspective would have been delightful to read.
I think that Julia Sonneborn really pays the source material quite the homage with this story, but I did like how it's not too overt, it's subtle. Actually, I would go so far to say that the love of reading / books in general is more blatantly obvious as more than just Austen are referenced throughout the story. You could feel the love for the written word coming through the pages.
Overall, I enjoyed this debut. It hits a lot of what I love reading in contemporary romances. I really look forward to seeing where Julia Sonneborn goes next.