Persuading Annie – Melissa Nathan

I’d collected a number of Jane Austen knocks off a few years back, when they were especially popular, and I’m still working my way through that back log.   While most were of Pride and Prejudice, this one is a take off of my second favorite Austen book – Persuasion.

Set in the modern day, Annie Markham is the youngest daughter of a ego-maniacal PR exec, with two older sisters that have fully bought into the socialite lifestyle the money from the company has bought them.    Unfortunately, the company is heading down the tubes, and when a consultant is brought in to try and help them figure out where it’s going wrong, that consultant turns out to be Jake Meade, Annie’s college boyfriend.     Things ended for them very badly, partially because her godmother Susannah convinced her to not elope with him.

If you’ve read the original, you know where things go from here, with the action set between London and Manhattan.    It was a fun read, but I’ll admit, one thing didn’t quite sit right with me.   Annie and Jake go through a period of being decidedly mean to each other.    Anne Elliot certainly never did that to Captain Wentworth, and while it fits with the modern day setting, I still didn’t quite like it.    Other than that, the transplant to modern times worked well.