Not a book for me.. Couldn't connect with the plot or the characters. May revisit at some point.

I should have realized due to the comparison to Jane Austen's Persuasion, that By The Book is more Women's Contemporary than Romance in genre. As Women's contemporary I can say that I recommend Julia Sonneborn's entertaining novel. Her characters are engaging, though perhaps not as complex as I would have liked. I really appreciated the secondary character/sidekick to the heroine - I found him layered, quirky and just plain fun. The story itself is light and easy to read. I wavered between 3 and 4 stars because I was expecting more romance, and I never really felt the connection between the hero and heroine. I wanted the heroine to have a little more backbone, and the hero to have experienced some growth through the journey. As I said, I was entertained and I would read more from Ms. Sonneborn

By the Book was a complex yet simple read. It's a love story at heart, full of the complexities of education. At least I felt like I was getting an education while reading. It was more than I anticipated it would be, yet there were times my brain felt like it was on fire trying to process everything.

Overall it was a good read.

This is a witty, light romantic comedy set on a college campus. The author is an English professor, and nails details of setting and power struggles typical on campus. Readers who want a contemporary love story with plenty of twists and a dash of humor will find much to love here. Annie is a self-confident protagonist who falls off the deep end of love, with complications. At times the pace lags and some characters come off as shallow. Snippets of email correspondence add much-needed pace to the book, which is an entertaining retelling of a Jane Austen classic.

This is a utterly charming retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion. I enoy the modern retelling of all Austen books so was pleased to read this book for review..
Ann is on the fast track for tenure at her college. She is focused and sure she will gain tenure. She works hard, is top of her field, writing a book, while caring for a elderly Father. .She has forgotten about her love life until her ex boyfriend takes over as Dean of her college. As much as she try's to ignore her feelings and even jumps into a inappropriate relationship, she is still in love with her ex. Sparks begin and will she forgive him as Austen's theme in Persuasion?
This is a enjoyable afternoon read. I appreciate the ARC for review which did not influence my review.

A twisted love triangle of lies, mystery, jealousy, and deceit set at a college university. The author did a fabulous job of keeping the reader's attention.

By the Book by Julia Sonneborn is a retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion. I've never read Persuasion, so I can't really tell you how it compares. Anne's a pretty smart lady, so I did't expect her to fall so quickly for a guy who was obviously not on the up and up from the start. He just reeked of smarmy-ness. I'm not sure if he was to blame, (He kind of put a bad taste in my mouth from the beginning) but I also didn't feel consistent chemistry between her and Adam. Adam was always with another woman. Anne was with Rick. Larry, Anne's best friend, has his own drama going on. So, Anne and Adam's interactions drowned out a little in between everything else going one. Larry was a hoot though. I don't know that his whole romance did much for the story, but he was quite entertaining on his own. All in all, this was a cute story with some cute characters.

I loved this book. I thought it was a fun and upbeat retelling on one of Jane Austen's books. I thought she did a fabulous job and I loved the confrontation between the exes.

I wanted to like this book, I truly did. The cover was eye catching and I love Austen, so I was hopeful. I just couldn't connect with the main character. The romance aspect was pretty nonexistent. While the reader knows, if they've ever read Persuasion, who Anne would end up with - it just wasn't satisfying and I skimmed through the last 1/4 of the book.

I enjoyed this novel very much. It folllowed Persuasion enough to feel familiar, but not so much that it felt like it was forced.

I'm the first on to admit that I am not a Jane Austen fan. Yes, I've read her books--all of them, and my experience with them has run from being meh to hating them. Persuasion was on the latter end of the spectrum. However, I tend to have better luck with retellings of Jane Austen novels (with the exception of the Bridget Jones books, which I also did not enjoy), so I thought, "Heck, why not give this one a try?"



Now, being a romance and a retelling of another novel, this book was predictable...but that's okay. I wasn't looking for a book full of twists and turns, and I don't believe that Sonneborn set out to write such a book. And, let's face it, there is a great comfort when you can settle in with a book that will seem a little familiar, but also new and fresh.



I loved this book except for one (unfortunately rather major) thing. Anne was such a fun character. Look, I like a woman who doesn't always have all her crap together and sometimes makes not the best choice. She's definitely not a train wreck--but she's a normal person who has a lot on her plate and is doing the best she can. I applaud Sonneborn for creating such a believable character, one that I found myself relating to a bit too well.



I also appreciated Anne's relationship with her father. It was hard, at times, for me to read--but that was because of recent experiences in my own life. It was this relationship that ultimately brought me to tears when I read it.



But, here was my major problem with this book. As a story, I thoroughly enjoyed it. But as a romance, I felt robbed. I never got to experience a relationship rekindle between Anne and Adam. More effort was put into developing the connection between Anne and the other characters (especially her best friend, who was a scene stealer of the best sort) than with the romantic lead. The story wrapped up too quickly, too easily, and too unbelievably.



I think with a bit a finesse and a few adjustments, this book could have been a knockout. It was, for the most part, an enjoyable read. I just wish there had been more care with the ending and that the romance was as developed as other parts of the novel.

This was an enjoyable light romance. I felt empathy for Anne as she struggles to pay down her student loans and gain tenure at a small liberal arts college, contingent upon securing a book deal. I found her relationship with her GBF, Larry, to be fun and amusing. As Anne struggles to get her book deal, she is sidetracked by a romance with the new Author in Residence and the revelation that the new college president is her ex-fiance Adam.

By The Book is a sweet, funny modern retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion. If you love Austen, you will enjoy this light romance

I received a copy of By The Book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. 

I loved the cover of By The Book because it looks quaint like a small out of the way town. I also love Jane Austen's books and was interested to see how Sonneborn handled a retelling of Persuasion.

Though it wasn't really part of the retelling, I liked the relationships of Anne with her father, who is ill and dying, and her disconnected sister. Anne showed the greatest depth of character working through her guilt when her father passed away. She was filled with self-doubt while realizing how much her father adored her. He wasn't one to talk through his feelings, and so it wasn't until his passing that she learned some essential truths of his life.

Initially I liked Anne's relationship with her friend, Larry. Once Larry became involved with a married man, he became whinny and a train wreck. Anne didn't blink once over Larry being involved with a married man, when she was even loosely friends with the lover's wife. This story line turned my stomach because they had no moral compass of right and wrong. I also never understood why Anne didn't see that Rick was slimy from the beginning. The characters were generally one-dimensional. It was a fast read and had a couple of fun moments, like when Anne walks into a swanky event in a new red dress. She had eaten french fries on the way covering herself with napkins. 

The quality of writing was decent and I've placed the stars about in the middle. I didn't love it and I didn't hate it. All sex scenes are off page. There is a little cursing, including some F-bombs, an unfortunate thing common in modern writing when there isn't a need.

“You know how people start to look a lot like their dogs? Well, professors start to look a lot like their subjects.”

Professor Anne Corey normally looks forward to starting the new academic year, but this year is different. She’s been desperately trying to find a publisher for her book so she can keep her job at Fairfax College, a small liberal arts college in the San Bernardino valley, but the rejection letters are coming fast and furious. Her dad has dementia and her sister has decided that he is better off in a care facility near Anne, and this is the man who cut her off when she decided to become a professor of English Literature instead of his choice as a lawyer. Last of all, she found out that Adam Martinez, her first boyfriend, her one true love, is the new president at Fairfax. She has worked hard to be where she is today. Will these new developments be her undoing?

I have worked in an academic community for 30+ years so the academic aspect of the book, as well as the romance in it, intrigued me. The academic settings and situations were right on, but the romance was slow and drawn out to where I was losing interest by the end. Anne’s character was well constructed, but I could not connect with her annoying naiveté at the ripe old age of 33, and Adam’s character construction was vague and could have been developed a bit more. The only character I did like was Larry, Anne’s gay colleague. Though he was childish, he was loyal to Anne, and his witty quips were laugh-out-loud funny. A slow read, but with humorous dialogue and a great view of academic life.

Thank you to Ms. Sonneborn, Gallery Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book.

I really enjoyed this book from first-time author Julia Sonneborn. The characters and dialogue were fun and interesting, the setting lovely and a bit reminiscent of my own college campus from SO many years ago. I've never read Persuasion, so I can't speak to how well this works as a "modern retelling", but it worked very well for me on its own merits. As happens so often with romances, I found myself wanting to smack the characters at times and tell them to "communicate, already!" But overall, I very much liked this one and hope to read more in the future from this author.

Copy provided by Netgalley and Gallery Books in exchange for an unbiased review.

A fun, light read. I loved the academic setting and all the academic jargon.

oh man.

sorry to say this was such a let down.

i love persuasion retellings. it's such a fantastic story and translates so well to a modern retelling. i gobble them up, they are my favourite after p&p retellings. i was so excited for this one and when i got approved from netgalley, i saved it until closer to the release date (and then went past it a few days, oops). then a friend didn't like it and i was worried but tried to go in with an open mind. unfortunately, i have to agree with my friend. this was a let down for me, and i am very sad about that.

i can't quite put my finger on why this didn't work for me.. i wasn't a fan of the writing, the story didn't seem to focus on adam and anne as much as i'd like, there's like a love triangle (wtf), the gay best friend's love life, her family issues.. it was all a bit much and took away from what should be the main focus of the story. the whole rick thing bothered me a lot.

the thing is, i like my retellings to be loosely based on the originals, i don't care if they deviate a little but i like the main story to hold true. this one didn't feel like that for me, and maybe if it wasn't specifically advertised as a persuasion retelling, i wouldn't care, but it just didn't sit right with me.

i always feel bad when i rate a book less than 3 stars, i am obviously not a writer though i can't imagine how hard it is to write a book and then have people tear it apart. unfortunately, there is no such thing as a book that everyone will love, we can't love every single book we read and this one just did not work for me.