Chef reality show gets very REAL!

A very loose nod to Austen's Persuasion. Ashna Raje is trying to hang onto her beloved father's once successful Indian restaurant at all costs. The restaurant is in crisis, millions of dollars were embezzled and now she is doing all she can to lower overheads and rebuild the restaurant, her father's dream. And that's the crux, Ashna needs to discover her own dream.
Her cousin persuades as her to take part in a reality tv cooking show. Grand prize of $100,000
Little did Ashna know that the former love of her life would be her partner. Soccer star Rico Silva has used his influence to ensure this. Being thrown together, in the spotlight and off the show, forces Rico and Ashna to re-evaluate themselves, their reactions and other aspects of their lives.
Devastating secrets are forced into the open. For Ashna that includes reassessing her relationship with both her mother and her father. Ashna's father was an Indian Prince sent by his family to the United States to build a new life for himself and his family. Her mother had deserted the Prince and Ashna many years before, returning to India to advocate for girls sporting rights that developed into female empowerment in other areas of life. To say Ashna and her mother's relationship is fraught is a massive understatement.
Although Ashna's mother's story raises interesting issues about relationships between generations. Including the idea that current generations accept the status quo of women's rights as they are now without appreciating previous generation's historical situations and the cost to them. Those forgotten battles are the legacy that current generations move forward from.
On the surface this story is a very readable modern love story, but underneath, with its richly woven background, darkness hovers, resentments simmer, and redemption possibilities hide around the corner, if one is brave enough.
I loved the title. Talking, being open, and forgiving are necessary ingredients for persuasion to happen in this situation.
Rethinking this novel, I came to appreciate even more it's depth. I decided this is actually a five star read and not the four star I was originally going with.
There are comic moments, but Recipe for Persuasion is far from a romantic comedy.

A HarperCollins ARC via NetGalley

I really enjoyed reading Sonali Dev's first novel in this series, Pride Prejudice and Other Flavors, so I knew I had to read Recipe for Persuasion! After all, Persuasion is my absolute favorite of the Jane Austen novels. Despite always being a little apprehensive reading books that are modern adaptations of Jane Austen (all the previous tries have been subpar in my opinion), I was intrigued by this cultural take.

It did NOT disappoint! It's the best adaptation I've read thus far! I'm a hard one to impress, I'll be the first to admit, so this is quite a feat! Sonali Dev really hit it out of the park with this one.

The story of Ashna and Rico is so heartwarming, tender, and frustrating (in the best Persuasion fashion). I adore the continuation of the foodie theme and found the way that aspect was used very endearing. Another bonus was the way Dev weaves the normal strands of Austen's classic with her own vision. Recipe for Persuasion relies on a huge backstory of family connection and loss, that really gives the characters added depth. I love getting a closer look at the Raje family, how they are there for each other, and how they've even let each other down. It's very powerful and worked so well with the Persuasion plot line, moving this modern retelling from a light romance to a rich drama.

While I had my issues with the first Raje family book, most of it had to do with the handling of Emma’s medical issues, so I was hoping for, well, less Trisha in this book. Plus, since this is a Persuasion retelling, it has my favorite trope – second chance romance. Whatever the reasons, I liked this book better than the first, though I still had some issues.

Once one of the hottest restaurants in Palo Alto under her father’s ownership, Curried Dreams is now a sad and rundown remnant of its former self. Ashna, still struggling with her grief over her father’s death and now her mother’s sudden decision to come back into her life, not to mention how to keep the restaurant afloat. When her cousins pressure her to join a reality TV cooking competition, it seems like it may be her only hope for saving the restaurant. Rico is coming to terms with his career-ending injury when a friend’s bachelor party makes him realize that he’s still hung up on his high school first love – Ashna. Convinced that only closure with her will allow him to move forward with his romantic life, he finagles his way into the same TV show. When their reunion becomes a viral video, it seems like they might have a chance. But can they rid themselves of enough of their past baggage to see if they can have a future together?

“It might be time to stop believing the thing that’s easiest to believe.”


I waffled back and forth over calling this a romance. While Ashna and Rico are the main characters, there’s simply too much else going on that pulls the focus from their relationship. For instance, for the first ten chapters, the POV is balanced between Ashna and Rico, and then suddenly we switch to Shobi, Ashna’s absent mom. I enjoyed exploring Shobi’s own experiences with second chance love and contrasting and comparing it to Ashna’s experiences, at times more than I enjoyed Ashna’s. One of the things I didn’t like about the previous book was that every character had a wildly tragic soap opera-style backstory, whether it was a plane crash or abuse. I can’t speak for other readers, but that degree of tragedy doesn’t exactly spell romcom to me. That’s still true in this book, but it felt more integrated into the story this time. I also enjoyed the cooking competition portions, though I wish there had been more to it.

“What? I might have found someone to melt through the famous Ashna Raje ice.”
The problem wasn’t the melting. All it took was for them to be in the same room and there were puddles all over the place, not a sliver of ice in sight. The problem was the ghosts of their pasts, and how much those ghosts had altered them both. The problem was finding each other around the ghosts, melted or otherwise.”


Both Ashna and Rico are laboring under a lot of emotional baggage, and their mistaken understandings of the events that led to their breakup are the least of it. For Ashna, despite her training, whenever she tries to cook anything that isn’t one of her Baba’s recipes, she has a panic attack. It doesn’t take a psychologist to link that back to her turbulent home environment with an alcoholic father and a mostly absent mother. Rico had his own trauma, with being ripped from his home and sent to live with an aunt after his parents died in a car crash. Their relationship as teenagers is mainly based on seeing each other clearly, even if they keep it a secret from those around them. Their reconnection as adults, or at least as much of it as we get in between all the other family drama, is piercingly bittersweet. I would’ve loved to have more time devoted to it, because what was there was enthralling. As for everything else, I wasn’t completely happy with the resolution, either Ashna’s reconciliation with her mother or her choice to embrace cooking.

Overall, I thought this was a dramatic and interesting take on Persuasion, if not the romance I was looking for. I’d give this 3.5 stars and recommend to anyone looking for a heartwrenching multicultural drama.

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Retellings are one of my favorite genres, and yet I'm always wary when I pick up a new one. There's a tricky balance when it comes to retellings and I've noticed some trends.

Retellings can either:

A) Remain too close to the original plot, taking away all surprise.

or

B) Try to shock the reader by saying "it's the 21st century, so let's get edgy" to the point where it's difficult to trace the original characters.

This is particularly difficult with Modern Austen. Authors can get a little weird with fairy tale retellings. As long as there are some books and a big, creepy house you have a Beauty and the Beast retelling. However, Jane Austen's heroines are so nuanced it's easy to mess up. We all relate to Elizabeth Bennet, but it's a Herculean task to recreate her in a modern setting.

Sonali Dev handles that balance well because she isn't afraid to write her own story that maintains the original's core values. Anne Elliot and Ashna Raje come from very proud families and both will risk emotional turmoil to help others. Rico Silva's blend of pining and anger reflects Frederick Wentworth's beautifully. This isn't a one-to-one comparison to an original text, and that's something to appreciate. Ashna and Rico learn new lessons about the world around them while still maintaining the original novel's arc.

With that being said, this book does get pretty dark. So I have to add a disclaimer here for alcoholism, suicide, neglect, and rape. I don't think they overwhelm the story, but they are there and this book isn't a light romcom. Still, I do think this is a good example of a modern Austen retelling.

I'm not sure how to rate this book that I was so looking forward to reading. I'm only putting 3 stars because I can't leave it blank, but will explain that rating below.

I really, really liked PRIDE, PREJUDICE, AND OTHER FLAVORS. The author deftly introduced this big international Indian family that had so many wonderful characters, relationships, dynamics to it. I was excited that this would be the crew her stories along this series would follow. Here's how I described it in the opening of my review of that book:
"I could not get off the couch. I could not stop reading it. This isn't a retelling, it's a magical recipe made up of the best ingredients from the original book, with thoughtful, realistic, modern-day issues stirred in. Funny, moving, romantic, layered. It was delicious."

This follow-up (RECIPE) was claimed to be a "fresh, fun, and enchanting romantic comedy" along the lines of PPAOF. Same cover design style. Same family. Same concept of retelling a Jane Austen book. I thought it would have some bad/sad stuff in it (because, hello, Jane Austen's PERSUASION isn't exactly a happy romp), but that it would err on the side of fun, romance, a bit of steam, family drama that we can laugh or yell OooooOOOH SNAP at. But there is so much trauma, so much pain, so many things that these days it would be good to put a content warning for, that the novel did not match its description.

If this was a standalone retelling marketed with a more accurate tone as one about overcoming trauma, maybe I'd be able to give it 4-5 stars. The writing is solid. The people feel real (which makes the trauma so much more devastating). The main character's anxiety? I felt it. And it was relentless. The horrible things that she and her mother experiences, that her romantic interest went through, it was all so, so awful. There's only so much brutal trauma one can stand when thinking they are reading a rom-com. I've read stories about very hard stuff before, but I knew what I was getting into then.

If I were to grade it as the fun rom-com it is being marketed as, I'd have to shake my head and say no. Which was disappointment to me, for the first book was spectacular.

It feels the the marketing of this book is off--not the actual writing of it.

2.5 stars

Well. Here we are again with another book blatantly being called a rom-com and there’s a small serving of rom, but definitely no com. And I’m extra disappointed because not only was PP+OF one of my top 10 books the year it released, but Persuasion is a dear favorite of mine.

I liked Ashna and Rico well enough. They’re both good people who are still hung up on each other; however for me, it wasn’t charming. I didn’t quite see the chemistry between them and more often than not, was told they had feelings. I knew going in that the reconciliation wouldn’t be until the end, but I did want movement towards it. Everything seemed so drawn out and repetitive.

Plot wise, it was much darker than the cover and synopsis led me to believe. Sure, the story is about Ashna and Rico finding their way back to each other, but it felt like it took a back burner to all of the family history. We get Ashna’s mom’s POV for a good portion of the story and her past is mired in heartbreak and violence.

Overall, I do enjoy these characters and I love the culture and food, but this was not a familiar nod to Persuasion and definitely lacked the warmth I was expecting.

FYI: marital rape, suicide

**Huge thanks to William Morrow for providing the arc free of charge**

Ashna Raje is struggling. Her restaurant could use some major renovations, and she can barely fill thirty of the dining room's one hundred tables on a good night. She never seems to see eye-to-eye with her very successful mother, who lives in India and rarely makes time to visit Ashna in the San Francisco Bay Area. And now, Ashna's cousin and best friend want her to star on a celebrity cooking show, where she'll be paired off with a famous partner and have the chance to win enough money to turn her restaurant around. The restaurant is all that remains of her father so, determined to hold onto it, Ashna reluctantly agrees.

Frederico "Rico" Silva is also struggling. A recent knee injury led him to an early retirement as a world-renown FIFA player. At his teammate's bachelor party, Rico begins reminiscing about all the women he's ever dated and finds himself fixated on the one girl with whom he never found closure. A quick internet search reveals she's to be a contestant on the Food Network's upcoming celebrity cooking show, and before he allows himself time to reconsider, Rico picks up his phone and asks his agent to book him the gig.

Despite this lighthearted premise, Recipe for Persuasion is not the romantic comedy its description makes it out to be. While it contains some upbeat moments, including Ashna and Rico's TV cook-offs or Ashna's close relationships with her cousins, the book explores several heavier topics that could categorize it as a drama. Ashna and Rico's romance is one of rekindled love that forces them to reexamine their past relationship as they fall for each other again; however, in doing so, they must revisit the severe traumas they respectively faced as children that impacted their breakup.

The book also heavily focuses on Ashna's strained relationship with her mother, Shobi, and includes many chapters from Shobi's point of view, past and present. This element serves well as a tie-in to the series' overarching theme of the Raje family's intricate relationships and offers a revealing look at the older generation who came before Ashna (and Trisha, for those who read the first book).

Fans of Trisha's story will not be shocked to hear that Ashna's tale also contains somber topics, nor will they be surprised to know that Sonali Dev's beautiful and poignant writing will take you on an emotional roller coaster. It was lovely seeing how Ashna and Rico found home in one another after being lost for so long. Although the Raje family drama overshadowed their romance, Ashna's heart-wrenching, vulnerable examination of herself and her relationship with Shobi and even with her father is where this book truly shines.

Lastly, I'm looking forward to Dev's retelling of Sense and Sensibility, as I don't think the appearance of sisters China and India Dashwood in this book was simply a coincidence.

Thank you to HarperCollins Publishers via Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Oh what another enjoyable book by the one and only talented Sonali Dev! What could possibly go wrong on live stream when you are paired up with your once love super hot old flame? EVERYTHING! Once again we are swept away with another fun, loving, romantic comedy 🥰

Loss, fear, guilt, and romance — Dev’s latest will have you grabbing for the tissue box.
It’s been a while since I’ve read a Dev romance. Dev has a way of blending romance with women’s fiction with romance and telling a story you get lost in. In fact, I missed the first book in this series, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors. Now I’m going to have to back track for the first one.

There is a lot to unpack in this latest book. It really tells the love stories of three people and not two. First, we have Ashna Raje, a chef determined to save her deceased father’s failing restaurant, Curried Dreams. What’s the hang-up? She’s plagued with being unable to cook recipes that aren’t her father’s originals. This poses a big problem because even I know that adaptability is the success of any restaurant long term. Her love interest is World Cup soccer star Rico Silva. For him, Ashna is the one who got away, the one woman who got him and he’s never been able to replicate relationship success similar to what he had with Ashna.

Rico and Ashna are the perfect example of a couple with a lot of baggage and past to surmount. The great thing is that outside of their issues they really are perfect for each other. That love and caring shines through from the moment these two share a page. It’s one of the main things that kept me reading, the drive to see Ashna and Rico overcome the obstacles for a happily ever after.

But, I mentioned a third party in this story. That’s Ashna’s mom, Shobi. To preference this, without a ton of spoilers, Ashna has a lot of parental issues, including mommy ones. The Shobi part is what brings this rating to a four and not a five. It’s not that I didn’t appreciate Shobi’s role in Ashna’s story or the struggles they both needed to be overcome. It’s that Shobi gets about one third of the book from her point of view and is not even mentioned in the blurb. This book is sold as a romance, packaged as a romance, but it’s more like women’s fiction with romantic elements. That being said, Shobi’s story is essential to the book and helps give a more well-rounded view of how Ashna’s life played out and how it could have been different. Though in the end I wanted more with Ashna and Rico and felt that their romance was rushed to make room for Shobi’s portion.
As for conflict, pacing, setting – Dev builds a rich, diverse world with flavors, visuals, and real-world situations that display how far we’ve come as humans and how much farther we need to go. Reading this story, I found myself part of a world that I don’t experience enough in reality and discovered parts of me that want to do a little more exploring in my own neighborhood of restaurants and experiences I might be missing.
Overall, you can’t take a wrong turn with this story. Austen is also ever present and if you enjoyed Persuasion, then I have to say you will fall for Rico even more when he delivers his best Wentworth. For readers who love Kristin Higgins and Sarah Morgan.

~ Landra

Posting on blog 5/28/2020

This is set in the same universe as Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors and you do see the main characters from it but they are only side players here. Ashne is struggling to keep open her father’s famous restaurant 12 years after his death. It is teetering on the edge in part to some employee’s siphoning off money while she was at cooking school and her inability to cook anything but her dad’s old recipes. Rico is a recently retired star soccer player that was forced into it due to a knee injury. He also happens to be her secret high school sweetheart. I picked this up because I thought the cooking show angle that brings them together and the Austin remix would be entertaining but the family drama in Ashne’s past with a distant mother and an alcoholic father can make this an uncomfortable read. There is a HEA at the end and some closure to hurts that the heroine suffered but it can be a bit emotional.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

Recipe for Persuasion is Sonali Dev’s latest Jane Austen inspired novel. A sweet second chance at love tale, this delicious romance will have you savoring every second you spend reading it.

This is book two of The Raje Series but you don’t need to read book one – Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors – to enjoy this one.

We’ve all had them. Those days when life seems determined to poison the lemonade we’ve made out of the lemons it has handed us. Ashna Raje feels those are the only kinds of days she’s been having lately. Keeping her beloved father’s failing restaurant open has been almost impossible. Endless foreclosure notices from her bank are the only mail she receives and the fact that she has panic attacks if she cooks anything but her Baba’s recipes means she can’t even update the menu to lure more customers in. She stays after hours to mop floors and scrub toilets because she had to let the cleaning service go. But all of that is nothing compared to her sous chef and close friend quitting without notice.

That’s the night her cousin Trisha and best friend China show up just as she’s wiping down the kitchen. She’s not really surprised. Everyone knows Ashna works long hours and that makes her a favorite late night snack source. This time, though, she’s not being asked to provide refreshments. China’s been working on a reality show for Food Network called Cooking with the Stars, a program which teams chefs with celebrities for a culinary competition and she’s hit a big snag. One of the cooks had to quit and they need a last minute replacement. Ashna is a chef, she’s local, and most importantly, beautiful and desperate. A spot on the show will give her enough money to keep the foreclosure at bay. The only trouble? Ashna’s cooking induced panic attacks. She gives China a (mostly) firm no.

Then Ashna’s mother Shobi calls. She’s receiving a Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian awards in India. She wants Ashna to do the introduction at the awards dinner and like all their conversations, this one quickly degenerates into a fight. Shobi had pursued her career at Ashna’s expense, spending more time promoting her girls in sports programs than she ever spent with her own daughter. Ashna has no desire to repay her mother’s desertion with a speech rhapsodizing about her accomplishments. Stung by Shobi’s insistence that she has nothing more pressing to do, she impulsively tells her she’s taken a position on Cooking with the Stars.

FIFA winning soccer star Rico Silva has never forgotten – or forgiven – the girl who broke his heart when he was a young, lonely, vulnerable teenager. Now that he’s been forced to retire due to an injury, he decides it’s finally time to lay this ghost to rest. He begins by googling Ashna and that’s when he discovers the Entertainment Weekly article about Cooking with the Stars. One phone call to his agent and he’s on the show, paired with the girl who kicked him while he was down. His plan is to rub in her face that the boy her father said wasn’t worthy of her is now wildly successful, fabulously rich, and disgustingly famous.

Ashna is completely blindsided when she sees Rico again. Their meeting results in her losing her grip on the knife she’s using to chop vegetables and Rico being rushed to the emergency room, and the clip of a seemingly star-smitten Ashna practically swooning at the sight of him as he heroically saves her from self-injury goes viral. They become social media darlings, rocketing the anticipation for the show to heights a Food Network program has never received. It’s made clear to Ashna that there is no chance she will be released from her contract so she can get out of the disastrous situation. Deciding to make the best of it, she convinces Rico they need to use their explosive chemistry to charm the pants off the judges. But the judges aren’t the ones whom they are really interested in seeing naked.

Recipe for Persuasion is a fast, fun contemporary romance with two fabulous leads. It would have been easy for the anxiety ridden Ashna to come across as helpless and weak but the author does a fantastic job of giving her a backstory that keeps that from happening. We see a nice balance between the sensitive girl tied down by a painful past and familial expectations, and the loving, fascinating, competent young woman who shines when she’s away from those debilitating ties.

Rico’s plan to confront Ashna in front of the cameras could easily have had him coming across as a complete ass, but he is humble, kind, thoughtful, helpful and caring throughout the tale – especially to the person against whom he supposedly is seeking revenge. From the moment he saves her from the wayward knife to the way he smoothly covers her faux pas in front of the camera, he becomes the champion Ashna deserves.

Their path to an HEA is filled with humor, sexual tension, tender moments and witty banter. The scenes where they are on the show are especially enjoyable, portraying them at their very best.

Most of the attention is focused on Ashna and Rico but there is a secondary romance toward the end of the book and the entire story is filled with an amazing cast of supporting characters. I especially enjoyed the super sweet Song, a K-drama actress also appearing in the competition and Ashna’s Aunt Mina, who was the maternal figure her biological mom had never been.

This author loves angst and Ashna’s and Rico’s histories provide plenty of deep, emotional elements that create a much richer read than the cover leads one to expect. It would be easy to get lost in all the drama but Ms. Dev does a nice job of combining the turmoil with lighter ingredients to give us a story that is sweet as well as savory.

Most books have flaws, though, and this one has a few which kept it from reaching DIK status. While I appreciated the gravitas and sensitivity Ashna’s parental issues give her character, they are so complicated and traumatic their resolution takes up a great deal of page space. As a result, the book reads more like women’s fiction than romance. Additionally, while the storyline with Shobi allows the author to address the draconic patriarchal system of India’s past it makes Shobi less a character and more a mouthpiece, someone who was on the page simply to sermonize. Combined with the political conversations centered around Ashna’s cousin running for governor, this causes the text to have moments where it teeters on being preachy, especially since the style used is very much telling over showing.

Those quibbles aside, eloquent prose and excellent character building make Recipe for Persuasion a clever, charming story about two people who rediscover their authentic selves by finding love. I think the author’s legions of fans will adore this book, as will anyone who enjoys a good contemporary love story.

Modern Desi interpretation of "Persuasion" from the author of "Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors"! ⁣
⁣
Ashna Raje has given up just about everything to preserve her father's restaurant and memory, but can she give up her paralyzing fear to enter and win a reality cooking show? She desperately needs the cash but her dignity may need her to stay as far away as possible from surprise celebrity contestant and Brazilian footballer Federico Silva. They definitely have chemistry (and a history) but is it all a recipe for disaster or persuasion?⁣
⁣
This is a clever, nuanced, multilayered nod to Austen's original story and covers some pretty heavy themes, like childhood trauma, mother-daughter relationships, female friendships, suicide, death of a parent, off-screen spousal rape, cultural oppression of women, PTSD and panic attacks. I wouldn't consider it a rom-com although it does heavily feature a romantic relationship with some familiar romance-style conundrums and communication issues. This reads more like contemporary women's lit to me, which I think is appropriate for an interpretation of Persuasion.⁣ ⁣Also, I love that cover.

I'll be honest, this is not the lighthearted rom-com reimaging of the classic novel that it is billed as. Deeply layered? Yes. Sometimes utterly tragic, absolutely.

Indian American chef Ashna, and Brazilian soccer play Rico, are the unlikeliest of partners on a reality TV coking show. Ashna’s hoping that going on the show will help pull her restaurant away from the brink of disaster. Rico, currently sidelined with an injury, agrees to go onto the cooking show even though Ashna broke his heart long ago. While he gets the chance to air his past grievances, he also gets a second chance at understanding Ashna, and the difficult childhood that she had.

While the bones of the story parallel the Austen classic, billing it as a romcom is way off the mark. It does have some light moments, but it is not a romcom at all. I'm not sure why it is billed that way and not as women's fiction or general fiction. The romance was not the main focus, and it's more a story of development and growth. Sure, there is a romance 'ending' but you can have that within other genres as well. Perhaps bill it as a contemporary romance, but not a romcom.

Packs A Ton Into Final Moments. The first 90% of this book is solid. Lots of drama over all kinds of secrets and misunderstandings, primarily between a couple that split over a decade ago and finds themselves thrust together when one of them decides to force their way into the other's life. But also lots of intergenerational drama between a mother and her daughter. But then that last 10% or so of the book... wow. If you like the various cooking reality shows, you're going to like this book from that angle, but there really is so much more here. Solid use of the old English source material (Jane Austen) brought into more modern contexts and even a much different specific cultural background... and then bringing even that background into yet another more modern setting. Long at nearly 500 pages, but never overly feels it. Very much recommended.

Recipe for Persuasion is a modern day retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion. Ashna is desperate to save her family's restaurant and joins a celebrity cooking show, where her partner is Rico, her high school sweetheart. Their relationship ended abruptly, amid multiple misunderstandings. While they have to learn to work together, Ashna is also dealing with the return of her mother, who has secrets of her own.

This was my first book by Sonali Dev but it will not be my last. I haven't read Persuasion so I can't speak to the similarities, but I can say that this was a truly heartwarming story filled with love and hope. I was drawn in by the multiple mysteries: why Ashna and Rico broke up, why Ashna's mom, Shobi, was so absent for years.

This was such a sweet book, but it also tugged at your heartstrings as you rooted for Ashna and Rico, and learned to love Shobi. Plus, there was so much food mentioned in this book! I definitely recommend having snacks on hand because it made me so hungry. This will definitely be one of my favorite romances this year.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for giving me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Good to know: Although this book is a standalone sequel, I feel that it may have been better to read the first book. The book is in multiple perspectives with no indication of whose perspective you're reading until you go into it. The writing style is somewhat half controversial and literary -- maybe attempting to modernize Jane Austen's writing?

My Thoughts: I really wanted to like this book. I think the storyline had so much potential but I could not see where the book was going at the half-point mark. There was too much description that it became useless or it made me think about something else and totally lose focus on the book. The writing style is something I can't push through. Maybe in the future if I decide to read the first book, then I can try to reread this one.

Recommend: I recommend this to anyone who is familiar with Sonali Dev's writing and enjoys her retellings.

Recipe for Persuasion is the first novel I’ve read by Sonali Dev and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed her writing style. She enwraps her main character Ashna with the flavors of her culture and boy, all of the dishes they cook really made me want to run out and stock up on my Indian and South American spices. Not only is the story filled with the color and flavor of Ashna and Rico’s cultures but their language and life experiences also helped make this story unique.

The use of flashbacks into Rico and Ash’s love story as well as Ashna’s mother Shobi’s own relationship with Ashna’s father could have been confusing but instead created emotions that really helped tie the two stories together. Not only does the love story play out, but Ashna’s conflicted feelings for her mother and father are explained and when the story concludes, despite previous misgivings, you feel like her character can finally be happy.

As with most Jane Austen re-tellings miscommunication and misdirection play a big part in how the heroine acts and reacts during the story. This novel used those same tools but you really had the feeling that Ashna wanted to work on the why’s and wherefore’s which made me like her character a lot more than I did many of Jane Austen’s. Also, the peak into why her relationship with her mother fell apart was a lot more than Ms. Austen gave her readers and was most likely why I connected with Ashna in a way I couldn’t with Jane Austen’s heroines. If you like your senses overwhelmed by the cultures of other lands and you like your stories filled with emotional growth then I think you should read this novel. Yes, it’s a rom-com, of sorts, but it’s also deftly written and you may be surprised at the emotions the story brings forth as I was. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

After reading Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors (PPaOF) last year, this was one of my most anticipated books for 2020. For some reason, I somehow imagined this was going to be Yash’s book with mysterious girlfriend. It is not. This is the story of Ashna (and Rico), that we didn’t even know we needed. It is a struggle for me to even begin to articulate the number of ways I love this, but I’m going to try!

This book definitely stands alone although I think you get a richer experience of knowing and understanding the family connections of you read PPaOF first. The premise is that Ashna is running herself ragged trying to salvage her late father’s crumbling restaurant when she gets the opportinity to be on a DWTS-style cooking tv competition and potentially win the money to save the restaurant. However, her celebrity partner turns out to be a hotshot international footballer (soccer player) who also turns out to be her high school sweetheart she brutally dumped many years ago.

That summary does ZERO justice to the sheer emotional complexity of this book. I typically detest flashbacks in books but here they were so apt and so necessary. This book explores complex family relationships, difficult relationships between mothers and daughters, forced marriage, women’s autonomy related to wifehood and motherhood, addiction, mental health, severe anxiety, marital rape- it is NOT a light and breezy read (even though it does have its humorous moments), and these themes and the associate emotions of trauma, anger, guilt, and fear are definitely treated deeply enough that they could be triggering if you’re sensitive. Genre-wise, I’d place this somewhere between romance, women’s fiction and contemporary fiction- whilst there is definitely a slow burn romantic aspect to this, there’s also a significant majority of the book that isn’t about that romantic relationship and is more about family and culture and food.

Another element that I loved in this book similar to PPaOF, is the treatment of food in this book. Food in this book is bright and visceral and evocative of memories and nourishing to the soul or absolutely delicious to eyes in description even when it’s associated with pain or anxiety or hardship. This author did a faboulous job writing this delicious book with food descriptions that had me googling to taste with my eyes.

Also, I loved the way this book explored feminism and feminine power and how it manifests in different ways and looks different through different characters from Shobi, to Mina, to Ashna herself. I’m a sports fan and a huge fan of football (of the soccer variety) and the English Premier League so it was nice to see that shout out in there- the football content was mostly accurate but certain comments about World Cups, I had questions. But if you’re not also football mad, it won’t signify and you probably won’t notice. I love that girls in sport and women playing sport was also a theme because it’s not that common in fiction like this. Like with the first book, I adored all the characters and even with Ashna’s mother, even though she was imperfect and I felt anger at her, I understood her because she was so perfectly human and real and tangible. If I had any tiny bit of criticism, it would be that after building the tension and conflict in this novel so meticulously, perhaps the resolutions were a little bit easy and not a complex as the set up. Nonetheless, this was nothing short of fabulous.

At the end of December 2019, I called PPaOF my number 1 read for the year across all genres out of 220 books I read in 2019. It’s still early in 2020, but I think this book is even better that PPaOF. It’s THAT good. Highly highly recommend. I’m so in awe of this author. One of my top reads so far in 2020.

I received an advanced copy of this book from William Morrow Books/Harper Collins via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and honestly, I’m SOOOOO BLOWN!!!

Is it a surprise I loved this?

I'm sure I can find some weaknesses an dI will try to write about them, but I definitely stand by my rating.

I am a huge fan of second chance romance so this was set to be a good story for me. Rico and Ashna's story was definitely and emotional one. And I thought it was well-earned.

Ashna's relationship with her mom was a pleasant surprise. I definitely like how important it was to the plot. And I felt that was where a lot of the motion came from. However, I would've preferred a more drawn out conclusion-the ending felt a little rushed for them.

Speaking of emotion: this was super emotional and made me cry several times. Ms. Dev deals with some complicated issues like suicide, marital rape, and anxiety. I find she's very good at navigating these while having some levity and not overwhelming you with emotion.

I do hope Ms. Dev is able to continue to write in this world. I want to spend more time with the Races and I have so many questions that need answers.

This is not a lighthearted contemporary romance, but instead an exploration of women's agency and family duty with marriage. It felt more like women's fiction than romance to me. We get some romance, but it is more focused on the heroine and her mother's pain and healing.

I love Jane Austen, but I have to admit I do not remember much of Persuasion, so I went into this novel without comparing it to Austen's work. The first half of the novel was slow paced and and heavier than I expected. It included multiple elements that I do not like being in romances I read at all, which lowered the rating for me. But once things got going, the story picked up and I did not want to stop reading at the end until it was done.

I really liked Rico and was happy to see him get his happy ending. I found it harder to connect with the heroine, mostly because she is so tightly closed off from those around her. I have not read the first book in the series, which might have helped me connect to the characters more fully.

Trigger warning for rape and domestic violence.

I received a free advanced reader's copy of this book in return for an honest review of the book. #RecipeforPersuasion #NetGalley