Recipe for Persuasion : : a Novel

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Romance / General / Dev, Sonali	4-week checkout	Due 05-12-2024

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"Chef Ashna Raje thinks that joining the cast of Cooking with the Stars will help save her restaurant and prove to her mother that she's not a failure, but when she's paired with her first love, Rico Silva, the kitchen begins to heat up."--Publisher description.
Contents: Persuasion.

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Like a Hallmark Movie submitted by KatieD on August 5, 2021, 6:23pm This book was fun, unrealistic but fun. I really wish the cooking with the stars competition was a real thing. It really reminded me of a Hallmark movie. Also, there are some moments that deal with deeper issues, especially in the mother's story and I thought that the author did a pretty good job of showing both Ashna's and her mother's side. It had the basic plot of Jane Austen's "Persuasion" and a few references thrown in, but it differs quite a lot.

Starts off seeming like a lighthearted romance novel, and becomes so much more. submitted by eileenw on August 10, 2021, 6:54pm Chef Ashna Raje joins a “cooking with celebrities” reality show to try and save her late father's struggling restaurant, and ends up paired with an international soccer star . . . who’s also her ex.

The novel ticks all the boxes of a great romance novel (it’s loosely based on Jane Austen’s Persuasion, so no surprise there), but about a third of the way into the novel we begin to get passages from the point of view of Ashna’s estranged mother, and start to slowly unravel the generations of pain and secrets the family brought with them as they emigrated from India.

Ultimately, it’s not just a novel of romance and the flavors of Indian food, but one of mothers and daughters, and self-determination vs. family legacy.

Recipe for Persuasion (2020) continues the story of the Raje family that Sonali Dev started in Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors (2019), and continues in Incense and Sensibility (2021), but each book stands alone and can be read out of order. While there are a few direct references to Persuasion in this novel, you don’t need to have read Austen to enjoy the novel.

Same complaints as the other books submitted by bjkoch on July 8, 2022, 12:52pm okay as a rom-com, okay as it describes indian american culture, and okay as a jane austen adaptation. but i think it tries too hard to be all three and thus the book is a bit lacking