Persuasion, Captain Wentworth and Cracklin’ Cornbread Book Review

The timeless themes of Persuasion are love, loss and moving on from the emotional wounds of the past.

Mary Jane Hathaway’s new book, Persuasion, Captain Wentworth and Cracklin’ Cornbread (Jane Austen Takes the South), transports Jane Austen’s final and most romantic novel from early 19th century England to a modern day small town in the South.

Lucy Crawford is a member of a very prestigious and wealthy family. But with a dead mother, a spendthrift father and a crumbling antebellum mansion, her life is not all peaches and cream.  Jeremiah Chevy has risen above his wrong side of the tracks, born to a teenage mother childhood. Ten years ago, Lucy and Jeremiah were young and in love. But Lucy’s father and aunt did not think that Jeremiah was not good enough for her.

Cut to 10 years later. Jeremiah is a successful doctor. The clinic he is working in needs more space. Lucy’s Aunt Olympia, who convinced Lucy to end the relationship ten years ago, suggests that the clinic move into the Crawford mansion to help with the financial costs of maintaining the property. Can Lucy and Jeremiah get back together or will their relationship remain as it was?

I very much enjoyed this book. While the core of the was Persuasion, it was still unique enough to be a stand alone novel.  What I also liked was that the author gave the reader a peak into the mind of her leading man. In Persuasion, most of the novel is through Anne’s eyes. It was a nice change to be able to know what Jeremiah is thinking and feeling.

I recommend this book.

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