Cute read! I pretty much always love books about books so this one was perfect! ( )

If you're a lover of Jane Austen, you're in for a treat. (And if you've never read Austen - first, don't tell me, and second, you don't need to have read her to enjoy this.) Julia Sonneborn offers up a retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion, as well as a bit of an homage to Austen in her mail character, College English Professor Anne Corey is finishing up her book, which she needs to publish in order to nail down her tenure, while taking care of her aging dad (which is work on its own). In the middle of all this, her ex-fiancé Adam turns up as the new college president.

Of course, she will run into Adam over and again, and put herself in plenty of awkward situations as we slowly learn the nature of her breakup. Of course, the dashing visiting writer-in-residence that she is attracted to cannot stand him for reasons to be discovered. There is plenty of humor and awkwardness, and angst, of course, although I would have liked to seen even more interaction between Anne and Adam in the story.

Another wonderful relationship in the story is the one between Anne and her friend Larry - he is a bit of a cliche, the gay college professor, but he is hilarious and their interactions are priceless.

Overall, this is a wonderful light and entertaining read, perfect for the beach. What a delight!

I was provided a copy of the book by NetGalley. This did not influence my review in any way - all opinions are my own. ( )

By all outward appearances, this book ought to have been right up my alley:
- Thirty-two year old English professor
- Set at a private college in Southern California
- Based on Jane Austen's "Persuasion"
- Written by an Asian-American woman
- Heroine has persistent library fines from the academic library

In truth, it was a drag to get through. I finally sat myself down and told myself I couldn't play video games or eat dinner until I finished it, which moved things right along, but didn't make me like it any more. I found the characters mostly tedious in a way that I didn't feel about the original Austen characters, and much as I loved reading about the college library (and cheered at the donation designated for renovating it), even the setting couldn't redeem the story for me.

( )

I'm a big fan of contemporary retellings of Jane Austen's works and have read some great and not-so-great ones. BY THE BOOK is definitely one of the better ones I've read. I am always so impressed when a debut author creates a novel that feels like they've been writing for years, and that's how I felt about Julia Sonneborn's writing. Plus, she managed to take a novel like PERSUASION, and yet create a thoroughly new story, keeping the basics of the plot. There was a lot of humor, as well, though more overt than Austen's would be; but that goes with the contemporary aspect of this novel. The campus setting was perfect, and it was enjoyable to read about the life of academics (publish or perish, gossip, drama, student behavior etc.). As the author states in her acknowledgements: "This novel is a love letter to books...and book lovers." I felt that love as a reader, and look forward to recommending this book to my patrons (and peers) who I know will enjoy it, too! Thanks for sharing this great story, and thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC! ( )

By the Book is supposed to be a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, and I’ll be honest… I haven’t read Persuasion. So I went into this book just wanting to read a good story, and I wasn’t too disappointed. I loved the premise of the story and I did enjoy the character of Anne, as well as her friendship with Larry.

However, I didn’t find the romance aspect of the book to be very interesting. While Anne does explore a relationship with the new writer-in-residence, Rich Chasen, he is away most of the time and it isn’t anything quite serious for Anne. Not to mention that the book focuses more on Anne’s best friend’s affair than her own love life. I expected a little more tension when Anne’s ex-fiance, Adam, entered as the college’s new President, but there was very little of him throughout the story, and even when he does interact with Anne, it’s not as tense as it should be. So the lack of tension/interaction between the two made the ending seem very out of place for me.

I understand that it’s a modern retelling of a classic, but it would have been much better if there had been more pining between Anne and Adam or little tense moments, despite her dating someone else at the time.

Overall, this was a good, well written novel, but if you’re looking for more romance, you’ll be left unsatisfied. ( )