Janice - reviewed on 12/1/2019 + 646 more book reviews

I should mention first that I don't like Jane Austen pastiches - I've never seen one yet that got the language, the social attitudes or the snark right - one that convinced me that the author really got Austen's mindset. Perhaps 200 years on that would be impossible. So I stick to the canon.

I'm not crazy about romantic paranormals either.

I bought this book mainly because Mary Balogh has a story in it - a paranormal version of Persuasion, based on the notion of two lovers who are meant to be attached throughout time and history, who must reincarnate many times on their way to ... whatever. It was a well written story - her prose is always impeccable - but I wasn't emotionally engaged, and that's bad because that is Balogh's strongest quality: the ability to suck the reader in to an intense emotional relationship. The qualities I like in her writing are much better shown in Red Rose, The Secret Pearl and A Precious Jewel. This one just felt too sugary. I did, however, finish it.

I sampled the other three stories but couldn't get interested in any of them.

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