Release Day Review! By the Book by Julia Sonneborn

By the Book by Julia Sonneborn
Genre: Adult Fiction (Contemporary Romance/Retelling)
Expected Publication: February 6, 2018
Publisher: Gallery Books

An English professor struggling for tenure discovers that her ex-fiancé has just become the president of her college—and her new boss—in this whip-smart modern retelling of Jane Austen’s classic Persuasion.

Anne Corey is about to get schooled.

An English professor in California, she’s determined to score a position on the coveted tenure track at her college. All she’s got to do is get a book deal, snag a promotion, and boom! She’s in. But then Adam Martinez—her first love and ex-fiancé—shows up as the college’s new president.

Anne should be able to keep herself distracted. After all, she’s got a book to write, an aging father to take care of, and a new romance developing with the college’s insanely hot writer-in-residence. But no matter where she turns, there’s Adam, as smart and sexy as ever. As the school year advances and her long-buried feelings begin to resurface, Anne begins to wonder whether she just might get a second chance at love.

Funny, smart, and full of heart, this modern ode to Jane Austen’s classic explores what happens when we run into the demons of our past...and when they turn out not to be so bad, after all. 

By the Book by Julia Sonneborn is a retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion. I've never read Persuasion, so I can't really tell you how it compares. Anne's a pretty smart lady, so I did't expect her to fall so quickly for a guy who was obviously not on the up and up from the start. He just reeked of smarmy-ness. I'm not sure if he was to blame, (He kind of put a bad taste in my mouth from the beginning) but I also didn't feel consistent chemistry between her and Adam. Adam was always with another woman. Anne was with Rick. Larry, Anne's best friend, has his own drama going on. So, Anne and Adam's interactions drowned out a little in between everything else going one. Larry was a hoot though. I don't know that his whole romance did much for the story, but he was quite entertaining on his own. All in all, this was a cute story with some cute characters.

The ARC of By the Book was kindly provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley for review. The opinions are my own.

Julia Sonneborn is an English professor and a Los Angeles native. After heading east for college and graduate school, she hightailed it back to California, where she now lives with her husband, two kids, two cats, and a dog. When she’s not reading, writing, or talking about books, she enjoys trying new restaurants, reading online gossip blogs, and throwing dinner parties.

To learn more about Julia Sonneborn and her books, visit her website.You can also find her on Goodreads, Instagram, and Twitter.