@netgalley @harpercollinsus @williammorrowbooks #partner thanks for this e-ARC of Recipe for Persuasion in exchange for a review!!

This was a cute read! While it started out slow, I definitely was into the characters at the end. Besides, who wouldn’t be into a fake TV show “Cooking with the Stars”!? (bet you can’t guess what reality show it’s based on 😜)

Ashna and Rico were each other’ first loves in high school, but something happened that drove them apart for more than a decade. Now, they’ve reunited as partners for the cooking show (Ashna is the pro chef, while Rico is the celeb — a world-famous soccer player), and let’s just say the kitchen is heating up! While definitely a romance, the book also really delved into the complicated relationships Ashna has with her mother and late father and cultural differences in the family values. Overall, a lighthearted and fun read!

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev: Ashna has been dealing with one blow after another for much of her life, the latest being her need to save the restaurant that she hold so dear to her heart. When her friend is looking for a chief to fill a space in a new reality cooking show, Ashna jumps at the chance after all what could be the worst to happen, she is a chief after all. Well that is until her past pushes his way into her present.

Pro footballer Rico has nothing but time on his hands, after an injury to his IT band has put him out of the game. After attending the wedding of a close friend if his, Rico begins to question why has he never been able to settle down. With both his body and his ego bruised Rico decides to use his celebrity status to work his way into the role of Ashna’s partner in the cooking show she has just joined. You see Rico and Ashna were childhood sweethearts but after Ashna rejected his young heart, he never really recovered and now Rico wants some answers.

I have to say this was very half and half for me, I can’t say I did not enjoy this book, but at the same time I can not say it was a wow read for me. I will say the authors previous novel was a much better take on the Jane Austen retelling. However in saying this Dev has done a good job in delivering a multi layered story, we get to see Ashna's background and how she had to deal with her parents unhappy marriage, a cruel mother and her alcoholic father. Where as when it comes to Rico the focus is more on his future and his story with Ashna, rather than looking into his past.

I will say that I found the blurb slightly misleading, I went into this book expecting a cute romance but what I got was a rather heavy complex read. This novel was filled with alcoholism, parental neglect, emotional abuse and family guilt. In saying this I will add that putting all the heavy topics aside this was an interesting story. In terms of our two lead characters; my heart broke for Ashna, she really had to deal with a lot guilt from her family. As for Rico I think he did Wentworth proud, he was everything you would want in a hero.

Overall I felt that the author over explained where it was not needed and then skimped on details that would have been helpful and this added to the darker note of this novel, really was not a major winner in my opinion. I will say the most redeeming quality of this novel for me was Rico's love for Ashna and how pure and how it had no bounds.

This story of re-found love is an an excellent follow up to the first in the series. There are points where the heroine’s blindness to her own trauma is incredibly frustrating, and it makes me angry that there aren’t more people suggesting therapy to her through out.

This book was a delightful with a lot of heart! Ashna has had to deal with a lot of loss and tragedy in her life. She is haunted by memories of her father and her ex boyfriend and has a rough relationship with her mother. Through a cooking competition she finds out a lot of things about herself, her family and love.

I enjoyed this book and the connections it made to Persuasion by Jane Austen. I loved the relationship between the two main characters and I really loved the setting of a food network competition show.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for my review. Jane Austen fan or not-you will love this story! Chef Ashna Raje is doing everything she can to keep her family's restaurant from failing-even if it means joining the cast of Cooking With the Stars in order to get her restaurant some much needed P.R. Ashna immediately changes her mind when she finds out that the celebrity that she will be teaching to cook is none other than her first love and FIFA soccer star Rico Silva. Rico and Ashna were first loves: she understood that Rico didn't want to follow in the footsteps of his famous soccer playing father and Rico saw that Ashna had skills that weren't only put to use in a kitchen. It all ended badly in a series of misunderstandings and now Rico is willing to humiliate himself on national T.V. to get Ashna to come back to him, but will they create enough heat in the kitchen to save Ashna's restaurant or will they crash and burn a second time? This was a funny, romantic read that I didn't want to end! Loved it!

Sonali Dev, the author of Recipe for Persuasion and many other books, has a knack for creating brilliant masterpiece Bollywood type love stories that central around Jane Austen stories. Another fantastic book by this glorious author.

I had higher hopes for this. Persuasion is my favorite Jane Austen novel and while this is a supposed retelling of that classic, I think that's only in the barest of sketches. Don't get me wrong...the story is good, but I think if you're going to do a retelling it should hold closer to the original plot. In this novel, Dev darkens the backstory of the characters quite a bit and adds in storylines that not part of the original. If you had stripped away the Persuasion comparison, I think this is a good contemporary romance, but other than the "love lost and found again" trope and an attempt a the larger cast of characters this wasn't a smash. I don't know that the cooking show setting really worked for me either.

This being said, I was pleased by the diversity of characters and backgrounds that they had. They were not stock by any means and I learned a bit about different cultures that I hadn't known before. All in all, Persuasion seems to be a hard book to do as a retelling. I've not yet come across an adaptation that has done it justice. But if you take Austen out of the equation, Sonali Dev's Recipe for Persuasion may be just the dish you're looking for.

Chef Ashna is out to prove she can redeem herself and her family’s restaurant from the brink. A cooking contest offers her a chance to bring Curried Dreams back from doom. Her first impressions are of disrepair , uncaring employees and and uncaring owner. Caught up in her parents fighting , she feels responsible for the end of their marriage. It is this guilt that has informed all of her important decisions as an adult. A long list love renters her life and it is their back and forth of his things were and where they are now that is the focal point of this story. A chance at love again in front of the cameras gives the story depth. It was a mother’s choice of a different life in service to others that parallels the choice Ash makes in the end ,that being to stop blaming her birth as the cause of her parents troubles.

Jane Austen’s Persuasion gets a modern facelift Desi-style in this standalone sequel to Sonali Dev’s 2019, Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors, as Indian American chef, Ashna Raje, and Brazilian footballer, Rico Silva, encounter each other once again as acrimonious cooking partners on a reality TV show. I love that the author has cooked up a series of modern retellings of Jane Austen’s classic works by giving members of the Raje family their chances at romance.

In Recipe for Persuasion Ashna’s family is convinced a reality cooking show is just the jumpstart her dying restaurant needs and she is willing to do anything to preserve this last bit of her father who opened the restaurant.

As a pro footballer at the top of his game, Rico thought he had moved on from Ashna’s rejection. That is until he is injured badly and yet another relationship didn’t work out. He decides he has to do something about not being over his teenage love so signs onto the show to be Ashna’s partner. He vents his long-smoldering anger, but also understands as an adult what his teenage self couldn’t when he learns the true state of Ashna’s affairs. Understanding her leads to an understanding of the past.

Ashna had a difficult childhood. Her father, a prince, was forced out of India for some trouble he got into and lost the lifestyle he was accustomed to making him a bitter, angry man. Her parents were stuck in a loveless marriage where abuse and alcoholism were rife and Ashna was physically abandoned by her mother while the remaining parent’s issues were just as unhealthy for her so that, even after his death, she works to please a father who was never going to be pleased.

It was his dream to go to Paris and become a superb chef which she did for him and she now can’t even create her own dishes without bringing on an anxiety attack. She can only keep his restaurant just as he had it and cook only his dishes which is why the restaurant is failing. Others see it and she refuses to heed them because honoring her father is all she has left. Into this situation steps the boy become man from her past and she hasn’t gotten over him.

When I chose this book, I was enchanted at the thought of the Persuasion story being set in a modern Indian-style setting. I loved the lavish descriptions, the traditions, cultural background, and, oh my stars, the food. I was so hungry reading this one that I had to whip up some hummus. The connection of family was strong including Ashna’s cousin Trisha who had her story in the first book.

I thought the author did well making Austen’s classic the bones of this story and filling it in with modern characters and modern concerns. I glanced at the blurb and noticed it describes Recipe For Persuasion as a RomCom. Personally, I think that gives the wrong impression. This had some humorous moments, but it was not a light story. It read closer to women’s fiction for me because so much had to be addressed before even the romance could grow.

Speaking of the romance, I was underwhelmed. I liked them, especially Rico, as individuals and cheered for them to find peace and their happiness. I wasn’t feeling their adult reunion romance. I couldn’t see what maintained it over the years to that strength since, in this version, they were teens who fell in love and this is way longer a gap in years. In addition, I wasn’t feeling it between them as adults.

Ash was a mess and she was content to stay that way. She was wilting and so down on herself. I struggled with her parts of the narration and even preferred her mother, Shobi’s narrative sections about her miserable past and inability to connect with her own child as a result. So, Ash, as a woman to capture the confident and handsome adult Rico’s interest? Um, no.

And, that brings me to Rico’s prickly anger. Just after they broke up, sure, be angry, but it makes no sense to me that he still feels it so strongly and places so much blame this many years later. Turns out like the original character, his anger was masking something else. I liked the process of his eyes being opened and grasping this new chance. Rico did end up being rather romantic when he got over it. Spoiler alert, sorry Wentworth fans no “You pierce my soul,” letter though he found a different way to be swoony.

In summary, I liked but did not love this book. To be fair, my personal mood and my struggle to read this style book is also a factor. I found the heroine and her romance only mildly engaging, but on the other hand, there was a richness to the setting and background that drew me in, a hero who caught my interest, and the author’s writing style was solid. Again, I would recommend this more to fiction than straight romance fans and those who enjoy modern retellings.

The first thing that attracted me to this book was the colorful cover. The second thing was the description. A take on Jane Austen's "Persuasion" with characters of color? Sign me up!
Ashi is a chef, struggling to keep her dead father's restaurant afloat. Her father died when she was just 18. She has a terrible relationship with her mother who ran off to India and left Ashi behind in the US to be raised by her aunt and uncle. Rico is a handsome, suave newly retired soccer star. He can have any woman in the world but there's only one girl who is his true love. He and Ashi have a past. Ashi's friend signs her up to be on a Food Network competitive cooking show where she will be paired with a celebrity. Rico finds out and has his manager do whatever it takes to get him on the show and to be Ashi's partner. Sparks fly - but are they the good kind? Will they win the competition, save the restaurant and find love?
I really wanted to like this book. I struggled to finish and I almost gave up. I didn't find any of the characters likeable. There's also a lot of dark stuff in this book that shapes the relationships that Ashna has with her parents. I was expecting something lighter and romcom-y and this barely had any of that. I think I was also expecting to find recipes scattered in the book. I'm not sure where I got that idea, but it may have helped? It just wasn't for me.

A multicultural exploration of romance and family with a pinch of Austen = Perfection!

Ashna and Rico found each other as teenagers at their most vulnerable and despite finding love they couldn’t weather what life threw at them. Twelve years later neither have found love again and both are once again at a vulnerable turning point when fate brings them back together.

Ashna’s journey to self love and acceptance is so beautiful and Rico’s support of her, even when he thinks he just wants closure, is just as moving. Their banter and knowledge of each other on a soul deep level create a romance worthy of its Austen inspiration. But for me, the exploration of Rico’s Brazilian and English roots and Ashn’a Indian heritage through food and love combined with Shobi’s journey are what make this book so amazing.

I also really loved the flashbacks to Ashna and Shobi’s youth that showed how very similar mother and daughter actually are.

I’m a devotee of this series and can’t wait for more of this family and their journeys.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book but all opinions are my own.

Recipe For Persuasion is the second book in The Rajes series. This can be read as a stand alone so you don’t need to read Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors (the first book) beforehand. Overall, I liked this book better than the first one. I thought that the plot was intriguing and the characters were deeply complex. However, I did feel that the story did drag out a bit. Ashna and Rico’s chemistry seemed more like tell than show where the story keeps saying they are deeply in love, but it never really shows why they’re still in love with each other after all this time. I wasn’t a big fan of Ashna’s mother Shobi even though I understand that she’s an integral character in book. Though the book was very well written and I was rooting for the characters, I felt like I was waiting for the characters to get their stuff together despite their troubled pasts. This contemporary romance is not lighthearted by any means. If you do decide to read this book, be forewarned that there are quite a few triggers which I’m surprised that this wasn’t put in the beginning of the book. Trigger warnings include suicide, alcoholism, rape, anxiety, and death of a parent.

2.5 stars
While the first book would have been a solid loose P&P retelling were it not for a mishandling with the Yash subplot, I found Recipe for Persuasion bland by comparison. There is the basic setup Persuasion there, with the reunited lovers once parted due to class differences, but it loses all the punch of the original in Dev’s reimagining.

Neither of the leads is particularly likable or memorable. In fact, not being a fan of vengeance plots, I found Rico’s ploy to worm his way into the Rajes’ cooking show after having a chip on his shoulder years later after being dumped by Ashna in high school immature, and he didn’t become endearing over time either. And while Ashna doesn’t have anything wrong with her, she’s not particularly memorable either. I had no idea what they saw in each other.

And while Ashna’s mother is self concerned and neglectful, it was her arc that ultimately carried me through the book, especially as the circumstances of her abusive marriage to Ashna’s father were revealed, and handled with far greater delicacy than the issues of the previous book. I would have been much happier if the story had shifted to focus more on her and her relationship with Ashna, as well as her finding love again.

From a brief glance at the reviews, this one is definitely polarizing, with some loving it, and some sharing my sentiments. I think if it interests you, I’d recommend reading it for yourself to form your own opinion.

An absolutely charming book. Although recalling Jane Austen's Persuasion, Dev does a marvelous job of doing something Austen's book does nott -- bringin us into the minds of the main characters. With complicated but loveable characters and a sub-plot of old and new conceptions onf women's roles, it's a wonderful book.

A great and first-class read by new-to-me author, Sonali Dev! Dev entertainingly brings us the story of an ex-couple who are reunited on the set of a cooking show. Humorous antics follow, as one can imagine! I will definitely be reading more from this author!

Recipe for Persuasion is wonderfully rich and detailed with its portrayal of Ashna overcoming adversity. The added layer of cooking and family heritage really resonated with me. I will definitely be recommending this book to patrons at my library!

Ashna is a troubled woman trying to save her father's restaurant. Rico is her high school boyfriend. They were separated at the end of high school, with hurt feelings and misunderstandings on both sides. When Ashna's friend convinces her to enter a cooking reality tv show, Rico finds out about it. As a star professional soccer player, he pulls some strings to become Ashna's celebrity partner on the show.

As the title suggests, this book is a retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion. I'm not a huge fan of retellings of Jane Austen, especially when they follow the story almost exactly. This book was different enough in setting, characters, story, and tone that I really enjoyed it.

It was deeper than I expected, too - the subplot of Ashna's fraught relationship with her mother plays a great second fiddle to the romance between Ashna and Rico. Her mother at times is also a narrator, which I thought I wouldn't like, but which eventually became almost as compelling as the main storyline. Her mother is a complex and dynamic character, who begins as a villain until her own perspective is added to that of Ashna's. At the beginning, there were a bit too many internal monologues, but it didn't keep me from turning the pages.

I need to re-read Persuasion now, and I just checked out Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors from my library. If you're a fan of Austen re-tellings and modern romances with cooking themes, you'll likely appreciate this book.

Ashna is stuck. She's a chef who can only cook her father's recipes. And even those aren't that good anymore. In order to save her Palo Alto restaurant, she agrees to join a Food Network show hosted by her friend DJ Caine. She is paired by international soccer star Rico Silva, who just happens to be her first love. D

Dev does it again, taking Jane Austen's Persuasion and weaving Indian culture, mouth watering food descriptions, and true to life emotions. This is a second-chance romance that you will devour.

If you have a chai addiction, love cooking shows, soccer, or stories about family--specifically mothers and daughters, then this is the book for you.

This book sums up who I am as a person, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. This book left me happy, and I really loved all the characters. As you can tell from the title, this book takes inspiration from Austen's Persuasion just as the one before played on Pride and Prejudice. Sonali captures both the wit and the inner turmoil of characters in a way that lends itself perfectly to an Austen retelling.