This follow-up to Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors stands on its own. In this loose retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Ashna is a Bay Area chef so desperate to save her family’s failing restaurant she agrees to compete on the reality tv show Cooking with the Stars. That’s where she reconnects with her first love—now a Brazilian soccer star—on live tv, for the first time since he disappeared twelve years ago on the worst night of her life. Dev puts her own spin on Austen’s classic, while highlighting the timeless themes of the original: a young woman sensitive to her family’s criticism, a disadvantaged young man with no credentials but a bright future, an unexpected second chance at first love. A sensitive, satisfying update.

I picked up the first in this series - PRIDE PREJUDICE AND OTHER FLAVORS last fall after a friends glowing review. I love “Austen reimagined” stories. So I was eager to get my hands on Dev’s upcoming release. While I’ve read Persuasion, I am by no means an expert on its inner workings. That background (or lack thereof) aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

This second chance love story is deeply layered and perhaps a bit heavier than I expected. There are elements of sweet rom-com levity- a chef/celebrity cooking show, a romance with a coming of age backstory and a current day push&pull. I loved getting a more nuanced look at the family I got to know in the PP&OF. But there are weightier issues to address like suicide, neglect, cultural expectations and abuse. I appreciated how Dev blended the light & dark into a wholly satisfying story.

Ashna and Rico secretly dated in high school. Once her father finds out, everything goes south and they end up heartbroken and going their separate ways. Rico becomes a soccer superstar and Ashna ends up taking over her father’s restaurant. When Rico has a career ending injury, he reads Ashna is going to be on a Food Network show where celebrities are paired with professional chefs. He asks his agent to get him on the show and ensure he is paired up with Ashna. Ashna is only on the show to save her father’s restaurant, so when Rico shows up as her partner, she realizes her involvement is going to be much more than she bargained for.

This book...is so good! In my opinion, Sonali Dev is one of the most talented authors currently writing in romance. This book is so packed with emotion from Ashna, Rico, and her mother Shobi. The level of emotional trauma that Ashna was exposed to as a child is heartbreaking. I was so angry on her behalf at her family for not recognizing the dysfunctional relationship she had with her father sooner. She needed to be protected, but they had no idea because of how well she internalized her emotions. Rico and Ashna have an epic connection. Rico is the only person Ashna can be herself with, because she is masking all of her emotions with her family. This is just skimming the surface of this book. There is so much to talk about in regards to Ashna’s mom and dad...if you read it and want to discuss, I am available! I loved this book and I think this book has the potential to be a romance classic!

I enjoyed this take on a Food Network cooking show but was also a bit frustrated with how much cat and mouse went on between the protagonists. Ashna was an emotional mess and needed therapy, Rico seemed the most normal of all the characters. Ashna's mother was tenacious and I think we were to admire her, although if she were my mother I (like Ashna) would have found her overbearing. Not being Indian, I found some of the references to Indian culture going over my head. I did like this book just not as much as Dev's Bollywood Bride.

Chef Ashna Raje is desperately trying to save her late father's restaurant and prove to her family she really can do it all. When she's asked to join the cast of a celebrity cooking show, she sees it as her chance to prove herself and save her restaurant. She just wasn't expecting to be paired with the one person she never wanted to see again, her first love and the man who left when she needed him the most, Rico Silva.

Rico is a soccer playing god who has the world at his disposal but has only ever had eyes for Ashna. When their reunion sparks instant chemistry and social media fame, they have to decide how to face it, on both sides of the camera. The more time they spend together the closer they come to facing their pasts and finding out the truth of what really tore them apart.

Recipe for Persuasion is the second in a series of Jane Austen retellings by Sonali Dev. Though I haven't read the first book in this series (based on Pride and Prejudice), this story was perfect as a standalone. The relationship between Ashna and Rico was fraught with all the complications of a past romance and secrets left unsaid. Ashna's relationship with her mother was a huge part of the story and their stories added new layers and depth to aspects of this retelling. Though the added story line of Ashna's mother was confusing at first, once I understood what was going on it brought understanding and context to the main story.

I found the banter to be witty and emotional and the relationships to be realistic. I highly recommend this to anyone who's a fan of the original Persuasion or anyone looking for a good second chance romance with a mix of family drama.

I went into this book thinking it would be a sweet, light romance, however this is deeper and really tackles some tough issues such as rape, grief, and trauma. This is a retelling of Persuasion, but I love that it doesn´t follow the original exactly as others such as Anna K did. It tells of Ashna, an Indian-American, who is struggling to keep up the family restaurant until she gets the opportunity to be on a cooking show. On this show she is paired with an old boyfriend from high school, Rico. The cultural parts of this were really fun, but this book is not light. It is a feminist, modern take on a classic story.

This second entry in Sonali Dev's series rewriting Jane Austen's novels is by far the best to date...perhaps that's because I don't know the storyline of Persuasion enough to critically pick through Dev's novel as I could the first. Regardless, her characters pop off the page with chemistry, and she doesn't shy away from complicated family relationships and how the past can ruin the future. Highly recommend!

Cute, fun, smart, heartbreaking and joyful. This book is one of the best Jane Austen retellings I have ever read! 

Dev paints a vivid picture of life and love within these pages making it impossible to put down. Her characters are deep, interesting, multifaceted and real. I loved following Ashna and Rico, watching their story develop and unfold with each turn of a page. 

I really love that Dev reimagined Jane Austen's Persuasion as a celebrity Food Network competition. It's wholly original, allowing Dev to make the story her own while staying true to its source material. 

I also really enjoyed the format of the book. Throughout it you switch from three different character perspectives: Ashna, Rico and Shoban (Ashna's mother). Watching the story develop through each of their perspectives, and learning their history with each other, was very interesting and having the different perspectives really added a lot to the story in my opinion.

I loved reading about the Raje family, their friends and learning about their complicated history with one another. 

A must read for Austen lovers and foodies!

**ARC from NetGalley**

Cute book. I like how the relationship developed. Characters were flawed just right and believable. There was growth and more than one character arc which was nice. I also enjoyed changing POV for the different chapters that way you could understand everyone better.

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This was a contemporary romance dealing with a celebrity cooking show that was loosely based on jane Austen 's persuasion. It was an okay read for me more because of the persuasion theme than the authors writing style. I didn't fall in love with the characters either but I think that was more my tastes. Overall a good read and i would be willing to read something else by this author.

I love sonali dev’s books and she does it again with this one - absolutely knocked it out of the part with the Austen wink (Persuasion) and kept modern romance alive and diverse! Thumbs up!

Recipe for Persuasion is a recipe for perfection. This book is so much more than a rom-com. It's warm and witty, with wonderfully drawn characters, and strong social messages. Ashna Raje, a chef, agrees to participate on a celebrity reality show. What she doesn't know is Rico Silva, her high school boyfriend and world-famous soccer star, has manipulated himself onto the show as her partner. Will they get back together or can they realize their relationship is over forever? This book touches on complicated family relationships. Sonali Dev does not shy away from social issues facing us today and the book works beautifully. This will be a great book club read. I can''t wait for #3 in the Raje family series.

A fun to read, easily digestible update of Jane Austen's Persuasion. Dev made likable and realistic characters. The pacing was just right with the love story, and the food descriptions were equally swoonworthy. Not sure how much I believed that the daughter stayed so clueless about her father's actions for as long as she did, but I understand that storyline needed to be there to keep the tension up. A fun romance, and a good look into Indian culture.

I was all in on reading about Ashna and Rico's history, and then seeing how it would affect their interactions in the present. For the most part, I liked the way their story evolved. Ashna held most of my interest though, and she had a unique anxiety when it came to cooking certain meals. I enjoyed seeing how growing up with her father Bram (and her absent mother) shaped the person she was. She went through some very difficult events, so it was no wonder that she struggled in adulthood.

What surprised me about the novel was the separate point of view from Ashna's mother, Shobi. At first, I was pretty uninterested in learning about the selfish mother that left her daughter so she could thrive in her career. Especially after we learn about the kind of man Bram was. However, I do have to admit that as I continued to read, her story became intriguing, and at times, heartbreaking.
I think Shobi's story would have worked better as a companion novella. There was a lot of history there, and getting into more details would have made for a great novella. Adding it on to Ashna's and Rico's story tended to make me impatient to get back to the main couple. The tone of Shobi's chapters were very different to the rest of the novel.

I received a free E-book ARC of the book from Netgallery in exchange for an honest review. These thoughts and opinions are my own.
This book is a loosely based on Jane Austin's Persuasion. This book follows Chef Ashna Raje, who has been struggling to keep her restaurant afloat and prove to her desperately her estranged, overachieving mother that she isn’t a failure? So when she’s asked to join the cast of Cooking with the Stars, the latest hit reality show teaming chefs with celebrities, as well as cash grand prize for the winner, it seems like just the thing that will get her restaurant back to being successful. But all that goes out the window when the celebrity she is teamed up with is none other than her her first love, FIFA winning soccer star Rico Silva, who also has decided to join the show with something to prove as well; that he is most definitely over Ashna Raje.
But from their disastrous first day on the show ,every minute they spend together rekindles feelings that pull them toward their disastrous past. Will they be able to confront their past mistakes and assumptions and choose a path of their own making?
First of all I want to say. I am a huge Jane Austin fan and Persuasion just so happens to be my favorite novel of hers of all time. So when I discovered this book, I could not wait to read this retelling and it did not disappoint. The The first couple of chapters of this book were by far the slowest parts of the book and could have been left out or at least the backstory could have been more interwoven throughout the book. Nevertheless, as the story progressed I became more and more satisfied with the pacing of the story. I enjoyed how much the author built up Rico's and Ashna's chemistry. The reader is able to tell just by being in the same room, even early on, these two characters have never lost their feelings for one another. I enjoyed how much Rico was able to help Ashne finally come out and share what has been holding her back for so long and not just with him, but also with her mother. I felt the writing was very good and the author used the native language well in order to give the book a more cultural feeling. Overall, I found this book very enjoyable and I look forward to more books by this author. I would recommend this book to those who love Jane Austin as well as those who also love a second chance romance with food!

This was a heavy romance and readers should be told trigger warnings for rape, suicide, domestic abuse, PTSD, and anxiety. This story has all the drama and high stakes of the Austen novel it is adapting, and the romance is plenty swoon worthy. I don't know if this retelling of Persuasion was as true to the original novel because I've only read it once in college (enjoyed it though), but I think it brought the beloved Austen themes and style to a modern era. Set in California, our two lovers estranged by misunderstandings, family, and twelve years meet again on a reality cooking show. Both have been through trauma but find each other again at the right time to deal with past demons and fight for who they want to be in the future. This is not a light hearted romance but it is a deeper tale about love, both romantically and familial. It is very well written, packed full of diversity and modern references to delight readers and keep them going through the emotional threads of the story. I recommend it for fans of Austen romance and wanting to read diverse, modern romances with the depth of classic novels we love.

If you enjoy cooks and cooking shows, this not-as-close-as-you'd-like spin on Austen's Persuasion, gives you a look into a high stakes celebrity cooking show featuring two broken down former lovers at the center. Light reading it's not and that may just the perfect fit for a reader looking for more layers than the usual meet/cute rom-com offers.

Capturing the angsty, anguished feel of Jane Austen's novel Persuasion, this is about two people who are separated for 12 years due to misunderstandings and parental disapproval. Ashna Raje and Frederico Silva reunite on a reality-television set for "Cooking with the Stars," churning up old feelings and family secrets. The backstory of Ashna's family is interesting, due to its setting in a traditional Indian family where women are treated as less-than and where Ashna's mother tries to break out of those bonds with mixed results. The story could have been tightened up a little in the middle portions, but it ends strongly.

How is Somali Dev this freaking good? I loved this book even more than her last. Highly recommended.

This is the second book of Somali Dev’s which is inspired by Jane Austen books. Here we have a book inspired by Persuasion. This book takes you on an emotional journey. You have a daughter who is trying to impress her estranged mother while at the same time dealing with her childhood love who is now a soccer star. So we have Ashna who is struggling to keep her fathers restaurant afloat. Rico is her childhood sweetheart whose soccer career recently ended due to injury. They are partnered up on a celebrity cooking show. What I really enjoy is as Ashna and Rico work through their past we also see Ashna’s mother Shobis past relationship with Ashnas father. It’s a beautiful love story which shows how the past can affect our future in subtle ways. It’s not only a love story but also a story about a mother and daughter who learn to repair their relationship by dealing with their past histories. It is written beautifully and was a wonderful book. I received a copy from netgalley and this is my honest review.