LynneC’s review of A Wicked Persuasion by Catherine George
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 1 Mar 12

In this series of loose adaptations of classic novels by Mills and Boon, Catherine George has taken on Jane Austen’s Persuasion. So now it’s time to come clean. Yes, I’ve read Persuasion once, when I was eighteen. Second confession—Jane Austen isn’t a favourite of mine. I find her tone dry. I appreciate that she was a revolutionary writer who brought the novel on another leap, but I’d far rather curl up with a good Dickens or Tom Jones or Evelina or even Tristram Shandy, if I’m feeling adventurous. They’re bursting with life and in comparison I find Austen’s comedies of manners less than enthralling. Even the revered Pride and Prejudice.

There, I said it. I don’t have to be ashamed anymore. So I’m reviewing George’s book as a stand-alone.

The heroine, Harriet, is a doormat of the first order. The origins of this loose adaptation are probably clearest in the character of Harriet. I can see the book working well as a period piece, but while George’s efforts to bring her up to date are worthwhile, Harriet is still, by modern standards, a doormat. She made a promise to her mother to keep the house River House, which was descended through her mother, not her father, and when the stock market crashes and her father’s unwise investments with it, the house is under threat. Harriet finds the solution – to let the house to agencies, film companies and suchlike, not her father, who is a useless, selfish person until much later in the book, when I’d lost all patience with him.

Ten years ago, her father has Harriet’s one and only love sacked when she says she wants to move in with him. Actually James isn’t sacked, he is transferred, and returns ten years later as the owner of his own company and wealthy. To get his revenge, although he’s a sensible man who won’t let revenge get in the way of company success, so that makes the plot and motivation a little muddy.

Harriet makes herself ill looking after her selfish sister’s child, arranging for the management of her selfish father’s house and doing her regular job. She’s an accountant, and she enjoys it (so there). Told you. Martyr. James looks after her, so naturally she thinks he’s there to see her in her misery, s0 tells him to go away. Then she goes away for a few days. James joins her, and they have some weird disagreement which I’m still not sure about, but which moves the plot along nicely to its black moment.

I got lost in this story. There are far too many characters for a short novel to hold. While Ms. George does a great job at giving each person basic characteristics, I couldn’t follow them all. Just got too confused eventually. There are sisters and fathers and friends and a would-be suitor, and, as a result, the romance is pushed into the background. James and Harriet just don’t get enough time together, and because they are old flames, their relationship is merely rekindled, not renewed and refreshed.

Austen had a much longer novel to expand and investigate all the characters. There’s also the problem that she wasn’t writing a romance as such, only a comedy of manners (which isn’t to say that the novel is funny, or no funnier than Shakespeare’s comedies). I don’t really care about Harriet’s relationship with her selfish sister or her selfish father (there are a lot of selfish fathers in Austen’s books, aren’t there?) I want to read about the developing romance between a more mature Harriet and James. And I want her to tell everyone to look after their own lives. She doesn’t, they sort their lives out for themselves, and then say sorry. So there is no redemptive moment for Harriet. I am convinced that she wouldn’t continue to organise everyone’s lives for them, especially with the ultimate outcome.

However, Ms. George is a great technical writer. Her style flows and her voice is easy and confident. She’s weathered the many storms in the Mills and Boon household with ease, and as one of the old-school writers, she’s done a lot to adapt to newer requirements and not stayed in the brutal alpha/weak female rut. I’ve read books of hers with much more confident, competent heroines, and I’m sure she’ll do more in the future.

Grade: C-

Summary:

A flame that never died… One glimpse of James Crawford’s roguish good-looks sparked a fire in young heiress Harriet Wilde that burned red-hot – until her father forced her to break off the relationship. No way was his daughter going to dilute the family line! Ten years later… James, now the head of a multi-million-pound empire, returns to get revenge on the woman who thought she was too good for him. He’ll make her feel every ounce of the humiliation he once did. But he only succeeds in fanning the flames of a fire he’d thought long dead…

No excerpt available.