This is my third month participating in #girlsinwhitedressesbookclub that I founded alongside my friends Megan and Mercedes. It’s been a lot of fun reading books with kindred spirits who share my taste in romantic and whimsical things.
This month’s choice was Jane Austen’s Persuasion. Though I’d read it years ago, the time between my first reading and this second reread was so great that it felt like I was reading it for the first time.
Persuasion seems to be one of Austen’s least popular books so I wasn’t expecting much, but oh my goodness I loved it! Anne Elliot is now my favorite Jane Austen heroine (tied with Emma). I love second chance romances and this is now my favorite.
Anne is such a wonderful character. It’s easy to root for her, to wish her well. Perhaps I can relate to her as an introverted middle child who has been the practical one, the one who everyone shares their secrets and all their complaints with, the one who suffers in silence and just does what needs to be done. Her love of books and a quiet existence in the countryside spoke to me. Her hesitation to leave the quiet country life for a sociable time in Bath was also entirely relatable.
The way she continued to love Wentworth even after so many years separation — relatable!
I could see some aspects of myself in Fanny Price (Mansfield Park) but now I’m convinced if I were to step into a Jane Austen I’d be Anne Elliot.
Some books come into our lives at just the right time and I must say Persuasion has left me hoping that I’ll have my happy ending one day too.
5 ⭐️
Read it!