Review of A Woman's Persuasion by Jeanette Watts

Welcome to the Blurb Blitz tour for A Woman's Persuasion, a lesbian fiction novel by Jeanette Watts. In addition to an excerpt, I'm also sharing my thoughts on this story. Be sure to let the author know what you think and ask her any questions you may have. Follow the tour for even more! And of course, there's a great giveaway at the end.

A Woman's Persuasion

What would you do for a second chance at a perfect love?

Anne's privileged family forced her to break off her romance with Freddie Wentworth, an Air Force pilot; they didn't approve. Almost eight years later, Freddie is back in her life. Can they rekindle an old flame? Or is there too much hurt and misunderstanding in the way?

Read an excerpt:

A Moment of Clarity

She looked in the mirror at the result of eight years of self-neglect and self-hatred, and she didn't like what she saw. She wished Freddie could have looked at her and seen that she had improved over the years. It didn't even need to be about her physical appearance. If she would have had three Master's Degrees and a PhD to her name, or a Pulitzer Prize, or an Oscar for Best Screenplay, or a byline in The New Yorker, that would have been something. But she had nothing to show for all the intervening years.

She wondered if Freddie had said the words out of spite, calculating that Henry and Louis would repeat them to her, or they were merely said honestly, not thinking that they might get repeated back to her. She could only assume that Freddie expected the hurtful words to reach her ears. Freddie had not forgiven her.

Well, could she blame her? Her feebleness of character, her inability to stand by her loved one in the face of adversity, wasn't something Freddie would respect. Being in a relationship with a soldier in military service took dedication and courage, not weakness and timidity. Anne couldn’t blame her for being hurt, even disgusted. She was not worthy of the love Freddie had offered her.

The eyes that looked back at her in the mirror confirmed what she already knew. She was going to have to change. It was too late with Freddie, but she needed to be a person she could respect. She wanted her self-respect back.

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**My thoughts**

I felt like there was a bit of a slow start and that the original relationship between Freddie and Anne was somewhat glazed over. I wanted to know a lot more about that original relationship. And there was a lot of other story about all of the other people in Anne's life and how everything economically was changing, which is timely for when the novel takes place.

And then I started to really feel for Anne. Freddie accidentally appears in her life and it is so awkward. It's so hard to pretend that you have no history with someone as you're trying to save face in front of mutual people. And then there is the whole part about Anne not feeling up to par with who she was back when she and Freddie first met. There's that whole, "If only they could see me now," only Anne hasn't quite gotten to that point before Freddie comes back.

There's a lot of emotion going on here, even beyond this relationship. It may surprise you what kinds of emotions and memories it brings up in your own life. It's also short enough that it is a quick read, though I almost wanted more out of it.

Thank you the author and publisher for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

About Jeanette Watts

Jeanette Watts was happily writing historical fiction when she got the idea for her first Jane Austen-inspired novel, Jane Austen Lied to Me. Going to a JASNA event to work on selling that book, she attended a lecture that asked, "Why does everyone rewrite Pride and Prejudice so much more than her other novels? Why doesn't anyone rewrite Persuasion?"

So she had to...




Contact Links

Website: http://www.jeanettewatts.com/

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeanetteAWatts

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6967936.Jeanette_Watts

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Jeanette Watts will be awarding a Cameo Necklace to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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