Retellings Quick Reviews

 Jane & Edward by Melodie Edwards (2023)

A modern-day retelling of Jane Eyre, taking place in a Canadian law firm.  Jane has had a rough life, but sees a legal assistant career as a good way to finally become financially independent.  Her first job out of school is at a prestigious law firm, working for one of the partners.  Although he has a poor reputation, Jane sees another side to him, and Edward also falls for Jane - but will his secrets keep them apart?  Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books, and I think, with the updates the author made, it lends itself well to a modern setting.  Jane is practical, no-nonsense, and gets things done.  Even when she has moments of weakness, she allows herself only a short time to fall apart before getting back on with it.  I loved the way she handled Edward when no other assistant could.  I think he could have hid his feelings for longer - it seemed like he came around too quickly.  For a debut author, the pacing and writing were nice, although it could have done with more editing.  There were some cringey uses of modern slang, yet at certain points, the writing reminded me of the classic book and I was confused as to what era the book was taking place in.  Not sure if that was intentional or not!  Overall, though, I enjoyed the way the author used elements of the original story to create this new one.  4 stars

 

 

Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match by Sally Thorne (2023)

 

Angelika Frankenstein is an assistant to her brother, scientist Victor Frankenstein, and while he works on his projects, she is running a simultaneous experiment to reanimate a man of her own, to create her perfect match.  When the experiment works, she has to deal with the fact that he may not want to be who she wants him to be.  Ok, this is going to get a little ranty - what did I just read?  I appreciate a good retelling, and the idea of creating your own man, because you can't find one worthy enough of you, is clever - although a little creepy because this man used to be dead.  I was a little confused right from the beginning - Angelika goes from searching the morgue for body parts to reanimating "Will" to declaring her true love so quickly, I felt like I missed something - how did she get this idea?  What were her previous attempts like?  How does she decide what makes up her perfect man?  And considering she's using random body parts, what does she know about him other than what he looks like?  Did she never consider that when he "woke up," he might have memories of his old life, a life he might need or want to return to?  What if he was married?  What if he had kids?  Just so many questions!!  And Angelika was not really a great person - if you've completely run out of suitors, maybe the problem is you?  The way she kept mentioning how rich she was and could just buy Will anything he wanted was off-putting, too, like that's what would make him fall in love with her.  I guess she does grow a bit over the course of the book, but this one was just a "meh" read for me.  3 stars

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