Tuesday, October 29, 2013

[Review]—"Born of Persuasion" by Jessica Dotta


Born of Persuasion, the first novel in Jessica Dotta's Price of Privilege series is written in the manner of Emily Bronte and Jane Austen. The story, which takes place in 1838, is focused on seventeen-year-old Julia Elliston, whose parents had both passed away. She is therefore without a place to reside in a time when women are considered to be men's legal property. She discovers she has a guardian she has never seen, who lives in Scotland and would take her in as a servant.

Her guardian has provided her with an alternate solution: she must find a husband within two months. Julia's childhood sweetheart, Edward Auburn, was her first choice for a husband, but since he joined the ministry, he is no longer an option. She simply wanted to marry Edward, but now she would do anything to get engaged to someone. 

Lady Foxmore meets Julia by accident, and she wants to assist her in finding a suitable husband. She introduces Julia to Mr. Macy, a wealthy and attractive man who is almost twice Julia's age. Mr. Darcy is intrigued by her and wants to introduce Julia to society—the wealthy world.

It's good to see a novelist enter the Victoria Holt realm with book one of a new series because Gothic historical romances appear to be a genre on the decline. The novel would have flowed more naturally, in my opinion, if it had been written from a third-person narrative rather than through the eyes of the main protagonist, Julia. Her incessant back-and-forth over the two guys she loves, which could be aggravating, made me think of Bella from The Twilight Saga. Although I think the author missed her target audience, the basic narrative concept is fantastic. However, there are times when it reads like a Gothic romance for adults and other times when it reads like an average young adult tale. Although the premise may be intriguing, I found Born of Persuasion to be quite dull.╌★★✩✩✩

4 comments:

  1. What was boring about it? I challenge you to read it again, and at a fast pace, and then see if your mind is changed.

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    1. I'm not sure exactly why I found it uninteresting, but I read this nine years ago, so I can't really explain. I don't possess the book anymore, so I can't reread it.

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  2. Just so you know, the character's name is Mr. Macy, not Mr. Darcy (who is a character from Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen)

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    1. Thank you for spotting my error. Actually, it's more likely that I was thinking of Pride & Prejudice when I wrote my first review and didn't make a typo. Although my ideas haven't changed, I restructured and rewrote the review in addition to correcting the character name.

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