Jane and Edward. Melodie Edwards. 2023. [March] 352 pages. [Source: Review copy]
First sentence: She hated burgers. Hated the smell of them, the sight of them, the over-puffed buns and leaky meat grease that dripped out of them, hated the sticky condiment bottles that shuffled from table to table to accompany them, and the ever-present customer complaints of overcooked/undercooked.
Premise/plot: Jane Raine, our protagonist, is a waitress who absolutely hates her job. She goes to school to become a legal assistant. After finishing school, she is hired to become the assistant to a difficult-to-work-for lawyer, Edward Rosen. Few assistants stick with the job long. He goes through a LOT of assistants. But Jane Raine is determined to make this job work. Over several months, these two adjust to each other and even come to enjoy one another's company. Yes, he isn't quite like the other lawyers at the law firm. But she comes to appreciate his eccentricities (or most of them). They even begin to fall in love and date...secretly. (Not coming out to HR). But his secret(s) may doom the relationship...
My thoughts: The setting for this contemporary Jane Eyre retelling is Canada. (Toronto, to be exact. Though the characters do move around a bit through the novel. So not exclusively Toronto).
Retellings can be tough. This one keeps some of the original story/details. But it also changes plenty. Don't expect a literal 'crazy' wife kept in an attic. Don't expect his brother-in-law to be stabbed. Definitely don't expect Edward to dress up as a fortune teller. And probably it's best if you don't expect literal fires--though there is a fire drill. The romance keeps obstacles, but just switches things up a bit.
As with the original novel, I found myself loving the first half more than the second half. It's just really hard to stay (as) engaged once Jane runs away.
All things considered, I enjoyed it for the most part. I am definitely glad I gave it a chance. It may not be better than the original, but it is enjoyable.
(For those that are curious, this one mainly fades to gray when it comes to intimate scenes. (Not completely clean by a long shot. But not horribly graphic either.)
© 2023 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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