Description
Which is the key to love—passion or sensibility? Sensible Elly and romantic Maren are sisters trying to hold their family together in the wake of their father’s bankruptcy and death. As each unexpectedly encounters the madness and misadventures of love, will they ever find the true happiness they dream of? This modern reimagination of the Jane Austen favorite will capture your heart all over again.
About Rebecca H. Jamison
Rebecca H. Jamison has lived on a live volcano, excavated the bones of a prehistoric mammal, and won first prize at a rigged chili cook-off. She wrote novels just for fun until she made a New Year’s resolution in 2011 to submit a manuscript to publishers. Her first two published works are Persuasion: A Latter-day Tale and Emma: A Latter-day Tale. Rebecca grew up in Virginia. She attended Brigham Young University, where she earned a BA and MA in English. In between college and graduate school, she served a mission to Portugal and the Cape Verde islands. Her job titles have included special education teacher’s aide, technical writer, English teacher, and stay-at-home mom. Rebecca enjoys running, dancing, reading, and watching detective shows. She lives with her husband and children in Utah. You can learn more about her at
www.rebeccahjamison.com.
My Review
I have been wanting to read Rebecca H. Jamisons first two books in her Latter-Day Tale series, but I hadn't gotten the chance to yet. Now I must read them both soon, because Sense and Sensibility was amazing and I loved every minute I spent with its characters! I was hooked from the very first paragraph, ready to turn the pages and not stop reading until I had read the very last word on the very last page (unfortunately that couldn't happen, but I did read it in one day because it was so good)!
Why was I hooked so quickly?
Well, I can honestly say that I have never read a book that started out the way this one did. I was intrigued by Elly and her youngest sister Grace who was autistic. Then Ethan came along!
~ Don't forget to throw in a bunch of hilarious events throughout the entire book, it had me laughing out loud!
There were two main characters that we saw perspectives from. Sisters to be exact. Practical and sensible Elly who is super cautious with everything, especially when it comes to love (I'm sensible like Elly so I could relate). Then there's Maren who is desperate to feel and get out of the darkness surrounding her, throwing caution to the wind (I'm NOT good at throwing caution to the wind, so her perspective was really interesting to read). Yet, as different as they are, they are more similar than it at first appears. I loved both perspectives, they really tied everything together and brought more to each individuals character.
Elly is basically the central force that holds her family together. While her mother works Elly who has slightly humorous ways to get over her irritation with other people. She is also the one who takes care of Grace. I loved how she interacted with Grace and was so patient with her, and it was fun to get to know Grace. I really enjoyed reading about her because she's autistic and you could really see the love the sisters had for her. Then Elly meets kind and caring Ethan, who is fantastic with Grace. The problem? He's a Ferrero, a terrible horrible Ferrero! One of which her ex left her for three years ago, then proceeded to drive her family's company out of business. Then she gets a job with the rival company and get closer to Ethan, ensuring many hilarious altercations and situations!
Ethan was amazing at first! He was so kind and caring and perfect for Elly! But it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows:( I'm not telling!
Maren was having a really tough time with depression. After her father's death and her lack of a job after like three hundred applications, she just couldn't see the point in getting out of bed every day. I had never read a book that dealt with depression before, but Maren and her situations and thoughts made it seem so real and like I could almost understand. This was one way that we got to see what lengths each sister would go through to help the other, as Elly tries to help Maren get over her depression and be a little more logical, and Maren tries to help Elly be a little less, well, sensible!
~ Don't forget! Lots of funny situations!
Then the family moves across the country to live with their grandmother. There we have Elly and Ethan having a long distance relationship, and Maren in love with an unreliable untrustworthy man, and with a sweet and reliable man in love with her!
All of the characters were very well written, and added even more to the book and to the readers experience while reading it.
As struggle, love, tragedy, health, joy, sadness, anger, feelings, life, and lessons all collide in this humorous retelling of Jane Austins Sense and Sensibility you will fall in love with this book! The descriptions especially through Marens artist eyes were so vivid, and the feelings and issues of the characters become your own. You will fall in love with them all, and you won't want the book to end! The two guys were amazing and so perfect for the two sisters, will the live happily ever after?
Also, there were places during this book where I smiled, and smiled, and smiled, laughed out loud, cried, wondered if things could possibly get any worse for the two (and they did) etc. as situations and circumstances collided. The end left me feeling like I might burst with happiness, and with a huge smile on my face though, and it didn't disappear until, oh I don't know, maybe thirty minutes after I finished reading! Okay, maybe twenty-eight minutes later!
Seriously, go read this book!
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are solely my own.
and 
In Summer!
