Title: Recipe for Persuasion
Author: Sonali Dev
Type: Fiction
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
(HarperCollins)
Date published: May 26, 2020

A digital copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Chef Ashna Raje desperately needs a new strategy. How else can she save her beloved restaurant and prove to her estranged, overachieving mother that she isn’t a complete screw up? When she’s asked to join the cast of Cooking with the Stars, the latest hit reality show teaming chefs with celebrities, it seems like just the leap of faith she needs to put her restaurant back on the map. She’s a chef, what’s the worst that could happen?

Rico Silva, that’s what.

Being paired with a celebrity who was her first love, the man who ghosted her at the worst possible time in her life, only proves what Ashna has always believed: leaps of faith are a recipe for disaster.

FIFA winning soccer star Rico Silva isn’t too happy to be paired up with Ashna either. Losing Ashna years ago almost destroyed him. The only silver lining to this bizarre situation is that he can finally prove to Ashna that he’s definitely over her.

But when their catastrophic first meeting goes viral, social media becomes obsessed with their chemistry. The competition on the show is fierce…and so is the simmering desire between Ashna and Rico.  Every minute they spend together rekindles feelings that pull them toward their disastrous past. Will letting go again be another recipe for heartbreak—or a recipe for persuasion…?

⤖ My Review ⬻

I read the first book in Sonali Dev’s The Rajes series, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors, last May and adored it. Yes, I do find that Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is retold a lot, but I’m just a sucker for the miscommunication and hate-to-love trope! Plus, I really enjoyed how Dev retold the classic tale. But, I’m supposed to be discussing Recipe for Persuasion today, haha. Keeping with the Austen retelling theme, Dev has retold Persuasion.

Now, I actually know nothing about Persuasion, so everything in Dev’s book was completely new to me and I can’t speak on whether she retold Persuasion well or where the twists might have been… I can, however, say that I simply enjoyed Recipe for Persuasion (outside of it being a retelling). We originally meet Ashna in Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors, and I remember being very curious about her and her story. Well, Dev laid it all out in Recipe for Persuasion and she did not disappoint.

The story is complex and I loved the layers on layers on layers of it! I also enjoy how she connects certain plot points. Dev is a natural storyteller, and it shows! The modern setting and the cooking show kept me interested, as did the slow and steady unveiling of the past. I also love the way that Dev involves more than one generation of characters in the story and just wish that the rest of the Rajes had been a bit more present in this book. That being said, there was a lot that had to be laid out in order for the story to unfold naturally, so I understand why the Rajes weren’t as present as in the first book. And speaking of comparisons to the first book, I wanted to also mention that I definitely felt the chemistry a lot more in Recipe for Persuasion! Overall, this book was a pleasure to read, and I can’t wait to see what Dev will do with the series next!

⤖ About the Author ⬻

Sonali Dev’s first literary work was a play about mistaken identities performed at her neighborhood Diwali extravaganza in Mumbai. She was eight years old. Despite this early success, Sonali spent the next few decades getting degrees in architecture and written communication, migrating across the globe, and starting a family while writing for magazines and websites. With the advent of her first gray hair her mad love for telling stories returned full force, and she now combines it with her insights into Indian culture to conjure up stories that make a mad tangle with her life as supermom, domestic goddess, and world traveler. Sonali lives in the Chicago suburbs with her very patient and often amused husband and two teens who demand both patience and humor, and the world’s most perfect dog.

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⤖ Let’s Chat ⬻

THANK YOU FOR READING MY REVIEW! HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? WHAT DID YOU THINK? AND IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT YET, DO YOU WANT TO, OR NOT? HOW COME? LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS!