Pemberley by the Sea

August 25, 2008
In this engaging love story, Austen enthusiast Reynolds (The Pemberley Variations
) brings echoes of Elizabeth and Darcy to present-day New England. Marine biologist Cassie Boulton spends summers at an insular Cape Cod academic community, studying salt marshes. Sparks fly when Calder Westing, the heir of a famous political dynasty, enters her life, but Cassie knows better than to fall for a man who can have any woman he wants. Certain her low-profile career and inner-city Chicago background disqualify her from long-term consideration, she cuts ties with Calder after just one steamy night. Cassie doesn't know that Calder harbors genuine feelings for her. With some literary maneuvering, Calder finally wins Cassie's heart, but his powerful, ruthless father is determined to split them up. Beyond a surplus of cliché and throwaway characters, lush descriptions of Cape Cod are appropriately aphrodisiacal, the couple's wit and chemistry make them worth rooting for, and Cassie's well-rendered intellectual life not only gives her depth and independence, it gives readers a welcome break from that standard of modern heroine-ism, the plucky fashion and/or media lackey.

January 22, 2009
Another offering from Reynolds, this time an imaginative, 21st-century retelling of P&P set on Cape Cod. Despite her love for Austen-style happy endings, marine biologist Cassie Boulton wants nothing to do with the modern-day Darcy who shows up in her lab. But the taciturn and aloof Calder Westing will do anything to convince her they belong together, even if this means writing his own version of P& P. As enjoyable and sensual as any of Reynolds's novels.-Jeanne Bogino, New Lebanon Lib., NY

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2008
Reynolds offers a modern variation onJane Austens Prideand Prejudice, as she did in Impulse & Initiative, also reviewed in this issue, byfocusing on Cassie Boulton, a successful marine biologist trying to outrun her past, and Calder Westing, the haughty, handsome son of a politician who wants nothing to do with the family profession. Cassie, who is in Cape Cod for asummerresearch project, finds Calder off-putting and entirely unappealing. Thrust together because of the romance between her friend Erin and his friend Scott, Cassie and Calder find themselves drawn to each other, resulting in a steamy encounter on the ocean. Certain Calders interest in her isnt genuine, and haunted by her past, Cassie puts Calder off and flees back to the college where she teaches.Although some elements are a bitcheesyCalder writes a modern Prideand Prejudice novel casting himself and Cassie as the star-crossed loversReynolds convincingly updates Austens classic, and romance fans will be carried along by the smoldering heat between Cassie and Calder.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)