Nikki Payne has a follow-up to Pride and Protest with a modern adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. I am SO glad I was asked to read an ARC and didn't have to wait to read about Nora and Bear. Did you know Edward Ferrars (Ennis Bear Freeman) could be sexy? I didn't know he could be sexy!
Nora’s reputation in tatters due to a viral video and she just learned she and her sister Yanne are the secret family—at her father’s funeral. They need to revamp a Maine inn before Labor Day or they lose their inheritance.
Bear has his own struggling business as an ecotourist, and he and Nora form a partnership that could be something more. But Bear’s silence about his past might to be the one thing that sends Nora away.
I'm pretty sure anyone hanging around here has read Sense and Sensibility or seen the Emma Thompson adaptation, but you don’t need to know Austen to get into this story. (Although when Yanne writes a birthday poem to Bear mentioning dead leaves, I hope you smiled to yourself.)
I was instantly drawn in watching Nora and Bear’s backstory unfold and cheering for them to forgo the duty and sense and just smoosh faces for crying out loud. They have great chemistry amidst a deeper story about reputation and identity. If you like slow burn, spice, humor, and fantastic characterization, read Sex, Lies, and Sensibility.