#emma retelling

[boosreads]

happy pub day to my favorite romcom go read it 🩷🩷

If i loved you less by aamna qureshi — an ‘emma’ retelling

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 5/5

Book Blurb: A young magazine writer in Mumbai must prove her matchmaking skills—and contend with growing feelings for her close family friend—in this debut desi romance. “A delightful friends-to-lovers romance that will curb your sweet tooth and leave you feeling warm and happy!”—New York Times bestselling author Sarah Adams

Confident fashionista Jia Deshpande spends her days writing cliché-ridden listicles for Mimosa, Mumbai’s top women’s magazine. When she can, Jia dishes about the messy truth of real love on her anonymous blog, attends her family’s weekly game nights, and ignores her true feelings for her childhood friend. If that wasn’t enough, Jia needs to successfully set up a coworker with her perfect match to get the green light for her new matchmaking column. Thankfully, organizing meet-cutes has never been difficult for her.

 Local pub owner and cocktail genius Jaiman Patil can’t help but be enamored with Jia and her meddling spirit. He’s always been an honorary part of her family, but even more so since his own moved to America. Life with the Deshpandes is chaotic and loud, but it’s also more loving than anything he experienced growing up, and he wouldn’t risk losing that for the world. It feels manageable—until his pub begins to struggle and his long-hidden feelings for Jia grow deeper. 

When Jia’s attempts at office matchmaking go haywire, risking new friendships and her relationship with Jaiman, she must reevaluate her own thoughts on love. For the first time, Jia Deshpande realizes that love may be a lot more complicated than she thought. Luckily, happily-ever-afters are never in short supply in Mumbai.

Review:

A modern day Emma retelling about a romance advice blogger and her childhood friend, a local pub owner? I loved this! This was such a cute and fun fresh take on the classic story of Jane Austen's Emma! Jia Deshpande spends her day writing listicles for Mimosa, Mumbai's top women's magazine and her free time writing about the messy truth of real love on her blog... and trying to ignore her feelings for her childhood friend. Jaiman Patil is a local pub owner and a cocktail genius who has been in love with his childhood best friend, Gia for the last 15 years. Ever since they kissed each other during a wedding he's known that she's the one for him... except she ran away and then told him to pretend it never happened and he's willing to do anything to just spend time with her. Jaiman is struggling to keep his pub open and to make it... and his feelings for Jia are only getting harder to control... and since she only wants him as a friend he's begun to secretly write to her under a different name. Jia begins trying to matchmake at her office and things take a turn. Her friendship with Jaiman is also changing... and she's beginning to realize that love is more complicated than she could have ever imagined and that maybe her happily ever after is right next to her, if only she would talk to him and finally talk about what happened on the night they kissed. This was a really sweet and fun read and as a huge fan of Emma, this was such a delight. I loved how it had elements of the classic but also was a fresh take on it as well. Jaiman was such a swoony and amazing love interest for Jia. I loved their dynamic, how they were both so in love with each other but just couldn't take the leap just yet. I would absolutely recommend this for fans of Emma, the friends to lovers trope, and just a good romance book!

Release Date: June 4,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House | Dell for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[bethanydelleman]

so, this is a very specific question but I LOVE your blog, your takes are so well articulated and you are so knowledgeable on Austen that I wanted to hear your opinion on this.

so everyone knows that emma is the easiest austen novel to read as queer right? if you had to direct/write a modern gay emma adaptation which route would you take? lesbian emma paired w harriet (seems to be the most common take) with jane (less common but her descriptions of her were something else) or genderbent knightley? again this is v specific but I've been thinking of writing an au like that since forever and your input would be amazing:)

Hello and thank you! I actually have a very specific answer to this one because I have an unfinished fan fiction about a queer version of Emma. It's Regency so I won't modernize it. So here is what I would do:

Jane Fairfax is bisexual. Despite not liking Emma very much, they were together as teenagers before Jane stopped visiting home for two years. Jane then falls for Frank, which Emma thinks is fake because...

Emma is a lesbian.

Harriet is straight and boy-crazy. Emma and her don't have any relationship beyond being friends. (I don't like the power/intelligence imbalance here, Jane feels more equal to Emma)

Mr. Knightley is asexual and sex-repulsed. He has never married because he knows it would cause social harm for his wife to never have children because of him. He loves Emma, but didn't think their marriage was possible.

The story basically follows canon but with very different motives. Emma is trying to break up Jane & Frank out of the misguided idea that Jane can't love Frank, so she's saving him from a mercenary marriage. Jane loves Emma, but cannot bring herself to live as her "companion" with no equality of fortune. After Jane and Frank's engagement is announced and Emma is heartbroken, Mr. Knightley offers as companionship marriage to Emma, who has realized that he is the real person she can't survive without. They live together as best friends. Mr. Knightley and Emma adopt one of their nephews as their heir.

30 years later, the widowed Jane Churchill moves back to Highbury and either Mr. Knightley has also passed on or he's okay with his wife having a lover.

[sasakisniko]

No offense Jane, but that sounds like some hetero nonsense.

@wlwgif‘s pride week - day 2 - movie: Fire Island

[theshowoffpod]

The Real Tragedy of SwanQueen/OUAT

Expanding on my swanqueen thoughts in our recent pod here (bc why not) :

Check out the pod for my initial rant (starts at around 1:17:30 if you want to skip there, but there are mentions of them throughout)

I think this comes across in the pod somewhat, but the point I really wanted to make about Emma and Regina and swanqueen as a ship, is that it's not just a letdown that they didn't get together for the gay of it all.

Obviously representation is important, and SQ would have been an insane leap forward for that in this era of media. But IMO, that's still not the real tragedy here (since we've made a lot of progress in that regard).

The real tragedy is that doing the enemies-to-lovers thing with Emma and Regina would have been the ULTIMATE manifestation of the concept of the show, which is taking fairytales and retelling them in a way that subverts your expectations. Subverting your expectations around what a fairytale is, how a happy ending goes, and what is possible for the genre. Making swanqueen the endgame for the OUAT fulfills its premise in a way that few shows can even hope to achieve, much less actually have the opportunity.

Built into swanqueen, you have these subversions of the original fairytale genre:

the "villain" gets a happy ending,

the villain is redeemed/redeems herself and in doing so acquires romantic/familial love,

the princess retains her agency,

the princess saves herself, everyone else, AND the villain,

the villain also saves the princess,

the princess does not find love with a prince,

the princess and the (former) villain live happily ever after together.

And that's just off the top of my head, I'm sure there's more. I didn't even bring Henry into it either.

That's the real bummer for me. It's the absolute once-in-a-lifetime chance they had here to turn an entire genre of stories on its head and tell an even greater story from the pieces, and they didn't do it.

Even if they did it in a clunky way or it wasn't written the best, it still would have made the history books for the attempt alone. Not to mention the opportunity to tell a fairytale that completely puts agency back into the hands of women. Sigh. What an absolute waste.

But I guess that's why god invented fanfiction. :)

I hope you enjoy the pod!

[fairytalearista]

I did it! The great endeavor I began, five years ago, to rewrite every Austen novel blended with a fairy tale is DONE. You can now reexperience all/moments of your favorite Austen moments, but now with elemental magic and cursed princes!

Feels a bit weird to say goodbye to the books that have consumed me for two years straight, but I'm also so excited that these stories can now be read and loved by everyone!

They're all right here. Check 'em out. Also, Thornrose Estate is 99 cents right now for ... reasons.

[notebookmusical]

begging people (authors, publishers, etc.) to realize that there is more to classic retellings than just taking the tropes in a book and lifting up very basic character information from the original plot without also trying to expand upon the original author's intended themes/social commentary

[bunnythevampireslayer]

season 1 of once upon a time was kind of a vibe...

[regardstosoulandromance]

im like eleven chapters away from finishing emma and it's quite possibly my favorite jane austen novel

[gr8k877]

If you love, or even really tolerate, Shakespeare, watch this 2018 King Lear on Amazon. It is one of the best adaptations of Shakespeare I've ever seen. The cast absolutely EATS: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Andrew Scott, Florence Pugh, and that's just the top layer. Everybody in it is AMAZING.

Lear has long been a favorite play of mine for several reasons:

--It has all the family drama and biting dialogue of something like Six Feet Under.

--It has some of the most quotable lines, like this exchange early on:

Lear

Dost thou call me fool, boy?

Fool

All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast

born with.

--The older sister's are so EVIL.

--The Edgar/Glaughster story is just so heartbreaking.

--Cordelia is just so GOOD.

[fangirlforthewin]

Hi I saw your fairytale retelling recommendation list and I wanted to ask if you have recommendations for beauty and the beast retellings in particular? Thank you in advance!

Thank you for the ask! I saw your other ask clarifying that you were specifically looking for Fae Beauty and the Beast retellings. I do have a couple that I've read that I can suggest.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas

Curse of the Wolf King by Tessonja Odette

A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova

Heart of the Fae by Emma Hamm

An Enchantment of Thorns by Helena Rookwood

I know you weren't asking about nonFae Beauty and the Beast retellings, but here are a couple suggestions anyway because I like them a lot:

Hunted by Meagan Spooner

A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

I hope you find a good read or two out of these suggestions! Let me know!

Also if anyone has any other suggestions, feel free to reblog and add!

[the-13th-battalion]

me: it's been interesting to see my romantic tendencies develop over the years; I mean it started out as a little kid, dreaming of saving people and being swept off my feet by a prince...then later in middle school, rejecting the idea and deciding to be by myself....then in high school, admiring everyone and falling for so many beautiful people-

my brain: did u ever consider that ur a little gay

me: what

my brain, eating chips: bestie listen.....think of your high school crushes

me: ..........holy shit

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 2/5

Book Blurb: Clueless meets Bridgerton in this spicy opposites-attract Regency romance from “a must-read author” (Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author).

Lady Vesper Lyndhurst is beautiful, clever, and popular. Afforded every luxury as a duke’s daughter, she fills her days with friends, intrigues, and a self-professed knack for matchmaking. She may have sworn off love for herself, but she is rather excellent at arranging it. 

Faced with an insolvent estate, the Duke of Greydon has no choice but to return to England in a final attempt to revive his family’s fortunes. He’s been gone for years, happy to have escaped his mother and the petty circles of the ton. To his dismay, not much has changed, including the beautiful and vexing heiress next door.  

But when an accident of fate traps the friends-turned-enemies in an attic together, the explosive attraction between them becomes impossible to ignore and even harder to resist. They are total opposites and their lives don’t align in the slightest, but fate, the ultimate matchmaker, appears to have other plans . . . 

Review:

A new historical take on Emma featuring a matchmaker who had a crush on her ex best friend who rejected her but is back years later to ask for her help in finding a partner for his sister... yet the more time they spend together the more their own complicated feelings begin to grow. Lady Vesper Lyndhurst is beautiful, smart, and popular. She's found a passion in matchmaking but has sworn off love for herself. Her main reason for swearing off love? Her first love who so coldly rejected her and broke her heart, who just also happens to be her next door neighbor and ex best friend, Aspen, the Duke of Greydon. Aspen is reeling from the passing of his father who he knows was wrongfully put into an insane asylum by his mother and short of being declared dead himself, he has come back to look after the dukedom and find a marriage partner for his ward, but that also means coming back and facing the one woman he's been avoiding, the one woman who gets under his skin, Vesper. Aspen and Vesper had a falling out when he came back from school and found her to be popular and social and couldn't talk to her so he avoided her, making her think he hated her and so she in turn avoided him. They both think the other dislikes them and they can't help but want to argue every single time they meet. Aspen knows he shouldn't want Vesper but he can't help but want to get under her skin and keep pushing her. Vesper knows she shouldn't let herself be rejected by Aspen again but the heart wants what the heart wants. This one sounded like something I would like, I love the classic story of Emma and always adore retellings of it, yet for this one the one thing that didn't really work for me was Aspen. I never grew to like him at all, I really found him to be kind of a judgmental insufferable guy and yeah I get that he's based on Knightley but come on, at least Knightley was likable while it was hard to like Aspen. Vesper was really sweet though and I liked how much she tried to make everyone happy and was really trying her best out here. Overall it's a fun take on the classic story and I would recommend it for fans of the classic because it's always fun to read a new take on it.

*Thanks Netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing), Forever for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[this-is-a-name-dont-worry]

season 3 finale making me go from "awwww" to "OH NO" very fast

[queerographies]

[Emmett][L.C. Rosen]

Emmett è ricco, bello e pronto a fare del bene. Ma quando si mette a fare da Cupido al suo nuovo amico Harrison, scatena un vortice di equivoci esilaranti. Un retelling queer e moderno di Emma, di Jane Austen, che ti farà ridere e battere il cuore.

L’amore ai tempi dei social: una commedia romantica contemporanea ispirata a un classico di Jane Austen Titolo: EmmettScritto da: L.C. RosenTitolo originale: EmmettTradotto da: Tania SpagnoliEdito da: Giunti EditoreAnno: 2024Pagine: 224ISBN: 9788809915695 La trama di Emmett di L.C. Rosen Emmett Woodhouse ha tutto: è attraente, ricco e intelligente. Consapevole della propria fortuna, ha deciso…

[blumoonfiction-blog]

Shows We Love: Once Upon a Time, Season 1, Episode 2

Where to Watch: Available on Disney+, ABC, and Hulu. Type: TV Show Seasons: 7 Episode: Season 1, Episode 2: “The Thing You Love” Aired: October 30, 2011 Character List – Episode 2: Snow White – Mary Margaret Blanchard In the present day of Storybrooke, Mary Margaret is a kind-hearted schoolteacher who struggles with her past as Snow White. Her connection to the enchanted world adds layers to her…