In this witty and romantic debut novel, Jane Austen’s Emma meets the misadventures of Manhattan’s modern dating scene as two lifelong friends discover that, in the search for love, you sometimes don’t have to look any further than your own backyard.Beautiful, clever, and rich, Emma Woodhouse has lived twenty-three years in her tight-knit Upper East Side neighborhood with very little to distress or vex her…that is, until her budding matchmaking hobby results in her sister’s marriage—and subsequent move downtown. Now, with her sister gone and all her friends traveling abroad, Emma must start her final year of grad school grappling with an entirely new emotion: boredom. So when she meets Nadine, a wide-eyed Ohio transplant with a heart of gold and drugstore blonde highlights to match, Emma not only sees a potential new friend but a new project. If only her overbearing neighbor George Knightley would get out of her way.Handsome, smart, and successful, the only thing that frustrates Knightley more than a corked whiskey is his childhood friend, Emma. Whether it’s her shopping sprees between classes or her revolving door of ill-conceived hobbies, he is only too happy to lecture her on all the finer points of adulthood she’s so hell-bent on ignoring. But despite his gripes—and much to his own chagrin—Knightley can’t help but notice that the girl next door is a woman now…one who he suddenly can’t get out of his head.As Emma’s best laid plans collide with everyone from hipster baristas to meddling family members to flaky playboy millionaires, these two friends slowly realize their need to always be right has been usurped by a new need entirely, and it’s not long before they discover that even the most familiar stories still have some surprises.
This got better as it went along but I still found the retelling of some of the characters such as Emma's father to be rather fatuous. I liked Knightley immensely and the portrayal of Emma was probably accurate even if she seemed a big nascent at times. The ending was great and even the last few chapters went a long way to making this a really sweet romance. Would be a fun summer read for sure!
"Because the person you decide to be with will know what he wants too."
"And what will he want?"
"You. All of you."
She swallowed, her lips parted slightly as she stared at him. "What does that mean?"
"He'll want all of it. To take you home and sleep with you, yes. But make love to you, too. Wake up next to you. Go out for brunch. Argue over what color to pain the bathroom and who should load the dishwasher. You'll know what he wants because he'll tell you. And he'll know what you want because you'll tell him that's what you expect."
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