tw: death of a parent; death of a grandparent; former drug use; death of a friend

This was pitched as a Persuasion retelling set in Edinburgh between a woman trying to revive her family restaurant and the chef that she had a relationship with years ago who has a competing restaurant.

Sadly this was much less romance than I wanted and much more of a contemporary fiction. The majority of the focus is on Susan's life, the restaurant, and her family drama. When I read a Persuasion retelling, I want pining and angst. The two characters didn't even start interacting until more than 50% of the way into the book. The scenes we got with them were very good, but I wanted so much more than we got. I pulled for them, but would have loved for the story to be more centered around them.

Also, the writing was a little long winded in its descriptions of the city. I found myself skim reading over paragraphs of description about the city layout, because as someone who had never been there, I had no context. It seems to be just rattling off various landmarks without giving me the atmosphere or feeling of the city, so it didn't add to the story for me in any way.