A modern love story with a Jane Austen twist.. . Marine biologist Cassie Boulton has no patience when a modern-day Mr. Darcy appears in her lab on Cape Cod. Proud, aloof Calder Westing III is the scion of a famous political family, while Cassie's success is hard-won in spite of a shameful family history. When their budding romance is brutally thwarted, both by his family and by hers, Calder tries to set things right by rewriting the two of them in the roles of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet from Pride & Prejudice...but will Cassie be willing to supply the happy ending?

Artist Annie Wright likes her life free of complications, especially complications of the male persuasion. She has her dream job running an art gallery by the sea, her volunteer work rescuing abandoned dogs, and that's enough for her. She doesn't like to talk about her past, especially how she became a widow after just a few years of marriage... until one day her past walks right into the Cape Light Gallery in the form of her late husband's best friend Jeremy, the man who left the country rather than see Annie married to someone else. Add in an abused and distrustful pile of fur named Bear and the machinations of the powerful Westing family, and Annie's life is suddenly full of complications. The bestselling author of THE MAN WHO LOVED PRIDE & PREJUDICE returns us to the seaside town of Woods Hole in this novel inspired by Jane Austen's PERSUASION.