Book Review: Emma: A Latter-day Tale

I wasn't sure what to expect when I read Emma: A Latter-Day Tale by Rebecca Jamison.  I love Jane Austen and have found very few modern retellings of her stories that I've liked.  This one is a retelling of her story, Emma, and it has an LDS angle to it, which was fun.  

We meet Emma who wants to be a life coach, but until she's certified, she just works on a new girl that's moved into the neighborhood to be a nanny.  Harriet has lost weight and moved to a new place and needs friends and help overcoming her insecurity.  Emma tries to "help" her get a makeover and make a love connection, but that goes badly.  Her sister's brother-in-law Justin is the voice of reason, even though Emma doesn't appreciate it at times.  I think Justin was my favorite character out of all of them.  There's one scene where they are decorating a Christmas tree together with the little girl that Harriet is the nanny to, and Justin was so sweet with her I could totally envision it and sighed at how awesome it was.  

Of course the story was predictable because it follows Jane Austen's storyline quite well.  At times the characters came across a bit flat, but that could be because it wasn't an original story per se.  The LDS angle did provide some flair in the activities and plot and I was entertained.  This was a light-hearted afternoon read.

Here's the back copy:

Emma's her name and matchmaking is her game! Quirky life coach Emma wants to help her first-ever client, a lonely nanny named Harriet. But all of her attempts at matchmaking result only in embarrassing miscues and blunders, leaving the pair disheartened and confused. This modern take on the Jane Austen classic shows that sometimes the greatest match is the one we make for ourselves.