Emma: A Modern Retelling

VERDICT The third volume in HarperCollins's series of Jane Austen reboots, this title follows Joanna Trollope's Sense and Sensibility and Val McDermid's Northanger Abbey. Like the rest of the project, this effort meets with mixed success. McCall Smith's charming prose and gentle humor marry marvelously with Austen's iconic affairs of the heart, so well that the book reads like a Regency piece. As a result the cell phones, Mini Coopers, and gastropubs of the 21st century seem jarringly out of place. Still, this retelling gives Austenphiles an enjoyable opportunity to visit with the Woodhouse clan and is sure to be a hit with McCall Smith's legion of fans. As for the Austen project itself, one should reserve judgement, at least until the July publication of Curtis Sittenfeld's Pride and Prejudice. [See Prepub Alert, 10/5/14; see also "A Modern Emma: Alexander McCall Smith Reimagines Jane Austen's Classic" by Barbara Hoffert, LJ 12/14.—Ed.]