THIS is the retelling I've been waiting for and never knew I needed. Jane Austen's Persuasion has always been my favorite of her books. The story of lovers separated and reunited, of hope for happiness when all hope for happiness has gone, and the making and remaking of ourselves into better and more capable people have long been some of my favorite tropes. Persuasion stirred all my emotions and made me fall headlong into love and made me believe in second chances. For Darkness Shows the Stars is everything I could have hoped for and more. It stays true to the themes set out in Persuasion and builds it around such a wonderfully realized world of its own. Each character is individual while still paying homage to the original characters. The emotions are all there, the longing, the missed opportunities, the recriminations, the hope. I don't need explosions and fighting and action in every book I read and if perhaps you expect that you will be disappointed, but I love internal conflicts and this book has a plethora of those. I, personally, am a little bored with the myriad books with thrill a minute action sequences that sacrifice character development. Here I felt rewarded for following these characters through their journey, I felt as if there was growth and real change. Tastes may vary, but this was the perfect book for me at the perfect time.
