Jane & Edward: A Modern Reimagining of Jane Eyre by Melody Edwards

A former foster kid, Jane has led a solitary life as a waitress in the suburbs, working hard to get by. Tired of years of barely scraping together a living, Jane takes classes to become a legal assistant and shortly after graduating accepts a job offer at a distinguished law firm in downtown Toronto. Everyone at the firm thinks she is destined for failure because her boss is the notoriously difficult Edward Rosen, the majority stakeholder of Rosen, Haythe & Thornfield LLP. But Jane has known far worse trials and refuses to back down when economic freedom is so close at hand.

 

Edward has never been able to keep an assistant--he's too loud, too messy, too ill-tempered. There's something about the quietly competent, delightfully sharp-witted Jane that intrigues him though. As their orbits overlap, their feelings begin to develop--first comes fondness and then something more. But when Edward's secrets put Jane's independence in jeopardy, she must face long-ignored ghosts from her past and decide if opening her heart is a risk worth taking.

Publisher: Berkley | Genre: Contemporary Romance/Classic Retelling | Source: Publisher | Rating: 4.5

Normally I’m not a fan of lawyer/law office romances but the Jane Eyre aspect sold me and I was pleased I gave this one a go as it is one of my favorites so far this year and one of my favorite modern Jane Eyre retellings.

Jane and Edward were great together. They had amazing chemistry and great banter. Jane’s been through a lot and she’s willing to fight for what she wants. Edward’s a bit gruff and growly but he has a soft side he’s willing to show Jane.

I was a bit worried about the law firm setting as I’m not a massive fan of that particular setting in romance books but I found that it worked in this one without becoming overbearing or overshadowing the characters. 

What didn’t work for me was the character of Daniel (the St. John character) and the way Jane just went along with what he was dishing out, it felt out of place given how strong of a character she was at that start of the book. Another thing that was a little off and had me rating it a 4.5 instead of a 5 was the way the Bertha aspect was handled. I’m not going to go into details because I don’t want to spoil anything but I would have preferred a little more from that character as I felt it was a bit of a letdown.

Overall, this was one was a great modern retelling of Jane Eyre and one of my favorites. I also enjoyed the academic aspect this one had. I highly recommend you give this one a chance.

 

How does Jane & Edward compare to Jane Eyre?

Jane and Edward were very modern characters, they had modern problems and a modern way of thinking but they still held the core traits of the characters that Charlotte Bronte created and I appreciate Melody Edwards keeping those core traits. I do think that Edward was slightly softer in this version, while he has some of the Byronic hero traits, he doesn’t tick all the boxes like the original version of Edward. Jane was more outgoing and outspoken than the original.

One of my favorite things about Jane Eyre was the spirited back and forth between Jane and Edward and I’m happy to see that banter was present. Given that this was a modern novel, I feel like the romance aspect was explored a bit more.

In the original, we get to know quite a bit about Jane’s early life where in this one we skip right to adult Jane. I wasn’t sure how the inheritance aspect was going to be handled in this one but I do think the author found an interesting way of bringing it into the plot.

While I feel like the modern retelling retained the bones of the original (some of the dialogue is very similar in places if not the same) I feel like there were some core aspects of the original that I love that were missing.

-The almost forced proximity of the original is missing  

-The gothic atmosphere, sadly, is missing

-Adele isn’t a ward of Rochester but rather someone working in the office (the majority of the characters have been reworked to suit the law office setting)

-The major change for me was the way the character of Bertha was handled. The character was changed to fit the setting and, I feel, that it removed too much and changed the tone of the book.