Poor Anne Elliot. At 27, she's just a step or two shy of becoming a spinster. You see, at age 19, she let herself be persuaded by Lady Russell not to marry Frederick Wentworth, a penniless naval officer. (Anne, afterall, is the daughter of a baronet.) But now a kind fate has thrown Anne one last chance for love.

A wonderful read...full of polite society and second chances. You know that Austen is a masterful story-teller when you already know the outcome of her book, but your heart is still beating madly over Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth's chance for love.

Published a year after she died, Persuasion is Austen's most mature novel, more lyrical than satirical. Give it a try.