Matched in Merriweather (The Merriweather series)
Melody Merriweather is happily attending college in Chicago when her dad gets sick and she’s forced to return home to Merriweather, Wisconsin, to run the family’s general store. In this 1930s-set retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma, Melody quickly learns that no one can avoid hard times. It turns out that her dad is losing the family business. Melody races to make enough money to pay off his debts so she can go back to school in Chicago, while also finding ways to set up her friends and get everyone happily married off. Melody is sure she knows what all of her friends and family members need, and yet she can’t commit to the young man who wants to marry her and also can’t seem to stop thinking about her coworker, Cal Frasier. If she’s not careful, she will come close to losing everything and offend many people she cares about before she figures out what she really wants and needs.
If you’ve read Emma, you’ll appreciate the clear parallels as well as the Easter eggs that pop up throughout the book. Cox has given Emma some very interesting twists, like changing the genders of some characters you might recognize and of course updating everything to 1930s America. But you don’t have to read Emma to thoroughly enjoy this book. It stands on its own with a likeable heroine, delightful cast of characters, and enough twists and turns in the plot to never feel stale or retold. This is the first book in a planned series, with each book highlighting a new character and mirroring a different Austen novel.
