From time to time Auntie M veers away from crime just to broaden reader’s horizons. The One that Got Away is Meliisa Pimentel’s retelling of Jane Austen’s classic Persuasion in a modern setting. Being a huge Austen fan, Auntie M decided to read this one and it’s a well-paced romance where the real mystery turns out to be why Ruby ended their seemingly fairy tale romance a decade before.

Alternating in past chapters, showing the meeting and attraction of Ruby and Ethan and their growing committment to each other, ten years later the scenes in the present find them meeting up in England where Ruby’s sister, Piper, is marrying Ethan’s best friend Charlie at a castle.

It’s a setting for instant disaster. While Ruby has prospered and risen in the marketing world, Ethan has had a meteoric rise in the tech world and is the media’s darling, a wealthy and kind philanthropist whose photo is on the cover of any magazine Ruby finds. Ruby’s satirical voice adds to the relatable feel of the tale as it evolves.

The lead up to the wedding is fraught with the usual tensions and mishaps, which include Ruby and Piper’s blowsy stepmother; a wedding planner who gets it all wrong; and a medical crisis at the rehearsal dinner that changes everything.

The ultimate question is: if timing in life is everything, will Ruby and Ethan’s time come again or has that ship sailed? The highs and lows of the action and the appearance of a handsome doctor to the scene add elements that will keep readers guessing if there isn’t a sunny future to be had after all.