User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Now this is the kind of retelling that doesn't make me want to pull my hair out!
I've read so many variations of P&P and never have I been this satisfied with one. Sonali Dev has successfully delivered an awesome, gender-swapped retelling of everyone's favourite love story, with exotic Indian flavours and beautifully believable characters.
Dr.Trisha Raje, the proud and acclaimed Neurosurgeon, is our female Mr.Darcy, trying to save the world, one brain at a time. Darcy James Caine aka DJ Caine, portrayed as the male Lizzy Bennet, is a hot chef with yummy biceps and yummier desserts, who becomes a victim of his own assumptions when he meets our royal Dr.Raje. Sparks fly, misunderstandings happen, drama ensues, truth prevails, sparks fly harder this time around and ignites a crazy fire and yayyy happy
humping ummm ending. That's right. HAPPY ENDING.
The one thing I loved the most about this book was, unlike most retellings that rely heavily on Austen's beloved classic, this book manages to retain its uniquity in sub-plots and character developments. Be it the hero's backstory, the marital woes of the heroine's sister, the animal farm analogy for her ambitious family, Wickham's wickedness, cultural background of the protagonists or the way racism and classism are dealt with, the author has managed to cultivate Austen's subtle satire and cleverly ingest her own idiosyncrasies to the mix, while offering a stupendous literary feast. What a lovely blend of fragrant flavours!
A must read for P&P fans.
Rating: really liked it
I keep going back and forth on the rating. This might be 2.5 stars or it might be solidly 3. I can't decide.
I’ve enjoyed Sonali Dev’s romance novels so I was curious what I would think of her women’s fiction, particularly one that is Pride And Prejudice-inspired. And I have to say, my feelings are complicated.
As a P&P-inspired gender bent story, it’s inventive and a great update. Julia Wickham’s character in particular was a great/treacherous take. This is not a straight retelling and this frees Dev up to make some interesting choices with the characters.
The food descriptions are one of the best parts of this story. DJ’s passion for his work as a chef was just as fascinating as Trisha’s response to his creations. I also really liked learning about the technology Trisha developed in order to do cutting edge surgeries on tumors. I have no idea if it's based on existing technology but I hope so!
However, the medical plot didn’t work for me and that means a good portion of this book didn’t work, as Trisha is a surgeon and DJ is her patient Emma’s brother. There are major HIPAA violations throughout where Trisha readily discloses Emma’s medical history, options, and prognosis to her family. She even laughs off HIPAA, basically saying her family is exempt, which just no. They’re not. Then there’s the matter of Trisha, a health care provider, dating her patient's brother. Now there is some gray area here as Trisha’s cousin connected DJ to her for the sake of giving Emma more medical options. Technically they first met at Yash’s fundraiser as DJ catered the event. Although Emma was already her patient, DJ was never at the hospital when Trisha did her rounds. So I can see where the lines are blurred but they never address the possible ramifications of how a relationship could impact Emma’s care and I’m still pretty sure it would violate Trisha’s employer’s policies, if not her medical license.
Look. I don’t know how many times I need to say this regarding health care provider-patient/patient family member relationships but they’re wrong. If you are providing direct care to someone, then there’s a good reason to not become romantically or sexually involved with them or their family members. It’s an ethical violation for good reason and it boils down to relationship imbalance. If your health care provider ever tries this with you, please run in the opposite direction because they do not have you or your well-being in mind. I really need authors to stop with this pairing, unless it’s to paint it in a negative light or to show someone grappling with it. I will read those books but I cannot handle romanticizing an ethical violation.
The other thing that super bothered me about the medical plot was the lack of social work involvement. (Of course it did. I used to be a medical social worker.) Emma’s situation is the perfect reason to involve the hospital social worker. I would have been all over helping her process her treatment options and what the loss of her vision would mean for her life and career. This was a gross mishandling of her care and it’s no wonder she didn’t respond well to Trisha or her brother. Additionally, the story was filled with ableism, some of which is countered but most is not. I was irritated Trisha and DJ wouldn’t respect Emma’s wishes to not get the surgery if it meant losing her eyesight—again pointing to why social work involvement would have helped. Patient-centered care is paramount and I didn’t see it here.
The Yash-Julia storyline was quite troubling. Without spoiling why, I’ll say it was a poor understanding of #metoo. And frankly, it didn’t seem like the best way to adapt or update P&P.
Lastly, Trisha’s family was quite toxic. I found myself willing Trisha to confront them or to at least stop avoiding the issue but she never did, which was quite puzzling as she’s very confident and assertive professionally. While we can be different people at work vs. home, the difference was jarring. By the time she did stand up to them, I was rooting for her to just cut them out of her life altogether. I wanted better for her. And along those lines, the antagonism between her and DJ lasted far too long for my comfort and I could not buy a happy ending for them.
Like I said, this book was complicated. I’m still turning over the elements from Pride And Prejudice over in my mind but the rest of it was a struggle.
CW: (view spoiler)
[cancer/tumor, ableism, grief, loss, fatshaming, racism (including a white cop questioning a POC main character), microaggressions, miscarriage, stroke, reference to past car crash, reference to past rape (hide spoiler)]Disclosure: I received an advanced copy from William Morrow Paperbacks in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: really liked it
4 stars I am a sucker for any Pride and Prejudice reimagining and this book did not disappoint. Instead of Elizabeth, we get Dr. Trisha Raje (and in this book, she’s actually the Darcy role) and a chef DJ Kane (whose name means Darcy but he assumes the Bennett role). After a series of unfortunate meetings, DJ Kane has realized he cannot stand the snob Dr. Trisha, but Trisha is the doctor who can save his sisters life.
I thought Austen was blended seamlessly into this family drama. We have a large Indian American family from wealth, trying to establish their legacy in California. And then we have a chef who wishes to be a caterer for the family so he can afford the medical bills for his sister. I thought the tension between the main characters was built really well, and the eventual realization that their first impressions were not an accurate picture of who the other person really was? Very well done. The only thing is this book is almost 500 pages long and I felt the pacing of everything could have been much faster, things didn’t really pick up for me until the second half of the book.
I very much want to binge this entire series, I love how all the Austen novels and characters are going to be blended together into the same family universe.
Rating: really liked it
I tried my hardest to like to this book.
*Content warnings for like a shit of things that will be somewhat mentioned in my review: difficult pregnancies, spontaneous abortions, rape, death (and death by OR), several diseases, assisted suicide (sort of), etc. I very rarely mention these things. I fully believe it's the author's/publisher's job to forewarn readers about the content of a book, but there was
so much here that I couldn't just not do it.
Honestly, these people seem to have *the worst luck* in the universe.
This entire book is just
too much.
And just, let me throw it out there. I've read books with ridiculous names for characters, but it will be a while until DJ Caine gets topped as the worst. I couldn't take this book seriously when all I could think of every time one of the MCs is mentioned is "DJ KHALED" in drunk-as-fuck-club- voice.
Like I said, nothing that happens to anyone falls within the realm of measured.It is all ride or die. All the time. Nonstop. For
everyone, minor or main character.
If there's money trouble, we are talking foreclosures, gripping debt, full businesses lost.
If there's illnesses, it's brain tumour causing death or blindness, life threatening seizures, debilitating migraines that force one to confinement for 20+ years.
If there's a death, it's a horrifying plane crash where the sole survivor in a mass of 30 people is now a forlorn orphan with visions about death or someone who leaves behind a partner with debilitating dementia.
If there's a political opponent, it's not just anyone with differing ideas. It's your very own
best friend of a lifetime suddenly betraying you.
If there's a family secret, it's not that Tommy broke a lamp at age 5, it's that there's a possible accusation of abuse in the immediate family that's actually a rape that's used as a plot device, or a high-risk pregnancy that's being kept from you partner after being explicitly told they can't go through the process again (I have soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many things to say on this particular topic that I'm going to stop myself before I turn this into a dissertation).
And the same kind of over the toppest top exaggerations are used for character attributes.
They aren't just a doctor. No, fuck no. They are the *only* doctor in the actual world capable of operating a particular tumour.
They aren't just a chef. No. No. They are basically the *only* chef capable of proving high class Indian food in the entire continental US of A, just fresh from a Michelin starred Parisian restaurant, because anything less wouldn't befit this book.
I could go on and on and on and on for every single minutiae and every single character of this book. But let's just leave it at
Trisha Raje and DJ Caine started in the book as insufferable arrogant assholes- both of them, and that's the way they ended up too. The people in this book are all incapable of holding an honest, adult conversations to save their lives.
Rating: really liked it
Mostly a 3.5.
I had read books by this author before, but long ago that I don’t remember much about them. However, when I read the synopsis for this one and realized it’s a desi retelling of P&P, I was just so happy. I also loved that this was set in US, because I can relate more to diaspora stories these days than those set completely in India. And this one both impressed and frustrated the hell out of me.
Trisha is an accomplished neurosurgeon who takes immense pride in her job but is quite socially inept. She also immensely loves her family, but has a lot of guilt for something that she did fifteen years ago which affected her brother Yash and soured her relationship with her father. She is compassionate and a problem solver and I loved her relationship with her sister and cousins and her grandmother. However, despite working hard to achieve her goals, she has been born to extreme privilege and it shows. She also frequently puts her foot in her mouth because she isn’t good at talking or expressing her feelings.
DJ is a chef who has left everything he worked for and is almost bankrupt trying to save his sister suffering from a tumor in her brain. He feels almost spiritual about his cooking and takes immense pleasure in seeing people enjoy and appreciate his food. He has also suffered a lot in his life, bullied and tormented and left homeless by his own father’s family, so he feels very hurt when Trisha makes insensitive comments about him and doesn’t see his concerns in tricky situations because of her own privilege. That makes him retaliate with his own harsh words.
Both these characters hurt each other a lot, both knowingly and unknowingly, argue all the time and even though I saw that they were attracted to each other, I didn’t completely feel invested in their relationship. I just wanted them to stop hating each other. Even though they both are good people, I think I wanted to be convinced that they could be great together too, which I didn’t get in the book. Their getting together felt too much like the end of P&P and I don’t think that translates well to a contemporary setting.
The author does a good job bringing the Raje family to life. We get to know their history, how the kids have been brought up, their beliefs and values and I think it was all well done. The family is very close to each other and I think that reflected on the page. The author also shows that despite being good people and working towards the betterment of society, both personally and politically, they all are still creatures of privilege and can be tone deaf and insensitive to other’s issues. For all their talk about family loyalty, they are all very quick to judge Trisha for her choices and make her feel more guilty all the time and I didn’t like it. Trisha is such an accomplished woman in her thirties but cowers in front of her father, and even though we are taught in our Indian culture to be very respectful of parents, I particularly hate when parents take advantage of this and emotionally manipulate their children which is what happens here. Even though everything works out towards the end, I think Trisha should have grown a bit of a backbone and stood up for herself instead of everyone just behaving as if it was all ok now.
This book is only a loose gender bent retelling of Pride and Prejudice which focuses mostly on the character’s pride and prejudices. It is a mostly realistic portrayal of different kinds of families and how class privilege can affect the perceptions of people towards others. Just don’t go into this expecting a lot of romance. It is an interesting read and I didn’t wanna put it down at all, but I also wanted something more from the characters.
Rating: really liked it
It's a very long time since a book has irritated me as much as this one and I probably should have just dropped it very early on and not wasted so much time on it. Blame my foolish 'completer-finisher' tendencies, but reading this was torture.
Why?
Firstly the deeply irritating 'homage' to Pride and Prejudice was so clunky and forced that it drove me crazy. Come on now, every book ever churned out in which 'boy meets girl, boy and girl don't like each other, boy and girl eventually change their minds' has shades of P&P and forcing a few names into the plot to hint at Austenian tendencies really isn't enough. If the author loved P&P the way she claims, she wouldn't have subjected us to this.
Secondly, the author seems to be completely confused about what she's trying to write. Is it supposed to be light fluffy chick-lit or so-called 'literary fiction'? It fails at both. It's WAY too wordy for chick-lit and literarily way too clumsy for lit-fic.
Thirdly, the horrendous attempt to shovel 'British' English in all over the place. I'm a Brit - I cringed every time she forced in 'bugger, sodding, arse, wanker, bloody, mate' etc. There's one paragraph that's bloody full of bloody everything. Cringe. Please, make it stop. My eyes are bleeding. It reads as if somebody proofread it for her and said "Hey, Emma and DJ just aren't coming over as British enough. Here are some random words you can shove in to pump it up a bit!" My advice is don't use your friends as your proofreaders - hire professionals. May I also point out that there's nothing amusing about "I beg your pardon". You know what, we Brits are polite. We do actually say that.
Fourthly, the use of 'fecking' and 'frickin'. Let me explain. 'Feck' and 'fecking' are absolutely NOT words used by London Asians. They are IRISH words and when used by anybody not Irish, they are a stupid, contrived pretence conjured up to sound 'edgy' without saying 'fuck' and 'fucking'. Not big. Not clever. And definitely never uttered in Southall. End of. As for Frickin' or Frikin' or however the heck American English likes to spell it, not nice either. There wasn't a single sentence with a frickin', a fecking, or for that matter a bloody that couldn't have been better without them. And let me just say I'm no anti-swearing campaigner - I'm not anti F-words of any description, but I'm anti WRONG swearing and swearing that adds nothing to the story.
(Forgive the outpouring of anguish but there's no way Amazon are going to let me post this so I'm just taking advantage of the openmindedness of Goodreads filters).
Fifth, overall just too much trying too hard to be 'edgy'. Emma didn't need to paint vaginas opening bottle tops.
A few more?
Food porn. That overly descriptive food stuff doesn't do it for me one little bit.
Slurpy snoggy soft-porn - Chapter 35 (or thereabouts). Please no, just no. Yuck.
The whole 'royal family from an Indian palace passing off as white' storyline. Silly.
The frequent tendency to shove lumps of back-story into the plot with the subtlety of a jack-hammer. Somebody's whole family died on a plane crash, hints at past misdemeanours and banishments that aren't mysterious enough to justify the attention. I even got totally confused that Trisha's brother was mentioned as beingin a wheelchair a couple of times and then wasn't. What was going on there? Occasionally a character popped up who'd never been there before and then never came back again (Naomi anybody?)
Luckily for me, I got this on a free e-book loan through my local library. Unluckily, I bought another of her books on kindle for real money before finding this one. I'm really not sure I can face it.
A lot of readers won't care. A lot of readers won't 'get' the language issues that bothered me so much. But for me, this wins my 'most irritating book of 2019 (so far)' award and I thought 'Verity' had that tied up already.
Rating: really liked it
Well, I’m a complete sucker for anything P+P and I was excited to see how a different take played out.
Love love loved Trisha and DJ. She’s smart and maybe a bit awkward. He’s gruff and sort of a marshmallow. Together, she’s the Darcy and he’s the Elizabeth and I was all over their arguing. This entire set of characters is fantastic. I loved her crazy large family and his sister. The loyalty of the family their dynamic was refreshing to read.
Plot wise it was new and comfortable at the same time and the descriptions of the food were mouth watering. Of course the slow burn story telling is so effective in a P+P story like this and the added conflict with Julia was a bonus I wasn’t expecting. I seriously loved every aspect.
Overall, Sonali took a well known story and made it something that is entirely hers. I was captivated from the first page and I would love to read more from this family.
**Huge thanks to William Morrow for providing the arc free of charge**
Rating: really liked it
Fun Fun Fun
A gender flipped Pride and Prej retelling with a surgeon Trisha as Mr. Darcy and DJ as Elizabeth Bennett.
What I loved:
- drama - jumping balconies, rom-com scenes, flailing in love, girl hates boy trope to fall in love later, rich girl poor boy trope, royal Indian father, ex-Bollywood Indian mother, rich family and parties.
-FOOD - Well, what do you expect? Le Cordeon Bleu chef who specializes in French and North Indian fusion
- I must say DJ is the total rom com hero and I loved it. Well built, good chef, caring, British accent, sarcasm and humour. He was too perfect and I definitely didn't care. I loved it.
- This isn't your usual retelling. So the characters were surprises. For eg there's a Jane and Emma in the novel but maybe you might not be able to guess what they are upto in the novel. Wickham was brilliant too.
What I didn't :
-Some names were so confusing. I wish DJ was not named 'Darcy' and also cast as a retold version of Elizabeth. While this does not make it confusing, I felt it could've been omitted for further clarity
-The first chapter was pretty boring. I considered leaving it unfinished. Until the tempo picks up, which is when DJ and Trisha meet, it was dull and definitely not captivating.
Rating: really liked it
MY RATING: 5/5 STARS
I received a copy from Harper Collins Canada in exchange for a honest review.
BUT GUYS this might be my favourite read of 2019 so far. Okay, not my most favourite book of 2019 but Top 10 and it's pretty high up on the list. If you're a fan of retellings, then you need to read this one because instead of it being completely by the book, this is a fresh twist on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I'm not educated enough to tell you point by point differences but Sonali Dev played around with the characters from both the Bennet and Darcy family.
I don't know how to go into this book without gushing over everything but you're going to hate Trisha or at least think something is wrong with her because she's emotionally unavailable and socially awkward. YESSSSSS. She is Darcy and she has good intentions for everything (a saint, really) but she's so freaking awkward, people think she's a jerk. When she's not. And then she doesn't understand what is going on to the point that there's a bunch of misunderstandings and she becomes the jerk people paint her to be. I'm not saying Trisha is perfect. She's not. She says some stuff that are unwarranted but I loved her a lot by the end of the book just like how readers love Darcy so hush. Don't hurt my baby.
Anyways, Trisha is great because she strives to win the heart's of her family members after The Incident. The Incident has caused major grief and complications in her family as they dealt with a psycho stalker and her father basically hating Trisha for basically, allowing it to happen to her own brother. It was terribly angsty when the issue was resolved between Trisha and her father. It hit me in the fact when everyone's true emotions were revealed and I may had shed a few heart-warming tears. I just...cannot. Trisha, baby, you're doing great.
Meanwhile, the cook, also known as Dj, cannot stand to lose his sister to brain cancer. Trisha knows a brilliant way to save his sister but shockingly to both of them, his sister doesn't want to do it because she'll lose her vision and what's the point of life as an artist if you can't see what you're doing? DJ has his own prejudice against Trisha. He sees her a rich brat who got everything handed to her. After all, her wealthy upbringing allowed to get the best of studies and also, the best connections for the best jobs. He also doesn't like her that much because well, Trisha called him the Help and usually when that happens, nobody likes you.
Anyways, the psychopath comes back throughout the whole story and you're just waiting for her to get her punishment. When that moment comes, i'm kind of let down? In a way? Like it was like oh snap! Trisha really did that and defeated the beast but I wanted a legal battle. I wanted psychopath person to be in jail. To be removed from the country. Because I CANNOT STAND HER. I REALLY CANNOT. Sonali did a great job at writing a Wickham that made readers want to rip the pages out and eat them because you cannot possibly handle this character.
MY RECOMMENDATION
In conclusion, this book made me feel a lot of emotions. Good emotions. I teared up and cried a lot so yeah. Pick this bad boy up and dig into 400 plus pages of delicious writing.
Rating: really liked it
I just could not warm to this one at all... put it down for a while and went back to it again. I did finish it but, honestly, I found it a bit preachy and OTT. Plus the British lingo was a bit off ... "Feck" is Irish. I doubt many non-Irish use the expression too often. "innit"!!! God, I hated the use of that word in the book... OK, DJ and Emma are from London but the over-use of it was way too much.
I love Pride and Prejudice and don't often read "spin-offs" or "plays" on the story but this did not reel me in at all. Her father annoyed the fuck out of me. Actually, most of the characters annoyed me. This was recommended by a favourite author on her FB page but we obviously don't have the same taste in all books we read. Doubt I will be checking out this author again ...
My advice - read Pride and Prejudice and if you are going to watch a TV/film version, stick to the 1995 BBC version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle ... It is a truth, universally acknowledged that the more recent version (Knightley and Macfadyen) is not as good (in my humble opinion (although Keira was OK but Matthew was a "bloody arse" of a disaster))!
Rating: really liked it
A modern day retelling of
Pride and Prejudice (obviously), set in the Bay Area and featuring the unlikely pairing of world-class neurosurgeon Trisha Raje and up-and-coming master chef DJ Caine, whose initial meeting is fraught with haughtiness and false impressions. As it turns out, Trisha is the only doctor offering a cure for DJ's beloved sister's brain tumor, so despite their mutual dislike, the two are forced together again and again. I liked that the author didn't follow the P&P plotline 100% -- there are plenty of familiar beats, but the story here stands on its own and isn't shoehorned into unnatural shapes just to make it fit the pattern. I also like that it's Trisha who's in the Darcy role here, hiding behind her snobbiness and self-image and repelling the very person she finally realizes she wants to attract. The story moves quickly, has some key emotional moments, LOTS of mouth-watering descriptions of DJ's culinary creations, and definitely succeeds as a love story with plenty of modern twists. Quite fun -- I'm hoping Sonali Dev writes more in this world!
Rating: really liked it
My craving for a light, diverting read was satisfied by this
Pride and Prejudice inspired novel. I loved the way Dev played with the roles and made the story her own. The food descriptions were amazing - how perfect to cast Darcy as a chef! A delicious romp.
Rating: really liked it
4.3 stars
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The truth was, he was right about many things—things she could change, like how she treated people. He was also wrong about a few—things she could not change, like who she was. In this start to the Rajes series, Sonali Dev gives us an emotional look into a royal Indian family that migrated to America. The title gives a clue that Ms. Dev took inspiration from Jane Austen, Trisha is our arrogant still waters run deep Mr. Darcy while DJ is our making some snap judgments Elizabeth. There is also a villainous Wickham character, older sister (already married) worried about her beau wanting someone else, sick younger sister, mother pressuring children to get married, and other little takings that Pride and Prejudice readers will recognize. It's all inspired by and not based on and I loved how Dev put her spin on the tale.
It had been fifteen years. Fifteen years since Trisha had been shut out of her brother’s political career, the family’s most precious dream. The beginning focuses on Trisha, a young brilliant brain surgeon, and the dynamics she has with her family. Her family is rather large but I never felt overwhelmed with characters, Dev is amazing at weaving sibling, parent, cousin, and grandparent relationships into the fabric of the story. We learn how Trisha feels like an outcast in her family because of how a friendship (Julia Wickham) ended up hurting her brother Yash, a US District Attorney gearing up to make a run at California Governor. I can't even put into words how Dev expertly touches on and relays all those complicated family feelings; you'll get sucked in believing the Rajes are a real family and probably personally connect with some of their issues.
“Looks like we’re stuck together for the sake of our sisters.” He pulled the door shut, put the car in gear, and shot off around the looping driveway, watching her disappear in his rearview mirror. She didn’t look any happier at the prospect than he was. DJ comes into the story with the opposite of a meet-cute with Trisha, leaving him to believe she's an arrogant snob. He also turns out to be the older brother of Emma, a patient of Trisha's. Emma has a brain tumor that other doctors have said is inoperable, but Trisha has developed a way to remove it, however, it would leave Emma, an artist, blind. Emma wants to refuse the surgery and DJ is mad that Trisha won't heavily push her. They are forced to spend more time together when, because of his friendship with one of Trisha's cousins, leads to him catering for her brother Yash's campaign fundraiser. Further complicating matters is Trisha's past enemy, Julia, snaking around DJ and Emma.
My sister is not live tissue. But DJ Caine was wrong. That’s precisely what Emma had to be to her, because Trisha knew exactly what to do with misbehaving live tissue. Trisha is harder to warm up to right away, she is a bit arrogant but Dev deftly draws out her character through showing how she grew up, the dynamics, her guilt, her love for her family, and the very essence of what makes Trisha such a brilliant surgeon. Her character is a master class in giving what people need from you while still staying true to your core and finding someone who understands and loves you because and despite it all. It takes a little longer to get to DJ but Dev gives him as much depth and breadth to his character as Trisha. His background, parent's situation, racial and class divisions, relationship with surrogate mother, and being responsible for Emma at a young age, breath life into his thoughts, feelings, actions, and motivations.
The romance is all at once the background and motivation for the story, family dynamics steal the show often enough but without those dynamics driving the story, the romance would not flourish and feel as complete the way it does. Their relationship is very biting at first but as Dev peels back the layers on Trisha and Dev, it becomes clear how they are talking at cross purposes to each other and you begin to root for these two to clear up misunderstandings and give into what their hearts are trying to tell them.
As I said earlier, there is no way to touch on all the characters and threads that make this such an enriching full story. I don't know if it is a term but this read like literary romance, Dev beautifully began a woven tapestry of the Raje family. I've called Dev a “lip quivering” author and while the emotions can be quite raw at times, there is always an underlining hopefulness to her writing that makes me believe that love will win in the end. I'm utterly invested in the Raje family and can't wait for the next in the series.
Rating: really liked it
This was a GREAT P&P retelling, but I had the hardest time trying to like the hero’s character. I never saw what the heroine saw in him.
Rating: really liked it
Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors is a modern retelling of the timeless classic. This version has a unique element. The woman, Trisha, is proud, and the man, DJ, is prejudice. I liked Trisha. She is proud because she's a surgeon, and that's a justifiable reason. She is an intelligent, strong and likeable character. DJ, on the other hand, I despised. At some point, I should have come to like him, like in the original, but that didn't happen. He's just unlikable and garners no sympathy. I understand that the differences between social classes is supposed to be sharply rendered, but prejudice is present in every class and every race. Much of it is due to extreme ignorance, lack of education and an unwillingness to admit or acknowledge that these attributes are present. I see all of this in DJ. His character soured what was otherwise an engaging story. Everything else is quirky and charming and it flows well. The culture is beautiful described, well written and immersive. The place and time have a true feeling of life about them. Overall, I'm just ignoring DJ because he's a drag who brings the review down to a two star,and I think it's better than that. Instead, I'm focusing on the merits of the story. It's a delightful and culturally rich retelling. For the positive attributes, the story is more of a four star. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
