Reviews with content warning for Racism - Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

Overall: 4/5
Spice level: 1/5
Tropes: enemies to lovers, Pride and Prejudice retelling (gender-swapped)

Representation: FMC is South Asian and MMC is South Asian and African

This story was really cute and seemed to follow the original Pride and Prejudice, while being a gender-swap. The "Elizabeth" styled character, our leading lady Trisha, was portrayed as the royalty of the 2, while DJ was snubbed by her numerous times in the story as his occupation as a chef (though clasically trained in France) seemed beneath her. It definitely had the enemies to lovers feel to it, although there was pretty much no spice, outside of the delicious-sounding dishes that he makes throughout.

As someone who mostly needs some type of spice on the page, I feel like even classic stories that originally had no spice can be adapted to fit sexy times in. That's my fault because I almost never read reviews for a book, otherwise I would've probably known about the lack of spice. It's fine though because I enjoyed the story overall. I didn't love it, but I loved the characters. There was immense character development for both Trisha and DJ, as well as their family members.

I did, however, sometimes feel like there was a lot going on to keep track with. Between the family drama and the budding tension between our main characters, my head spun a few times trying to keep up with things. But in the end, it all made sense and came together well.

I'm intrigued by the author's writing style, though in the future I'll make sure to check if there's any spice before reading.

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alexgo's review

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challenging emotional hopeful tense

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I read this entire book in a day, for the first time since I was a kid. I was absolutely enthralled. Ms. Dev took me for a hell of a ride, and every other book she has ever written has been bumped up to the top of my TBR list. Realistic and intense - full of commentary about the world we live in that felt precise and intentional . Putting this book down, I feel braver and more hopeful than I did yesterday.

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ashleytalksbooks's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This was a good book and could easily have been a four or five star read for me, but the problematic elements knocked it down several notches unfortunately. Spoilers ahead as well as a content warning for sexual assault and ableism:

Exploring male victims of sexual assault is a very important story to bring light to and deserves proper treatment. Choosing to have a teenage girl sexually assault and drug a grown man as a plot point is not doing that. The implications and optics of a rich powerful man being taken advantage of by a teenage girl casts doubt on victims and is irresponsible story telling. Especially when there were far better ways to adapt Whickham. They could have had her embezzling his campaign funds and stealing money or even had her be an older adult who took advantage of him as a political mentor when he was just starting at his career. Every time it was mentioned I felt sick at my stomach and the story would have been so much better if anything else was done.

There were also multiple parts that seemed to be an attempt to give disabled rep that felt very ableist. The way they handled their cousin with epilepsy. Them never leaving the attic felt really gross especially with the real world history of locking disabled people away.

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jillaay_h's review

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emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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greatexpectations77's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This really tickled me, and I look forward to reading more from Ms. Dev. This had the caramel-thick tension of will-they-won't-they, and I really liked it. I also thought it did a really good job of portraying some beautiful sister moments, which always tug at my heart. Just a fun time.

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takarakei's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I know this is meant as a Pride and Prejudice reimagining with a gender reversed couple (Trisha = Darcy and DJ = Elizabeth) but I really struggled with liking Trisha as a character. Yes she has character growth, but I found her to be so stuck up and had a hard time kind of forgiving her actions at the beginning of the book. I wasn't particularly attached to this story. It's definitely a slow-burn romance like P&P (nothing happens until the very end). I'd argue it's very loosely even a romance as most of the book deals with Trisha's family drama. It's also a very long book for what it is.

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elisaviihde's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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meleigh's review

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2.0

This book was a struggle to get through. I get that she was supposed to be some level of insufferable but honestly it was a bit much. There was no depth to the supporting characters (other than Emma). Just wasn't for me I guess.

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