Scan barcode
A review by romancelibrary
Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev
4.0
I received an ARC from HarperCollins Canada in exchange for an honest review.
Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors is my first Sonali Dev book and I’m absolutely enchanted with her prose. This book is a multicultural retelling of Pride and Prejudice that not only does justice to the timeless classic, but also remains true to the characters Dev created. After having read Ayesha At Last by Uzma Jalaluddin (a Muslim Pride and Prejudice retelling) last year, I am convinced that more authors of colour should write their own unique retelling of this classic. There’s also a delicious twist in Dev’s retelling: gender-swapped Darcy and Elizabeth. FYI this is not a spoiler – it’s obvious from the very beginning, if not from the synopsis. And let me tell you, that first proposal/confession scene is even more mortifying when it’s a female Darcy who’s messing up lol. Trisha embodied Darcy’s awkwardness so well that I died of embarrassment multiple times throughout the story.
Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors is a love story that is intertwined with familial ties in the most heartfelt of ways. DJ Caine – our male version of Elizabeth Bennet – is a chef whose only remaining family is his little sister, Emma. Trisha Raje – our female version of Darcy – is a genius neurosurgeon and DJ’s sister is one of her patients. Both DJ and Trisha have incredibly complicated relationships with their family, which means that they have much more in common than they originally thought. Both are also blinded by pride and prejudice. They’re such complex characters that it was really hard for me to understand if I loved or hated them. My final answer: I enjoyed both DJ and Trisha as characters, but I also wanted to smack them so many times (in the most loving way, of course). They drove me nuts in the best possible way. The moment of beauty: character growth. Both Trisha and DJ experience various moments of epiphany that positively contributed to the richness of their character arc and development.
What I also love about this book is that it's not only the protagonists who go through significant character development – DJ’s sister Emma and key members of Trisha’s family also have their own moment of growth. This is a love story that beautifully intersects with the Raje family and the Caine family and I truly enjoyed immersing myself in both families.
P.S. According to Goodreads, this book might be the first one in a brand new series about the Rajes...I hope that's true because I love that family!!
Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors is my first Sonali Dev book and I’m absolutely enchanted with her prose. This book is a multicultural retelling of Pride and Prejudice that not only does justice to the timeless classic, but also remains true to the characters Dev created. After having read Ayesha At Last by Uzma Jalaluddin (a Muslim Pride and Prejudice retelling) last year, I am convinced that more authors of colour should write their own unique retelling of this classic. There’s also a delicious twist in Dev’s retelling: gender-swapped Darcy and Elizabeth. FYI this is not a spoiler – it’s obvious from the very beginning, if not from the synopsis. And let me tell you, that first proposal/confession scene is even more mortifying when it’s a female Darcy who’s messing up lol. Trisha embodied Darcy’s awkwardness so well that I died of embarrassment multiple times throughout the story.
Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors is a love story that is intertwined with familial ties in the most heartfelt of ways. DJ Caine – our male version of Elizabeth Bennet – is a chef whose only remaining family is his little sister, Emma. Trisha Raje – our female version of Darcy – is a genius neurosurgeon and DJ’s sister is one of her patients. Both DJ and Trisha have incredibly complicated relationships with their family, which means that they have much more in common than they originally thought. Both are also blinded by pride and prejudice. They’re such complex characters that it was really hard for me to understand if I loved or hated them. My final answer: I enjoyed both DJ and Trisha as characters, but I also wanted to smack them so many times (in the most loving way, of course). They drove me nuts in the best possible way. The moment of beauty: character growth. Both Trisha and DJ experience various moments of epiphany that positively contributed to the richness of their character arc and development.
What I also love about this book is that it's not only the protagonists who go through significant character development – DJ’s sister Emma and key members of Trisha’s family also have their own moment of growth. This is a love story that beautifully intersects with the Raje family and the Caine family and I truly enjoyed immersing myself in both families.
P.S. According to Goodreads, this book might be the first one in a brand new series about the Rajes...I hope that's true because I love that family!!