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alittlebitofhann's review
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
As a P&P Stan, I wanted to LOVE this adaptation, but unfortunately, it fell a little short for me.
Trisha was not a likable character and even at the end it was hard to root for her. DJ wasn’t much better. She annoyed me. He annoyed me. Trisha’s parents annoyed me.
As a P&P adaptation, it worked…I like what they flipped and changed and how they worked the story together, I just wish I liked the characters better, it would have bumped this up for me.
Trisha was not a likable character and even at the end it was hard to root for her. DJ wasn’t much better. She annoyed me. He annoyed me. Trisha’s parents annoyed me.
As a P&P adaptation, it worked…I like what they flipped and changed and how they worked the story together, I just wish I liked the characters better, it would have bumped this up for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer and Medical content
Moderate: Racism
bookswithbront's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
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
3.5
I thought this book was going to be a lighthearted rom com with some cheesy Pride and Prejudice references, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Somali Dev’s writing is gorgeous, the characters were fascinating, and I’m already so invested in the Raje family after just one book. At times, however, I did really struggle with this book. It did a great job and addressing certain complex topics like intersectional identities, class, and trauma, but I also felt like it yada yada’d some of the biggest issues its characters dealt with. Throughout the whole story, DJ’s biggest grievance with Trisha is that she said she wouldn’t be interested in a member of “the hired help,” something that is borderline unforgivable and that she never really apologizes for. Trisha and DJ both apologize for certain things, but the book acts as though the hurtful things they said to each other were equal, and I don’t think that’s the case at all. The book also made a bit of a straw man of the very complex issues of disability, the right-to-die movement, etc. While Emma’s case was unique, no one else acknowledged the validity of some of her perspective, treating it like a temper tantrum that needed to be resolved. However, I didn’t feel that Dev was pushing any sort of agenda on either of these complex topics, which would be difficult to address at a deeper level in a book like this. And though I was so frustrated by Trisha’s character, I’m hoping that’s a one-off, and I’m excited to read the rest of the Raje family series!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Classism
Moderate: Racism, Sexual assault, Police brutality, and Dementia
Minor: Racial slurs
lawsam's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Classism
Moderate: Miscarriage and Medical content
Minor: Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, and Police brutality
thecuriousbean's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
The author is very talented in writing but I despised the woman main character. I almost stopped reading halfway through but hate-read the rest of it just to see how it ended.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Terminal illness, Police brutality, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Chronic illness, Confinement, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Islamophobia, Grief, Abandonment, and Colonisation
taibreakfast's review
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
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
Fun retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in modern times, with the genders switched. The love birds are a guy and a girl, and the girl is the Darcy character this time (even though the guy is named Darcy, fooled ya!). She is the rich one with painful social skills and too much pride while he is the one from a working class background and prejudice against her because she's rich. The author does a good job of translating the plot to modern problems that convey just how life-ruining things could be. And it's very fun to have the story with an almost entirely POC cast of characters. Lots of fan service: some key scenes can almost be mapped directly, at least to the 2005 movie 😁. Definitely recommend to anyone looking for an easy but smart story. Check the content warnings though.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Medical content, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Sexual harassment
jbro12's review against another edition
emotional
funny
tense
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Minor: Sexual assault
_cat_reads's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.5
Honestly the more I think about this book the more I hate it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Sexual assault and Xenophobia
claudiamacpherson's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Pregnancy
Minor: Racism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
chelsearosales's review against another edition
emotional
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Classism
Moderate: Infertility and Miscarriage
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, and Fire/Fire injury
just_one_more_paige's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
tense
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? It's complicated
4.0
One of my comfort genres is Jane Austen retellings (and movie rewatchings), especially Pride and Prejudice. I had seen mixed reviews for this one, so it wasn't at the very top of my TBR list, but I was recently feeling ready for a revisit to this story and decided to give it a try.
Trisha Raje is a rockstar neurosurgeon, and she knows it. Though she's on rocky terms with some of her family over a youthful mistake, she is still close with the rest of her tight-knit (and very well-off) family. DJ has just quit his high-profile chef's position in order to move and support his sister in-person as she faces a debilitating choice about treating a brain tumor. A friend of his from culinary school has given him a shot at regaining income after the move by catering a political event from her cousin, who happens to be Trisha's younger brother. And as it turns out, Trisha herself is the only surgeon with a chance of successfully operating on his sister's tumor. So before they ever meet, DJ and Trisha's lives are deeply intertwined. When they finally bump into each other, and before realizing who the other is, their first impressions are...less than stellar. And the misconceptions and assumptions only grow from there. But, of course, those unfriendly exteriors are hiding some soft hearts, and with time DJ and Trisha realize maybe they were both wrong about the other.
This is a really solid retelling. I loved that it leaned more "inspired by" than "strict retelling," which I know not everyone enjoys, but for me is a great mix of familiarity with a little originality, and tops it off with a (satisfying) scavenger hunt for recognizable details. So, for example, I loved the gender swap of Trisha being the judgmental/arrogant and very financially stable character, while DJ was the lower socioeconomic status and defensive character. Dev wrote them both spot on - they had all the right vibes. And the surgeon and chef careers fit those respective personalities so well, and the ways they ended up brought together were very realistic (no contrivance here, which is a major pet peeve of mine in romances, so I was glad for that.) Because of the ingrained social understandings that they each grew up within, as well as vastly different family situations, their inclination to distrust and assume the worst intent from each other makes sense. In addition, I really appreciated the more modern look at prejudice, related to race as well as wealth, and the way they intersect and interplay with each other. It is vastly more relatable to a present-day audience, and in a necessary way considering the diversity of the characters on both fronts.
Other aspects that harkened back to the original that I loved included the big family/lots of siblings of the Raje family, which had a very "Bennett" vibes to it. Within that, I also caught some foreshadowing to the other characters and their relationships that could be the basis for other familiar Austen stories throughout the rest of this series (and I'm definitely now interested in reading those too). I thought the "Wickham" character, the way they played their role in a more modern sense and caused inter-family drama (as well as other interpersonal distance) was well done. And the overall romance plot, with the rude and spurned original confession of love from Trisha (the Darcy character), and the final coming around from both after secrets about Wickham and other risks taken on behalf of the others' loved ones, was the perfect ebb and flow following the original. Speaking of which, oh my goodness there were so many secrets that Trisha was holding and protecting for everyone around her - it was super stressful and I have no idea how she managed it for so long! But when the tension finally let go and it all came out and Darcy and Trisha get their moment together in the end, it was all the romantic relief and comfort that P&P builds to.
Overall, I enjoyed this retelling. I get the mixed reviews, as it's not a draw-dropper, but it is absolutely the comfort read that I wanted it to be. It did a great job honoring the original storyline, while plotting its own course a bit as well. Once I got into it, I flew through it, happily ensconced in this familiar tale.
“The syntax of prejudice - threaded into conversation with the perfect pauses and facial expressions - was like ciphers and spy codes. The meaning clear to those it was meant for. To everyone else, it was harmless scribbles. Easy enough to deny.”
"The thing about human beings is that they heal [...] We're nature's creations, we regenerate like the seasons. We just need someone to let us know that we're worthy of healing. […] But the healing itself, the changing, that you can only do yourself. No one else can do that for you.”
Trisha Raje is a rockstar neurosurgeon, and she knows it. Though she's on rocky terms with some of her family over a youthful mistake, she is still close with the rest of her tight-knit (and very well-off) family. DJ has just quit his high-profile chef's position in order to move and support his sister in-person as she faces a debilitating choice about treating a brain tumor. A friend of his from culinary school has given him a shot at regaining income after the move by catering a political event from her cousin, who happens to be Trisha's younger brother. And as it turns out, Trisha herself is the only surgeon with a chance of successfully operating on his sister's tumor. So before they ever meet, DJ and Trisha's lives are deeply intertwined. When they finally bump into each other, and before realizing who the other is, their first impressions are...less than stellar. And the misconceptions and assumptions only grow from there. But, of course, those unfriendly exteriors are hiding some soft hearts, and with time DJ and Trisha realize maybe they were both wrong about the other.
This is a really solid retelling. I loved that it leaned more "inspired by" than "strict retelling," which I know not everyone enjoys, but for me is a great mix of familiarity with a little originality, and tops it off with a (satisfying) scavenger hunt for recognizable details. So, for example, I loved the gender swap of Trisha being the judgmental/arrogant and very financially stable character, while DJ was the lower socioeconomic status and defensive character. Dev wrote them both spot on - they had all the right vibes. And the surgeon and chef careers fit those respective personalities so well, and the ways they ended up brought together were very realistic (no contrivance here, which is a major pet peeve of mine in romances, so I was glad for that.) Because of the ingrained social understandings that they each grew up within, as well as vastly different family situations, their inclination to distrust and assume the worst intent from each other makes sense. In addition, I really appreciated the more modern look at prejudice, related to race as well as wealth, and the way they intersect and interplay with each other. It is vastly more relatable to a present-day audience, and in a necessary way considering the diversity of the characters on both fronts.
Other aspects that harkened back to the original that I loved included the big family/lots of siblings of the Raje family, which had a very "Bennett" vibes to it. Within that, I also caught some foreshadowing to the other characters and their relationships that could be the basis for other familiar Austen stories throughout the rest of this series (and I'm definitely now interested in reading those too). I thought the "Wickham" character, the way they played their role in a more modern sense and caused inter-family drama (as well as other interpersonal distance) was well done. And the overall romance plot, with the rude and spurned original confession of love from Trisha (the Darcy character), and the final coming around from both after secrets about Wickham and other risks taken on behalf of the others' loved ones, was the perfect ebb and flow following the original. Speaking of which, oh my goodness there were so many secrets that Trisha was holding and protecting for everyone around her - it was super stressful and I have no idea how she managed it for so long! But when the tension finally let go and it all came out and Darcy and Trisha get their moment together in the end, it was all the romantic relief and comfort that P&P builds to.
Overall, I enjoyed this retelling. I get the mixed reviews, as it's not a draw-dropper, but it is absolutely the comfort read that I wanted it to be. It did a great job honoring the original storyline, while plotting its own course a bit as well. Once I got into it, I flew through it, happily ensconced in this familiar tale.
“The syntax of prejudice - threaded into conversation with the perfect pauses and facial expressions - was like ciphers and spy codes. The meaning clear to those it was meant for. To everyone else, it was harmless scribbles. Easy enough to deny.”
"The thing about human beings is that they heal [...] We're nature's creations, we regenerate like the seasons. We just need someone to let us know that we're worthy of healing. […] But the healing itself, the changing, that you can only do yourself. No one else can do that for you.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness and Pregnancy
Moderate: Medical content and Death of parent
Minor: Racism, Sexual assault, and Toxic friendship