A review by cass_lit
Most Ardently: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa

4.5

I am pride & prejudice’s biggest fan, so it’s already hard for a retelling to fully wow me. But I particularly enjoy queer retellings, where we can reimagine a regency period allowing for characters to be their open selves. (The author’s note at the end regarding queer people in the regency era was super interesting as well!) And I loved this — I binged it in a day, rooting for Oliver and Darcy with the same intensity I root for the original Elizabeth and Darcy every reread or rewatch, even though I know the ending. 

The one single flaw here for me was that sometimes it was too closely aligned to the story, but other times not at all and both in ways that felt a little off as someone who loves the original so much. Certain characters, for example, felt like caricatures of their original personality and not wholly original or true to the source. And then some plot points would happen just as they did in the original, but they didn’t make as much sense to me with the other changes. But these are wholly personal issues, and I still loved the book despite them!