I loved this book! It's well-written, enjoyable, and a great reimagined classic. Sonali Dev did a great job of writing in a way that captures the readers attention, and makes you not want to put it down until you're finished! I would highly recommend it!

This is quite catchy romantic novel, which smartly intertwins come classic motives (enemies-to-lovers in the first place, but some intense dote of prejudices and strong emotions as well) well-used in the romances before (Jane Austen novels come to mind). I liked reading it, mostly because the love story comes slow here, as the characters need to see some perspective first, and to solve their emotions and situations before entering the relationship. I like that the main characters are messy, full of strong feelings, character traits, past hurts, mistakes...but they are able to rise stronger and challenge each other. The story also works - which is the most important ingredient in the good romance.

Sure, there are mistakes. I am not a fan of prominent families full of princely characters, where everybody is some kind of elite; some modern tropes and cliches and also the sexual comments and innuendos. But while these issues are present, they can not trope the good story. And this is a good romantic story.

A fun and charming retelling — Dev has an easy-to-read voice and the retelling plays omage while adding contemporary depth and flair.

Another of my favorite books read in 2021, this was my first Sonali Dev novel (although I own several). Why did I wait so long to read this one?!

Dr. Trisha Raje is San Francisco’s top neurosurgeon, but it does not seem to be enough for her influential Indian immigrant family who descended from royalty. She disappointed her father greatly years ago and nothing she does seems to please him. Chef DJ Caine gave up his well-reputed job when he learned his sister had a tumor. He is desperate to get the job the Rajes offer—it would help bring in the money he and his sister need. Sparks fly from the moment Trisha and DJ meet—and not necessarily in a good way. Trisha’s arrogant and quick to judge.

There was so much more to this novel than I expected. Romance plays an integral part, although at times I wondered how the author was going to bring such strong-willed characters as DJ and Trisha together. I admit I was not a huge fan of Trisha at first, but like for DJ, she grew on me. And the more I got to know her under the arrogant exterior, the more I came to like her. Both DJ and Trisha carry past baggage with them which they must work through if they want their happy ending.

Sonali Dev does not shy away from issues of race and class, which is not a surprise given the tie in to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (at least in terms of class). She did not gloss over anything, but addressed these issues head on. Trisha and her family are Indian immigrants while DJ and his sister are a mix of Indian and Rwandan. Their experiences in life have been very different on that front, but also because one was born with privilege and wealth while the other has faced poverty and homelessness.

Julia Wickham . . . Because of course there has to be a Wickham character. I loved Trisha’s family and look forward to learning more about the various members in future books in the series. I found myself especially drawn to Trisha and her father. He is more stubborn than she is, and honestly, I felt his anger and disappointment in her was misplaced. I will not go into detail about the role Julia plays in the story, but, like in the original Pride and Prejudice, the character is more out for herself than anyone else.

While the novel does have similarities to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, it is also very much its own story. A reader does not have to be familiar with one to appreciate the other. But those who are familiar with the original, will have fun picking out the similarities, including the role reversals.

I went in expecting to like Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors and was even more pleased when I came away loving it.

This take on Pride and Prejudice tells the story of Trisha Raje. She is a highly qualified and talented neurosurgeon and a member of a highly competent and prominent family. One of Trisha’s patients, Emma, is an artist whom Trisha could save; however, the cost may be too high. What will Emma decide and what will happen?

Note the name Emma. Other characters in the book also have names taken straight from Austen’s novels. There is a Wickham (female) and DJ whose first name is, of course, really Darcy.

Darcy and Trisha collide both literally and figuratively. They personify both pride and prejudice as they get to know one another and as their relationship evolves.

DJ is a chef and food is a big part of the novel, just as it was in A Recipe for Persuasion. The cuisine is lovingly described and made me hungry.

There are other characters and story lines in the novel. One is about Trisha’s brother who is running for office. His story will be told more fully in the third of the novels.

I found this book to be a most enjoyable read. I looked forward to picking up at the end of the day and relaxing.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Always a great read, Dev never disappoints. I covered this entire series in a post for Book+Main. Please see the attached link

Even though I love the idea of a book set in San Francisco, a city I love, and I tend to enjoy retellings since I'm curious bout what the author's take will be, I wasn't able to get engaged with this one.

This was a disappointment for me. I have read and loved Somali Dev’s Bollywood series, so I was excited to read a combination of my favorite classic and one of my well liked Indian authors. However, after many (4+) attempts at reading this book, I had to give up. The characters are not relatable, likable, nor the story easy/fun to get into.

I started reading this one but didn't hold my interest. I though the concept was good but I wish I could have connected with the characters more.

n the 300-room Sagar Mahal, the Ocean Palace built by her great-times-four grandfather on the Arabian Sea, 13-year-old Trisha Raje is coached by her father not to be overwhelmed by the sorrow she sees at a school for the blind but instead find a solution, so she doesn’t feel badly.

And so, she does. Before long, Trisha has created a global charity that performs eye surgeries on the needy and then becomes San Francisco’s premier neurosurgeon, a woman with immense skill but so lacking in social graces that many in her family are not talking to her, as she once inadvertently jeopardized her older brother’s fast-track political career.

But that isn’t Trisha’s only difficulty in Sonali Dev’s newest book, "Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors," an Indian take on Jane Austen’s classic, "Pride and Prejudice."

Dev switches up the focus between Trisha and DJ Caine, a rising-star chef whose cancer-stricken sister is a patient of Trisha’s. Trisha is a descendent of Indian Royalty, while Caine, a Rwandan/Anglo-Indian, belongs to a much lower social class — the classic Austen-style mismatch.

To paraphrase Austen, Dev writes, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that only in an overachieving Indian-American family can a genius daughter be considered a black sheep,” and the book reflects classic Austen, with its subtle ironic humor and the structured setting required in any well-to-do aristocratic English or Indian milieu.



x
Trisha has broken the three ironclad rules of her family: Never trust an outsider, never do anything to jeopardize your brother’s political aspirations and never, ever, defy your family.

Trisha must cope with falling in love with Caine, saving his sister and ensuring that she will not somehow disgrace her family again.

Dev, who is married with two teenagers and lives in Naperville, says she’s been entranced with Jane Austen’s book since watching the Indian TV adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice,” called “Trishna,” in the 1980s when she was a middle-schooler.

“I went straight to the library and checked out "Pride and Prejudice" and read it over and over,” she says.

As for writing, Dev says she wrote before she could even read, making up stories and characters, noting she wrote and acted in her first play when she was 8. “Writing has always been with me,” she says.

She grew up in Mumbai though the family traveled a lot as her father was in the military.

“I was always the new kid on the block with a book,” she says.

She continues to read and write at an amazing speed.

“I am in fact waiting to get the edits back for my new book,” she says, noting that writing is an escape, a way of putting yourself in the shoes of someone not like you.

I adore Jane Austen-esque books and I adore Sonali Dev's writing style so I knew I would love this book and I did! Her characters are so fully drawn and the story - although you sort of know how it will go - is multi dimensional given the diverse backgrounds of the characters living in their reality. Read this book! You won't be able to put it down.

https://margiesmustreads.com/2020/04/diverse-darcy-pride-and-prejudice-adaptions-for-modern-times/

https://margiesmustreads.com/2020/04/diverse-darcy-pride-and-prejudice-adaptions-for-modern-times/

I absolutely loved this take on my favorite Jane Austen novel! the main characters had great chemistry, and the secondary characters added some great texture to the plot. Can't wait to read the next in the series.

This book is my introduction to Sonali Dev. Dr. Trisha Raje and DJ Caine start are at odds from the moment they met. When DJ Caine overhears her referring to him as the help while catering a party for her family, his low opinion of Dr. Raje holds. His negative feelings toward Dr. Raje continue until he realizes she is the doctor who can save his sister’s vision.

I thought that this book was just okay. While I like DJ, I struggled with Trisha. There was also quite a few conflicts. For some of them, I thought it took too long to reveal what the caused the conflict. An example is Trisha’s relationship with her father, her brother, and other characters. For me, somethings just dragged on too long and the journey to the heart of the conflict was more than necessary.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to review this book and to be an early reader via NetGalley! However, I will not be writing a review for this title at this time, as my reading preferences have since changed somewhat. In the event that I decide to review the book in the future, I will make sure to purchase a copy for myself or borrow it from a library. Once again, thank you so much for providing me with early access to this title. I truly appreciate it. Please feel free to contact me with any follow-up questions or concerns.

I wanted to love this one! I love retellings of P&P, but parts of this felt very slow. I loved the own voices aspect and the twist on the characters from the original classic. I liked the writing, but overall I would have enjoyed it the pacing was a little faster. 3.5 stars

I really wanted to like this book, and I think, after reading it, that I did, but I had a really hard time getting into it and keeping up with it. Trisha was a difficult character to get to know, and even though I was rooting for chef DJ Caine from the start, it was frustrating to experience their interactions. There were parts of the plot that I felt went on unnecessarily long. I’m not a superfan of the original Pride and Prejudice, so maybe I would have liked this retelling better if I were. Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC!

For some reason, I found this book to be a slog. I wanted to like it. It's everything I should like, but I just wasn't that into it.

Dr. Trisha Raje is a young but very acclaimed neurosurgeon still doesn't quite manage to achieve enough and fit in to her powerful and wealthy Indian-American family. And while she should be proud of her talent for life-saving procedures, her brusque bedside manner is not great, and her social manner is not much better, coming off as a bit arrogant, with no patience for things she thinks are beneath her lofty life-saving work. Case-in-point when she first encounters chef DJ Caine, who is bidding for a chance to cater a couple of her wealthy family's major events. He overhears her deriding him as "the help," and they immediately take quite a disliking to each other. His pride has no patience for her prejudice...until he realizes she's the one surgeon who could save his sister's life. I'm a sucker for a Pride & Prejudice retelling, and there were some things I loved about this one with angles on the story I've never experienced before - making it an Indian-American family, switching the genders of the Darcy/Elizabeth characters, giving me mouth-watering descriptions of Indian cooking - but it wasn't my favorite-ever entry into this genre. Just moved a little slowly for me at times, and while I think that the big plot point of Trisha being a bit on the outs with her family because of what they perceived as a past mistake was meant to be a useful part of adding a bit of tension to the story, it felt like it made her character a bit self-doubting, which didn't feel very Darcy-esque. Overall a decently fun read if you really love P&P retellings, or you like stories where food plays a big part.

The author herself states that this is not a direct P&P retelling and that she was inspired by themes of the novel. However, whoever marketed this book did not get the memo. Calling this book something so close to Pride & Prejudice makes this seem like a direct retelling and the reader is going to have certain expectations. This is not a bad book, perhaps a bit boring and long in the middle, but some excellent themes of belonging in the United States are brought up. But, I did not enjoy it. The MC's family is constantly rude to her and take advantage of her. At the end it is resolved, but it was not satisfactory. It is also unnecessarily tragic, with serious themes being brought up but (aside from one) are not explored or dealt with.

All in all, this is not a P&P retelling and was too long/slow at parts to be enjoyable for me.