Genre: YA queer historical romance, closed door
London, 1812

Oliver Bennet chafes against his role in the large Bennet family, but doesn't know how to tell his family he is the Bennet son and not one of many daughters. All he knows is that he absolutely cannot be anyone's wife. (For those of you familiar with Mrs. Bennet, you'll understand the depth of Oliver's problem...) When he meets Fitzwilliam Darcy while at a ball - unfortunately forced to wear a dress and not as his true self - Oliver sees a boy who is standoffish and proud. When he meets him again, as Oliver, Darcy begins to open up, and Oliver realizes he’s introverted rather than aloof, and someone he desperately wants to spend more time with. Meanwhile, Mrs. Bennet is still on the quest to marry off her children, and sometimes, a man in possession of good fortune does not, in fact, want a wife.

I'm an absolute sucker for Pride and Prejudice *anything* so when I saw this trans queer regency era Pride and Prejudice, I jumped at the chance to read it. This is decidedly young adult - Oliver is 17 and refers to Darcy as “boy” (I think he may be a couple of years older) - and while I as a reader would have enjoyed it even more as an adult book, I am delighted this is a version of P&P that teenagers can read. There is true joy in Oliver’s ability to connect with and embrace his true self, and watching those around him accept his identity.

Any time I pick up a P&P book, I spend time looking for the similarities and differences between the retelling and the original. Luckily, I reread the Jane Austen original only a few months ago, so it was fairly fresh in my mind. I don’t look to critique, specifically, but look for the choices an author makes as their incorporate or leave out elements from the original. I was pleased with most of the choices, which open up room for queer characters. And maybe a little redemption for Lydia. The setting feels historically appropriate, and I appreciated the author’s note situating legalities and illegalities surrounding a 19th century queer and trans experience.

✰3 stars✰

This was cute, really. Just maybe not as detailed and deep as it had the potential to be, or as I wanted it to be.

Oliver was born in the wrong body, he was never meant to be Elizabeth Bennet and living his life as a young lady is stifling and dreadful and leaves him feeling trapped.

His mother, Mrs. Bennet, is determined to have him married off to make the perfect wife, and Oliver wants none of it.
Early on, Oliver meets Mr. Darcy while dressed as Elizabeth. At this point, Darcy is rather cold and rude, and it’s assumed that he just isn’t vey kind with women.
However, not long after, Oliver meets Darcy again while dressed as himself and they form a genuine friendship and Darcy is different than Oliver imagined he would be.

This remixed classic is clever and a heartwarming trans love story, but does fall a little flat with the actual believability of the romance. While it’s certainly YA, you don’t feel as invested in the romance between Darcy and Oliver in the way you’d expect from a remix of a Jane Austen novel. There is a line between maintaining YA romance and just leaving out appropriate details that make the love believable, and this very much toes the line of not being quite enough to be invested as a reader.

I loved Oliver being able to come into himself, and I did appreciate the brief longing moments between Darcy and Oliver. At times the pacing felt off in what seemed like an effort to keep some of Jane Austen's classic scenes (but in the remixed way), and I almost wouldn't have minded if the author had deviated a little more just to give Olive and Darcy more depth and new moments outside of sticking closer to the classic.

Even still, it’s a nice and quick read that does leave you feeling good. So while I was left wanting more, it was still a comforting read with a promising plot.

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am just a huge sucker for a Pride & Prejudice retelling and when I found out this one was queer and trans, I needed no further information! I absolutely loved it and really flew through the book, which I read via a mix of the audio and the ebook. It hits all the highlights of the original P&P, but is also unique and has changes that make a lot of sense for this adaptation.

The scenes between Oliver and his family members who know who he is (particularly his dad!) were so sweet and made me feel so many EMOTIONS! What was also surprising to me was the amount of queer/trans joy really exists within these pages! The gender euphoria Oliver experiences when he is able to be truly himself just again, gave me all the emotions.

I gave this a truly enthusiastic 5 stars. Would I have enjoyed it more if it was adult (even closed door)? Yeah, probably but this was still so enjoyable of a reading experience and I'm so so glad it exists.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Feiwel & Friends for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

4.5 stars rounded up

I feel like retellings of Pride & Prejudice can be very hit and miss, but I ended up really liking this take on it. Most Ardently features a trans Bennett main character, a queer Darcy, and a queer Charlotte (this last one is often read into the text anyway). It's a clever approach that hits the main plot beats of the original and feels like it gets what Austen was doing, but diverges in ways that make sense and integrate real queer history of the time period. We do know that trans people existed back then too, and there is even a documented case of a trans man inheriting an estate that went through the male line. This offers a really wholesome and lovely version of a classic that reimagines it through a queer lens.

It is worth noting (and this is in an author's note at the start of the book as well) that due to the specifics of the story and the constraints of the time period, much of the book does involve the main character- Oliver Bennett being mis-gendered and mis-named while still living much of the time acting as a woman. But while that is the case and there is some transphobia and homophobia, most of the people that matter are wonderful and supportive. I do recommend this one! And the audio narration is excellent as well. I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

Thanks to Netgalley and Feiwel & Friends for the eARC!

I first read "Pride and Prejudice" when I was 12 and I hated it. I wanted nothing to do with it. As I got older I grew to appreciate the story and it's context. This is a long way of saying I actually enjoyed this more than I ever enjoyed P+P.

I feel I understand Olivers struggles to be seen for who he truly is than the period drama of it all.

This was such a fun, quick read. I really enjoyed myself!

Imgur link goes to Instagram graphic scheduled for Jan 5th
Blog Post will go live January 5th
Will be cover on Youtube midmonth/month wrapup for December

Most Ardently is a remix of Pride in Prejudice in which Elizabeth is instead, Oliver a trans boy trapped, pretending to be Elizabeth. Naturally, do the time of P&P Oliver must hide who he is and though this is incredibly similar in the structure and some of the story beats to the original, it does take into consideration things from that period that would have been important/affected someone like Oliver.

The story is short, and truly sweet. We see Oliver struggle with when or how to tell his family who he truly is. The only people who know are Jane and Charlotte (though slowly more find out through the course of the book) and ultimately he does find that place and time. The writing in this was readable and pacy and the moments of Oliver changing into the clothes that truly fit him and presenting as he wanted to be seen made my heart happy.

I genuinely loved a lot about this, and in the end it was nothing but joy for Oliver and Darcy. I do wish we’d had a bit more, perhaps just more to the story? I feel it possibly was edited down to fit the series length requirements or something similar as the later half to this felt very rushed. If you’re interested, I really recommend this. The cover is stunning and the inside is just as rich and lovely.

4 out of 5 classic love letters

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this prepub in exchange for an honest review.

I love pride and prejudice. So when I saw a remix version where one of the main characters is trans, I got excited to read it. I love reimagined tales, but I feel they need to stay true to the times. I don’t see this type of ending as possible back then. I liked that the author made the story their own while staying as true to the original tale as they could, but when we got to the ending I became disappointed. Oliver probably wouldn’t have been as accepted, he would probably more likely have been sent to a sanatorium back then having revealed himself.

But even though it didn’t stick with historical accuracy I did enjoy the story.

A fun retelling of Pride & Prejudice! I found myself quickly wrapped up and finished the story in one sitting which is very high praise these days! (It's been a chore to read some novels lately.) The characterizations felt authentic to the source material yet refreshed in the queer remixed style.

I feel that this book is great for young adults and older, especially those who wish to see some queer happiness in their stories.

Full disclosure, I have not read Pride and Prejudice. So I won't be making a comparison in this review.

I was a little worried going into this book that I wouldn't like it, because I usually read historical fiction with a little more magic in them. However this book has no problem spinning its spell around you and keeping you hooked.

I found myself unable to put the book down, waiting for the next time Oliver and Darcy would interact with each other because their banter was so good. I really enjoyed Oliver's character and his sharp remarks against the society he lives in.

I also enjoyed seeing the bit of growth that Oliver goes through as he fights to build a life that he wants to see. I loved all of the side characters and some of the interactions with Oliver and his parents felt like a warm hug.

I think this was a wonderful retelling of a classic story that all readers can enjoy. I'm glad to see classic stories like this told from a queer lens.

Thank you to netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review this story!

This was such an adorable and wholesome queer retelling of P&P. If you like the original story, you will love this. I thought it stayed quite true to the original Pride & Prejudice story, like a retelling should. I am obsessed with the Darcy we see when he spends time with Oliver, and was giggling everytime he was mean to “Elizabeth”
Mr. Bennet was the perfect father and I absolutely loved the author note at the end

Highly recommend!! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review

First of all, I love Pride and Prejudice. I have also enjoyed quite a few other books in this series, including my favorite at this point, Self-Made Boys. Secondly, this is a very short book, only 200 or so pages. With that being said, my major hang-up was with the pacing. This book needed to be an extra 50-100 pages longer. I felt like we were constantly flip-flopping between keeping to the original P&P storyline and the plotline where Darcy and Oliver meet when Oliver can go out as himself. I would rather have had more time to develop the relationship between Darcy and Oliver then rush those scenes to keep a storyline that follows the og P&P. But if the book was a bit longer, we could probably have had both (though I still say Darcy and Oliver scenes beat out any scene with Wickham or Collins). I would recommend this book if you want more trans rep in your historical fiction or if you want an easy-to-read queer story with a familiar plot because its short, sweet, and has a happy ending. But the main romance will end up feeling a bit underdeveloped.

It's the early 1800's and Oliver Bennet feels trapped, by his mother's expectations, by societies standards, but mostly due to the fact that when everyone looks at him they see a girl. Oliver is trans and is only out to a few friends and family members, hiding his secret and sneaking out at night to try and find time to live the way he craves. I'm not familiar with the source material, i've never read the og Pride and Prejudice, so i'm not sure how faithful the plot is. Oliver does however, find hinself once he becomes friends with Darcy, a boy he met at Elizabeth and did not have a good impression of at first. As oliver realizes the depths of his feelings for Darcy, he'll have to decide what he wants his future to look like. This was a good adaption, the inclusion of trans and lgbtq characters felt natural and well done, they fit into society in a way that was realistic while still giving them plenty of room to be themselves. I particularly liked <spoiler> that it was Oliver's father who found out first of his parents, and kept the secret until Oliver told him, and stood by him to the point of changing his will to make him his heir. </spoiler> The character interactions were realistic and fun to read, with the characters all having unique identities that made them interesting to follow, even if some of them turn out to not be great people. The plot wrapped up a bit too quickly for me, but i'm not even mad because Oliver's character arc was done well.

I am not a fan of Pride and Prejudice. I requested this because it was a queer take on the novel. But to be honest the only thing that i liked was the queer vibes. Other than that I really did not like this. If you are a fan of Pride and Prejudice I would suggest this.

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

Pride & Prejudice is one of my all time favorite stories, and so it was with anticipation and trepidation that I began reading Most Ardently. Some P&P retellings are great, and some leave me incredibly dissatisfied. In the case of Most Ardently, while I couldn't help the occasional internal squawks about the (really unimportant) original details ("Charlotte Lucas had siblings!" "The Bennets lived near Meryton, not London!"), I knew this book shone where it really mattered: as a queer coming-of-age romance set in the Regency era. The author took pains to introduce historical accuracy in terms of how trans and queer people existed in those times in England, and managed frequently to apply the original text when fitting into this remix. It doesn't hit the same notes as P&P with me, but that's not the point at all, and I think it's lovely that this book exists. Sensitive readers can take note of the warnings in the front of the book regarding misgendering, dysphoria, as well as historical transphobia, homophobia, and misogyny.

This was absolutely adorable and such a delightful reimagining. Oliver and Darcy’s connection was silly, but intense and serious at the same time. I felt so deeply for Oliver as his mother and others called him by his deadname and constantly called him out for not being the “daughter” or “woman” that he was expected to be. It was rough but I appreciated the way that Novoa wrote Oliver’s journey overall. The author’s note at the very end on historical accuracy when it comes to queer and trans folks during that time period was chef’s kiss.

Most Ardently is a beautiful queer retelling of Pride and Prejudice, in which Oliver, not Elizabeth, is the protagonist and Darcy's love interest. I love Pride and Prejudice, and cannot believe this is the second (very different) queer retelling I got to read this year!! The book overall sticks pretty close to the original, with the expected villainy of Collins and Wickham, but some extra space given for Oliver to grapple with his identity and with how he chooses to reveal it to his loved ones. It felt a little simple for my taste, but I think it would be perfect for a younger audience closer in age to Oliver.

I am actually having so many emotions about this book. First of all, let me say that the Remixed Classics series is one of my all time favorite ideas. I love taking well known stories and asking: but what if it was queer? what if they weren’t white? what if they weren’t men? This is the third one I’ve read and it’s just as amazing as the others and makes me so excited to read every one in the series.

Admittedly, I am not a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice. The general idea of the story and the way I’ve seen people interact and react to it has always been interesting to me though and I loved another reimagining of the story, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I also love Gabe Cole Novoa’s writing in general, The Wicked Bargain is one of my top favorite reads so when I saw he was writing this and got approved for the ARC I was so pleased.

The thing that got to me the most, I think, was Oliver’s emotions and desires. The way he just wanted so badly to be himself and fought for it, even though it was so scary to do it. His relationship with Jane and his father got me a bit teary eyed more than once.

Each time Oliver came out, while not always intending to do so, I was braced for it to go horribly, but each time I was pleasantly surprised and reassured by the openness and pride that each character reacted with. I think between how society still reacts to trans people today and the way narratives for characters like Oliver usually go, I was expecting blatant and harsh transphobia. And while there was transphobia, for me the blows were softened by the acceptance of his sister, his father, and eventually Darcy and his mother. That being said, please still take care of yourself and know that there is still transphobia, homophobia, dysphoria, and misogyny that Oliver deals with throughout the book. Know what you can handle as a reader.

Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

This was a delightful read! I'm a huge Jane Austen fan, so I was very excited about this and it didn't let me down! Gabe does a great job of staying true to Austen's iconic characters while making some important changes to the plot. At some points I did wonder if this would have been stronger as its own thing rather than as a remix, but it is wonderful to see a classic reimagined with queer characters.

Elizabeth Bennet isn't really Elizabeth Bennet. Oliver is a boy forced to be a girl because of society who nonetheless finds time to dress as his true self on occasion. While snubbed by Darcy as Elizabeth, Oliver and Darcy hit it off, creating complications that threaten to upend the delicate balance of Oliver's life. How can he resign himself to marrying and pretending to be a girl forever when he's had a taste of romance?

<i>I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Oh this book! What a beautiful celebration of queer joy! It makes my heart so happy.

I love Pride & Prejudice and so I was incredibly excited to read this queer remix. I liked how iconic moments or lines were used here. They were either used in the same manner but with a different impact or they were repurposed to suit this narrative. It was fun to guess how it would all come together.

I love Oliver. I cried with him, I danced for joy with him, I celebrated his small victories, and I felt his pain. It's so hard to move through a world that cannot or will not see you as you know yourself to be. I'm nonbinary (they/them pronouns) and I was frequently misgendered while I devoured this book. It's incredibly important to tell these stories from the trans person's point of view.

All the supporting characters were brilliant, too. Mr. Bennet in particular made me cry and yearn and feel hopeful. Charlotte and Lu helped bring the queer culture to life. Wickham was his distasteful self and it was perfect. Even Collins was the right level of odious.

The romance between Darcy and Oliver was charming. It felt historically accurate and appropriate for their ages (Oliver is 17 and Darcy a few years old). Knowing the original story, you know it's inevitable but the author still managed to make me feel like it might *not* work out here. It's a skillful balancing act and it made the ending all the more poignant.

Gabe, thank you for writing such a moving, delightful story. It brought such a smile to my face even as I cried. I'm honored to have had the opportunity to read an advance copy. And you're completely right: we deserve romances that will sweep us off our feet.

I've already started recommending this to absolutely everyone!

A lovely twist on the story of pride and prejudice with refreshingly modern twist. Taking the original story and mixing in a trans storyline added a sense of urgency to this story that made it more enriching and engaging