This was unbelievably cute and had me kicking my feet giggling. It definitely doesn't have the depth of characterization and build up for the romance that you would usually need. It definitely relies heavily on the established atmosphere and story people already know Pride and Prejudice to have. If that wasn't there this would have fallen flat. That being said I find this kind of queer retelling absolutely adorable. I love how Oliver was twisted into the story in a really effective way.

This book was a lot of fun. It felt true to the original characters and plot while also being cohesive and entertaining in its own right. For fans of the other Classic Remixes, as well as queer historical romance books like those by Cat Sebastian, KJ Charles, Lex Croucher, or Emma R Alban.

A very unique variation. First, I appreciate the author's candor. Appreciated that the story has enough of the original and the sequence of events to enable me to follow. Initially got lost because of the switching of names/gender and then the pronouns, throwing me off. Wasn't sure if Lizzy was presenting as Elizabeth or Oliver. As I continue to read, I got used to such. I wasn't sure how this story will go especially how it will end. Amazed by the author's creativeness. Also thankful for sharing such disheartening situations. Towards the end, there was heartwarming moments. I particularly love when Mrs Bennet said something and hugged Oliver. Such a unique, heart-touching story and enlightening one for me.

This remixed classics series is one of my favorite series! This book provides such a warmth and it just left me so happy. Despite the shorter length, the story is fufilling, Oliver and Darcy are an amazing couple.

I love this series of Remixed classics, and while this was maybe a little unrealistic in its optimism, I don't care because I absolutely loved it. I love P&P, and this is a really great adaptation.

This fell under the "didn't love, didn't dislike" category for me. There wasn't a lot behind it, but there really doesn't have to be to enjoy a book. I liked the characters but wish some of the side characters were fleshed out a bit more. Based on the general gist of the plot, I'm now more interested in Pride and Prejudice than I was before. The messaging was great and the ending was satisfying, wouldn't active recommend but would support an existing recommendation for sure.

Ok, I'm going to first level set this review in two ways so you know about the book for two key things I did not know going in and would have helped me like it more quickly: 1) this is YA. I don't normally read YA and I wasn't expecting YA and was really really confused when Oliver kept referring to everyone as "boys" and "girls" and I was like, but Darcy is a grown man? No, he's not, these are all teens and this is YA. 2) This is an absolutely zero spice book. We get a kiss. That's it. And THAT IS OK, especially with it being YA, I just hadn't known. Ok, all set? Let's get to it.

This is a Pride & Prejudice retelling (you know I love those!) where the second eldest Bennett child is a trans boy named Oliver, who is known to the outside world and most of his family as girl named Elizabeth. I loved the use of P&P and the way it hit the notes you'd want - Jane is a loving sister to her closest in age sibling and knows Oliver as himself and supports him wholeheartedly, Mrs. Bennett is still trying to get all her children married (wrongfully thinking they are all girls), Wickham is still evil, Charlotte still enters a marriage of convenience with Oliver's cousin (with very interesting reasoning!), and Mr. Darcy (here just Darcy) is a bit stuck up but ever so tender.

I loved the twist on the story, giving us more than cis hetero love, and the way Oliver found his way to living authentically as himself. It was really lovely (if YA and without spice).

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

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Lovely twist on Pride & Prejudice. It kept close to the original in plot, with some adjustments I felt worked well. There were also many of the most well known lines reused and it was so well done. The ending made me so happy and even though I knew where it was going, it was the journey of Oliver Bennett to get there more than the romance really.

I'd been anticipating this book for ages and was blown away by how much better it was than I even could have expected!! I think it's very safe to say that I'm a huge fan of Gabe's work and, as a Pride & Prejudice lover, nearly cried at how incredible the characters, story, and respresentation all came across. Definitely a favorite read of the year already!

Pride and Prejudice is one of the most popular romances of all time and I have adored it ever since I first read it many years ago. In Most Ardently, Gabe Cole Novoa remixes the classic story with our main character being Oliver Bennet, a young transman, who feels trapped in his society's expectations for women of the time. He was born Elizabeth Bennet and at this point in his life, he is ready to start openly living his true identity as a man.

Many of the original story's main beats play out throughout the plot but with deviations. I love the relationship between Darcy and Oliver. It was great to watch them fall in love during the story and I just could not get enough of them together. The characters are similar to their classic counterparts but a bit younger. Also, I love Oliver's dad just as much as I always loved Elizabeth's father. It was a joy reading the scenes with him. Oliver is a powerful character who you cannot help but love from the very beginning of the story.

I highly recommend picking up the audiobook for this wonderful book. The narrator does an incredible job narrating Oliver's story. I will be buying a copy for my collection and know I will be rereading this very soon.

A Pride and Prejudice retelling in which the Bennet’s second child is Oliver, a transman, who has confided his true identity to a few close friends and family members. Oliver slips away to Charlotte’s to change clothes and spend time as himself in public. It’s on one of these outings that he meets Darcy and Bingley, who he’d also met the night before at the Meryton Ball but in the guise of Elizabeth. What a fantastic setup. What a charming, lovely idea.
Throughout the story, there’s a smart and comfortable balance between recognizable beats from the original, and license taken to meet the demands of this particular remix. For those who love the original (and those who live and breathe the 2005 film), you’ll be pleased and settled into the world you love and expect and simultaneously thrilled at the new notes. I also found that my knowledge of the underlying narrative was a comfort of sorts as the characters faced such difficulties just existing in the world around them.
Overall, I found this exceedingly charming and healing to see queer characters in a story I’ve loved for decades. I have a few small critiques, but nothing that affected the joy this book brought me. I like how the author maintained a certain wickedness from Wickham, but I was a little ruffled by Collins’ closeness to him. I have no love for Collins but I suppose I’ve always seen him as a blowhard who was ultimately harmless and this put a darker stain on his character. I don’t object to that on its own, but it left me worried for Charlotte, and I didn’t love that. It left me with questions for her that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. There was also a touch of unrealistic dialogue, but nothing egregious.
Mr. Bennet 4ever.

Thank you so much, NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Feiwel & Friendss for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

In the 1800's society, Oliver Bennet feels trapped by its expectations and by dresses and corsets. In a society inherently cishet and heteronormative, he feels trapped and alone and everyone thinks he's a girl named Elizabeth. He's expect to mingle, to become a wife, but he can't accept this fate. The only way he feels himself is sneaking out his family's home and dressing like a gentleman and so he becomes acquainted with Darcy, a sulky gentleman, who was rude to "Elizabeth". But getting to know him reveals to Oliver Darcy is a sweet and intelligent boy and so attractive. While he starts to hope for a live where he can be himself and love who he wants, his mother and suitors are becoming more and more pressing, pushing him towards two choices: accept his lie and live as a girl or risk everything to be himself.

I absolutely loved reading this Remixed Classics, by authors from marginalized background and I found this one so unique, fresh and creative. I loved Pride and Prejudice and this retelling is perfect! I loved how Elizabeth was fierce and "rebel" in her own way in the book and how here, with a trans character the whole heteronormative and cishet society is shown in its true colors.
Oliver is fierce and brilliant and, of course, he struggles within this society and yearns for freedom and I think it's gorgeous who he is himself with Darcy and how their relationship deepens.
It's a story of longing and freedom and defyinf society's expectations and it was sweet and beautiful, so so recommended!
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I will literally read anything Pride and Prejudice related, so when I heard about this queer version, I definitely wanted to check it out. In this version, our Bennet love interest is a trans person going by Oliver. When he meets Darcy, there is instant chemistry but even more barriers than if he were just a girl.

We get all the usual beats of the P&P story with Jane and Bingley, the dances, Jane’s sickness etc. But Charlotte is also queer and helping Oliver cope and adapt. Darcy is still swoon-worthy and difficult. Wickham is even more of a villain than ever. Mr Bennet is even more of a gem than ever.

The new scenes were all great, I especially loved the bookshop scene and Darcy going to Molly Houses to read! I didn’t know about Molly Houses in history so I was glad to learn that.

Thanks to Fiewel and Friends for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions above are my own.

LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS WAS SUCH A CUTE AND FUN STORY AND I CANT WAIT TO READ MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR THANK YOU SO MUCH TO NET GALLEY FOR THE ARC I REALLY ENJOYED THIS

Oliver Bennet is a transman not yet out to most of his family. Only his eldest sister, his best friend, and his best friends lesbian lover know who he truly is. But, Netherfield has been let at last and the man who now lives there (Bingley) becomes infatuated with Oliver's eldest sister Jane. Now Oliver's mother is out to marry off her two eldest daughters (even if one of them is actually a son). Not to mention, Bingley has brought along a stuffy friend who mocks Oliver when he has to play "Elizabeth," but then befriends Oliver. What is Oliver to do when society would have him boxed into a person he can never be, a person it would kill him to pretend to be?

Wow! What an incredible reimagining of Austen's famous Pride and Prejudice. The idea fit so perfectly with the tones and meaning of the book. The prejudice, the miscommunication, the judgements, and the incorrect assumptions. I loved it so much, the way in which the author honored the old work, but then reformed the book into something fresh with added depth and meaning. This book has pushed me to want to read more trans historical books (and not just fiction). I want to know more about trans historical figures, I want to know that they had a chance to thrive and be happy.

I was a little frustrated with the misogyny still present in the narrative, and the fact that Oliver felt that fitting in was becoming part of the toxic masculinity crowd. The best characters in this book have always been those who tended not to fit into societal norms or to adhere to the awful boxes society places people into. For example, in the original: Bingley is an overly cheery, flighty, non-reading, generous gentleman, Jane is a woman who hides her emotions from all but those closest to her, Elizabeth is not the accomplished young woman that so many expect of her, and Fitzwilliam Darcy is standoffish and suffers from social anxiety. So, it would have been really neat if this book pushed back against the patriarchy more; it did, but I think it could have had more oomph.

The Bennets were their usual plucky selves and continued to redeem themselves through the course of the novel. Mr. Bennet is a gem as usual and deserves all the love. I also enjoyed the switch to having Wickham and Mr. Collins in league with each other and removing the grossness of Wickham marrying into their family. I was uncertain of Charlotte's fate after all that transpired, and I can only hope that Oliver's true and enduring friendship would mean caring for his friend after all that was revealed.

A fabulous book with so much emotion and two leads who truly find love within each other, even while trying to figure out who they are themselves and how to tell their family their own truths. This is a book about what it means to be yourself and how difficult it is to tell others the truth, but how validating it is when your family actually sees the real you and embraces you.

I absolutely adored this one! Anything Pride and Prejudice is going to be a win for me and this one did not disappoint! Cannot wait to see what else Gabe comes out with next!

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Children’s for the ARC of this!

This was another cute retelling in this series, where again I say “I never read the original but I can imagine this was better” 😂 It was a quick and easy read.

I cannot express adequately in words how much this Remixed Classics series has meant to me, and how special MOST ARDENTLY is. Oliver's journey as he falls in love with Darcy and comes out to his family, was full of soft, swoony moments and big, scary reveals, and it was all done so masterfully. I am obsessed, and in love, and so delighted by this remix of one of my favorite classics.

Thank you to Macmillan/Feiwel and Friends and NetGalley for the eGalley to review!

I must preface this review with the fact that I have yet to read Pride and Prejudice in its entirety yet (I am due to soon for a book club, though!) and so therefore do not know *all* of the parallels and references, but I do believe--knowing the general outline of the story--that this remix does an excellent job of retelling it in a queer perspective. It also adds in references to real queer history in London, like Molly Houses and marital expectations of queer folk (shout out to the historical notes in the back!).

Most of the story is focused on Oliver's journey in coming out to his own family. His sister Jane knows, as does his closest friend and her girlfriend, but that is the extent of whom he's allowed this knowledge. Oliver is living a double life, pretending to be the Bennett daughter Elizabeth at home and in social settings, while being his true self on personal outings. This is relatively fine as he's working things out about his life, until all the deadnaming, body dysmorphia, and ridiculous misogyny get to be too much, as his mother is focused solely on him catching the eye of any "suitable" (read: rich) man at social gatherings so that he can end up as someone's wife as soon as possible. Add the fact that he keeps meeting the same men as himself and as Elizabeth, and he spends most of the book high-strung with anxiety, utterly terrified of being outed against his will, and wondering if he'll ever get to be his true self safely and happily.

The romance comes secondary, but it is sweet and fulfilling nonetheless, with a happy ending. Darcy is strictly gay in this retelling and is standoffish and rude to Oliver when he is forced to present as Elizabeth, but not when he's Oliver. He comes into his own self later and becomes a better person for it (not unlike the original Darcy, from my understanding).

If you can get through the transphobia complete with rampant micro- and macroaggressions, along with the egregious misogyny from some characters, this is an adorable coming of age story with a side of regency romance and it's worth the read!

Wow wow wow. As someone who loves Pride and Prejudice, this was an excellent read. It keeps the spirit of the original while adding in lots of new elements. I adored the characters.