I have read several P&P retellings, so was excited when this was announced, and it did it justice. Some aspects of the story were updated - Longbourne is just outside London now, and Wickham’s misdeeds were more personal - but they made sense for the development.
As a transboy, Oliver is feeling trapped in the societal expectations for him to find a husband and be a good wife. In the beginning, only Jane and Charlotte know who he truly is and support him, and as the story progresses he finds the courage to come out to more. I love the support his father gave him, definitely in character for Mr. Bennet. I also liked how Darcy’s first proposal was done, and how they were able to work it out in the end.
Overall, I really enjoyed this. It was a fast read and gave me more insight as to the inner feelings and struggles of trans people. This is a YA novel, so the characters were aged down a bit, but then it felt a little odd to still be proposing so much while referring to everyone as boys/girls, even though that was the age they would be getting married historically. I found myself wishing there was a little more to the relationship at the end, a peek into their time at Pemberly.

If I’m going to be honest, I was a bit nervous about this remix. I have read a few from the series in the past and while I love the different tales spun by the talented authors some just don’t quite work. This was absolutely wonderful! First of all the cover? One of the best I’ve ever seen and I cannot stop staring at it, I will be buying a physical copy for sure. Jane Austen is a giant of literature and a large inspiration for the historical romance genre and I was pleasantly surprised with how the author made changes but still stuck to the bones of the story. Darcy and Oliver were truly * chef’s kiss*. Do you like Austen but wish it was much more queer? This is definitely the book for you!

Gabe Cole Novoa quickly became one of my favorite new authors last year with the release of his book, The Wicked Bargain, and I'm super excited for the followup coming out later this year! So, of course, I was hyped to see that he was getting a book in the Remixed Classics series.

First, a confession: I don't know Pride and Prejudice, either the book or any of the movies, though I suppose that's something that I should remedy at some point. I have a passable familiarity with the basics of the story. In this case, I don't think I was missing a lot of context by not being familiar with the original, though I can imagine it would be interesting to see how Novoa plays off of that story.
Oliver Bennet, second oldest child of the Bennet family, is living a double life: the life of Elizabeth that most of the world expects and believes him to be, a girl who should love dresses and balls and be preparing to marry a man for the betterment of the family, and the Oliver that he knows himself to be: a young man who loves to explore the city and read books. During one of these hated balls, he meets Darcy, who immediately seems to hate his very existence. And yet, when he encounters Darcy again as Oliver a few days later and isn't recognized, they get along amazingly - and Darcy turns out to be sweet, gentle, well-read, and interested. But pressures are growing for "Elizabeth" to get married and settled down from all sides, and Oliver is starting to crack under the pressure of his double life and hiding his secret from Darcy.

Oh the trans joy! That's what radiates more than anything through this book, just like in Novoa's previous writing. While there are certainly people who are unaccepting of Oliver's transness, everyone who matters is so accepting of him. Oliver finds so much acceptance in his life and it's beautiful to read and experience. The relationship with his father is particularly beautiful and brought me to tears more than once.
The romance between Oliver and Darcy was also lovely, though I'll admit I wouldn't have minded a few more detours of just the two of them together! While their romance was believable and very sweet, I would never turn down more.

Overall, this is just a sweet well done remix to add to the series and I'm super happy to have another one to add to my classroom shelves!

✨ Review ✨ Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa; Narrated by Harrison Knights

This is a trans remix on Pride and Prejudice with Oliver, a trans boy, who falls for Darcy. I was totally captivated by this book, and even though I knew how it would end, I stayed up late to finish because I was just so drawn in.

The book shows Oliver having to dress up as a girl around her family and in social situations, frustrated at the dysmorphia this public life he must hold. But then, he frequently escapes in his boy clothes his uncle helped him procure and befriends Darcy as Oliver. This juggling of multiple realities with Darcy added a compelling twist to the story!

I was left wanting a little more Darcy and Oliver and saw space for the story to deviate a bit more from the traditional narrative, but with that said, I think this was a brilliant rewrite. The author really smoothly found the space to make a trans / queer story within the shape of the P&P we know and love.

The audio narration is fantastic -- full of emotion and feeling! Kudos to another great remix in this series!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5)
Genre: m/m historical romance, trans representation
Setting: London / rural UK
Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
Reminds me of: Alexis Hall's historical romances like A Lady for a Duke
Pub Date: Jan 16, 2024

Read this if you like:
⭕️ queer / trans rewrites of classics
⭕️ all things Jane Austin
⭕️ the idea of Charlotte as a lesbian

Thanks to Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Young Listeners, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Feiwel & Friends, and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Remixed Classics has been a series that has given me a lot of joy so I was extremely excited for the new interpretation of Pride and Prejudice. While I did ultimately enjoy it, it did not quite live up to what I wanted it to be.

The romance between Oliver and Darcy was the best part of the book. The way in which they meet both when Oliver is himself and when having to live as Elizabeth really helps to further their romance in a way that is very enjoyable. Since Oliver is able to speak to Darcy as a man, he is able to get to know him better than a woman would during the time period so it does feel like they genuinely like each other and have a bond.

I did not like Darcy's infamous proposal scene. I did not feel as though it made sense as there is no mention of the issues Darcy discusses in the original proposal such as how the Bennett family is lower class than his and embarrassing and the Bennetts have connections in trade. I do not want to provide too much detail as it would be spoiling some of the details. Nevertheless, this scene really took me out of the whole plot.

Beyond that, the pacing felt somewhat off and the ending felt rushed due to this.

Regardless, I liked the romance and Oliver's journey to be able to be himself in an extremely gender-based society, even if the story itself and pacing were not quite what I wanted.

Oliver Bennet's story was such a great addition to a classic. I loved the crises from Mr. Darcy as well as the exploration of other elements of queer culture. The "main" romance did lose a bit of its oomph but the queer plot more than made up for it.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Most Ardently is the next installment in Macmillan's Remixed Classics collection, and is a remix of Pride and Prejudice in which Elizabeth Bennet is a trans boy named Oliver, who must navigate society in a body he does not feel at home in. When he begins to grow closer to newcomer Darcy as his true self, his feelings and his future become tangled.

I LOVED this book! Gabe Cole Novoa is such a creative storyteller, and Most Ardently is no exception. Oliver had such richness of character, felt so nuanced and so tied to a modern truth, I am so excited for the YA readers who will be able to see themselves in his journey.

More than that, though this took plenty of liberties with the Pride and Prejudice story, something about this book made me feel the same kind of breathless, heart-wrenching magic that its inspiration does, and I think that is what really set this read apart for me. It genuinely was such a unique, refreshing, and heartfelt retelling of a story I hold dear.

I really enjoyed this retelling of Pride & Prejudice. I thought it was fun and well-written. I also thought that the LGBTQIA+ spin would make it appeal to our teen audiences.

More Austen adaptations forever. A motto I live by, and am so pleased to see happening more and more in the world. So, of course, I am thrilled that Most Ardently: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa exists.

More than that, I’ve now read it (yes, I’m jumping back into Austen and adjacent reviews!) and want to share a little more about the book for other fans who might want to read it.

Oliver is just trying to navigate a complicated world of trying to support his sister Jane, avoid his mother (Mrs. Bennet) constantly pushing cringe-gender roles and terms on him AND avoid Mr. Darcy, who is an ass. All this while trying to find time to be himself, leaving the Empire-dresses at home and going out into the world in lovely trousers and cravats and waistcoats. (And also not get caught because he hasn’t told many people at all about who he really is.)

We loosely follow the main beats of Pride and Prejudice, but there are wonderful moments of Oliver striking out on his own (and deviating from the main P&P plot) that I felt were actually the strongest. There’s a superb author’s note at the end that goes into detail about Regency history and attitudes that I highly recommend reading and delving deeper into. Because of this real history, we get to follow Oliver to Molly Houses! And on one such trip he happens to run into Darcy (the ass!) who does not recognize him. Tension ensues! And plot!

I felt this book was all tenderness and concern for Oliver. As a reader, it was heartbreaking to hear Oliver be misgendered and then subjected to sexist treatment. For folks going through their own journey, or who are triggered by this, please read the author’s full warning before checking out this book. Take care of yourself.

This was an exceedingly clever and charming reimagining of Pride and Prejudice. I love that these books are considered a "remix" rather than retelling or even reimagining because ultimately they really are their separate thing. Using the bones of Pride and Prejudice to tell Oliver's story was extremely smart and immediately ingratiated me to the character and his journey as the book went on. I know the beats of P&P like the back of my hand so I was on Oliver's side from page one and so interested to see how his story would unfold among the confines of the familiar story I love and the restraints of Regency England.

Some of the side parts of the story do fall by the wayside and I think the book is more interested in Oliver's journey as a trans man than the romance, but it is still fascinating and compelling and although I'm still deeply in love with all the intricacies of the original story, this remix does such a good job of focusing on Oliver. I do wish maybe we got a little more with his relationship with Darcy and more romance, but the most pleasing part of this version of the story is the way Oliver is able to carve out a place for himself rather than at the hands of matrimony to a powerful man.

The ending was maybe my favorite part - the way Novoa wrapped up the story in an interesting and cool way, using the laws of inheritance and gender to wrap everything up and it was unexpected but also genius.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I very much enjoyed the story, particularly Oliver’s relationship with his father. If you are looking for a good hearted, queer, historical “remix” this is definitely a book to check out!

~ 3.5 Stars ~

Gabe Cole Novoa’s Most Ardently pays homage to the source material while introducing its own themes and representation in Oliver Bennet, the teenage boy who is unseen and unheard in a society that would not accept him for who he truly is.

Though Oliver is not without a handful of allies, he is known to most as the second eldest “daughter” in the Bennet family, one of the five children whom Mrs. Bennet is desperate to marry off to wealthy and well-connected suitors for reasons which don’t need to be spelled out given the setting and time in which the story is told. Every hero needs a nemesis and in Oliver’s case, while Darcy would be expected as the prime candidate, Mrs. Bennet herself serves in that role too, giving Oliver multiple fronts on which to fight the stereotypes, sexism, genderism, and expectations he faces. The moment of redemption Mrs. Bennet gets in the end is effortless and without much in the way of contrition, which discounted the extremes to which she went, but when the time comes to stand up for her family alongside Mr. Bennet, who has already lovingly accepted Oliver as his son, Mrs. Bennet steps in to protect her own.

Most Ardently is a definitive enemies-to friends-to more story. Darcy behaves as Darcy does to “Elizabeth”; though when Oliver finds the opportunity to sneak out of the house as his true self, he gets to know a different Darcy, a softer and kinder Darcy—a boy who loves books and enjoys the company of other boys rather than the girls he is expected to woo, as he is, as the original poses, in possession of a good fortune and therefore must be in want of a wife. It’s clear that Darcy can be charming and sweet, that he is enamored of Oliver, and that interest is reciprocated. But there are those who would wish to smear Darcy’s character. Oliver grapples a bit with those rumors while connecting them to both the off-putting Darcy he’d first encountered and the Darcy he comes to know.

Gabe Cole Novoa’s adaptation of this classic story reads as personal and intimate, resonant with the voice of lived experience and offering queer teens the opportunity to see some of their own cares and concerns on the page. The story is told with an abundance of heart, Oliver’s strife and struggles both internal and external, and while I do feel there could have been a deeper dive into the characterizations—Most Ardently relies on the reader being at least somewhat familiar with P&P—and its conflict was wrapped up too handily, it reaches the sweet and uncomplicated happy ending Oliver and Darcy deserved.

Thank you to Macmillian and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Gabe Cole Novoa book and it did not disappoint! I read this book in one sitting, it was so good. The transmasc retelling was a perfect addition to the classic and it honestly just made sense with the story as a whole. Novoa's retelling made me fall in love with Pride and Prejudice all over again.

I am really loving this remix series. This one is so so good. It’s very similar to the original Pride and Prejudice but adapts and changes perfectly. Really well done! The relationship between and Oliver and his parents, beginning with his father and later on his mother, is just lovely. I was very emotional during their scenes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I read this book in a day and I regret nothing.

MOST ARDENTLY is a wonderful Pride and Prejudice retelling where the main character is a trans man trying to find his place in the world.

I loved every second of this book, it had me on the edge of my seat for the whole day. Oliver is already such a special character to me because I can relate to his story so heavily. The absolute fear he has about coming out to his mom and not knowing how she will react is something I struggle with all the time. I fell in love with the way he sees the world and how he makes a place for himself.

I think my favorite part about this book is Oliver's relationships with those closest to him. His relationship with his sister Jane is so heartwarming. Her undying support and love for her brother are so near and dear to me. The only thing I loved more was the friendship - and ultimately relationship - between Oliver and Darcy. Making Darcy gay as opposed to just rude and indifferent to women was a stroke of genius. Seeing their interactions on both sides of the table was an interesting look at how sexuality and the forced conformity of their society impact how people interact. watching Oliver and Darcy grow in friendship and companionship was beautiful.

I absolutely devoured this book and loved every second of it. Maybe now I will find the motivation to read the original...

I received this eARC from Netgalley and Fiewel & Friends in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, and Feiwel & Friends for providing a digital review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

The second I heard a description of Most Ardently, I had to read it. Pride & Prejudice, but gay Darcy and Oliver, a trans man, in the place of Elizabeth? I'm absolutely in.

I don't feel a need to summarize this one further, simply because most people know at least the basics of Pride & Prejudice. Content warnings abound misgendering/deadnaming/transphobia, but given the entire premise of Oliver's character, I expected that.

As much as the P&P retelling aspect was a HUGE part of the draw, a part of me wishes the plot had been given a bit more room to wander from the source material. There are places where the beats from the original felt forced into the story rather than feeling organic - which stands out when there are additions and places where the plot was tweaked to better fit the story. Maybe that's why the places where it wasn't felt off to me?

In spite of those moments, I truly enjoyed this version of the story and where it ultimately went. The acceptance Oliver finds among those who matter, and the comeuppance for those who would deny who he is with the ending tied everything into a very neat bow that some might call unrealistic, but I'm all for it. We need more stories of acceptance and understanding.

Trans joy and a retelling of an old favorite? Yes please.

4.25/5

I loved this book... Most Ardently.

This is the latest release in The Remixed Classics Series and it is my favorite so far. A re-imagining of Pride & Prejudice, Most Ardently, features the love story of Oliver Bennet & Mr. Darcy.

Readers, expect to meet all your beloved Austen characters in a fantastic new light!

Recommended for: readers looking for more queer & trans rep in their romance; clean romance readers

Content warning: dead naming & characters trying to enforce gender roles through nefarious means

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It's essential I start by pointing out that I absolutely love all things Pride & Prejudice, so I was more than a little excited when I was approved for this arc. And Most Ardently was definitely well-worth that excitement!

The novel centers around Oliver, born Elizabeth. Changes to the story largely deal with this twist. There is a very clear note at the beginning offering warnings about the content for readers, which I appreciated. I can only speak as an ally, but I thought these changes and the content were handled well.

Honestly, my only issue comes from some confusion about the locations in the story. There seemed to be some changes made to the distance being traveled from Longbourn and other places that I'm not sure if I missed being addressed, but it took me out of things a couple times.

I loved the adaptation itself and enjoyed the small changes to the story, but I would be lying if I didn't say I wished it had changed just a bit more. Still, it's well-worth the read and I'll definitely be buying a physical copy to add to my collection!

I received an arc from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Funny and poignant, deliciously true to the original text and yet wholly original in itself, this trans reimagining of Pride and Prejudice is beautiful and full of joy.

I knew I was going to love this book, but still entered with a touch of trepidation about how it would be executed. However, my fears were completely unfounded. Novoa’s thorough understanding of Austen’s wit and humanity shines through the difficult duty of such a radical departure from what we believe of the era. But, of course trans people existed in these spaces, and their journeys, though lost in time, are just as poignant.

Thank you for this heartwarming and affirming exploration of the heart! And thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

In what could be my favorite of this whole remixed classics so far, Most Ardently has stolen my heart. For the keen eyed reader, there are so many Easter Eggs to the original from our favorite movie moments, to book nods. Just like with many of the classics remixed series, there's an attention to detail and to having a conversation with the original. It's not just a copy paste. There's an attention to details, to the ways they would have their stories, loves, and possibilities for endings here. Most Ardently is swooning, charming, and heartfelt from beginning to end. It celebrates the individuals breaking convention and living their lives in this historical fiction time period. The marginalized folks who have always been there.