Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for this ARC!

As both a Pride and Prejudice and The Wicked Bargain fan I was very excited for this book and am even more excited to say I absolutely loved it. It was a very quick read and I enjoyed every second of it. This is the first of the “remix” retellings I’ve read and it really made me want to give the others a chance.

Have you ever read Pride and Prejudice and thought, “I just wish this was a bit more…queer.” Then Gabe Cole Novoa has the book for you! What if Lizzie Bennet wasn’t Lizzie Bennet at all but instead Oliver - a transboy who is not out to his family and is trying to survive a life he does not consider his own? What if Mr. Darcy wasn’t dismissive of potential matches because none of the women he met reached his impossibly high standards, but because they weren’t men?

This book does a wonderful job of telling this story in a new light, as well as making changes to the source material that still leave the book enjoyable. While there were some choices that made me go, “oh huh ok didn’t expect that” I still enjoyed seeing what Novoa did with this classic story. If you want a completely accurate retelling of Pride and Prejudice with just queer characters, this is not it. There are some pretty big changes to the original story that are still very enjoyable.

Most Ardently is a often sweet, sometimes sad, coming of age story about accepting yourself and trusting those you love to do the same. I cannot wait for everyone else to enjoy it.

I had never read Pride and Prejudice before, so to prepare myself for it, I decided to read it. I do want to read the classics, but I find myself leaning toward contemporary novels. When I finished Pride and Prejudice, I was a bit underwhelmed. It could've been because I listened to it and didn't physically read it. So, when I picked up this book, I wasn't sure how I would like it.

Consider me blown away. I wasn't sure what angle Novoa would take with this book, but I love how he did.

The story follows Oliver Bennet, a trans boy being forced to perform the role of a woman in regency-era England. After his sister, Jane, is spotted and courted by one Mr. Bingley, Mrs. Bennet's attention turns to Oliver. Oliver would rather die than be a "wife." When on an outing as himself, he runs into Mr. Bingley and his good friend, Mr. Darcy, who when meeting him while performing as a woman was rather cool towards him. However, dressed as himself, Darcy seems fully interested.

Firstly, I love how this story explored the lesser-known sides of queer England. I think I've heard the term "Molly House," but I didn't know what they were. Also, Novoa does an amazing job explaining the roles of "performance." In college, I read a journal that talked about performing gender and while I understood what it meant then, Most Ardently really fleshed out what it means. This book is amazing for people who are cis and want to understand what it feels like to be trans. Or, it's good for people who want to feel seen. In the end, I think this book is for everybody.

Another thing I love about this book is how loveable (sans Collins and Wickham) are. Mr. Bennet is such a kind, supportive soul. Jane is an amazing sister, Oliver and Darcy have amazing chemistry. I genuinely cared about these characters. However, there is something about Charlotte. I wonder if she mentioned anything to Collins about Oliver being trans?

The only thing that I wished was a bit different was the pacing at the end. I do understand that this is made for a larger audience, but I feel like there needed to be a bit more.

Overall, I think that this was a great rendition and it's pushed me to read Pride and Prejudice again just so I can better make the connections. While I'm currently in a "not purchasing any books for myself" year, I still can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy!

A delightful modern take on Pride and Prejudice with all the atmosphere of 1800s London.

Oliver Bennet feels trapped by society's expectations. Many of his friends and family think he's a girl named Elizabeth, forcing him to attend balls in pretty dresses and consider suitors. But the best solace for Oliver is when he can sneak out and explore London dressed as a young gentleman. There he gets to know Darcy, a boy who had previously been rude to "Elizabeth" at a social function. Darcy turns out to be much more compelling with Oliver. As they start to spend more time together, and Oliver spends more time as his true self, Oliver is forced to make a choice between safety and security or risking it all for freedom and love.

To start out with, Gabe Cole Novoa's writing is very compelling. It's a great mixture of classic language from the original Jane Austen novel and modern language to make it extremely readable. There are moments of humor and heartbreak and the story really keeps you engaged. The cast of characters are also very fun to read about and overall quite supportive of Oliver (read the content warns though, because that's not the case for everyone). When Oliver explores London dressed as himself, we get a great taste of London in the early 1800s which really added to the atmosphere.

Retellings are always tricky. I think the author did a good job of giving us many of the key moments in the original while also including some new scenes to align with this version of the story. With the additional challenge of making these book interesting and relevant to a modern young adult audience, I think there was overall a good balance between these two competing factors.

Overall, if you enjoy Pride and Prejudice (or Jane Austen more generally) retellings, then I definitely recommend picking up this book. It manages to be a fun, quick read while also letting us understand some of the competing pressures Oliver was feeling from his family and society.

I was so freaking excited to get a copy of this book. I absolutely love Pride and Prejudice and I think doing remixes or revamps are a cool way to get people to fall in love with the book all over again. This remix, was incredible, sexy, and modern. I loved Gabe's take on this book and think it is a perfect new remix of an old classic.

Overall I'd definitely read this book again and I would recommend this book for fans of other romance books. I have received this ARC for an honest review, all thoughts/ opinions above are my own.

Meet Oliver. He's just your average regency guy except for the fact that by day the world (minus 5 of his closest confidantes) knows him by another name, that of Elizabeth Bennett. Oliver is tired of hiding who he is from the world and his family but regency England isn't really the most forward thinking place to be. Enter Fitzwilliam Darcy who by all accounts should be the last person that Oliver can relate to, and yet time after time they find themselves on common ground.

I am sure that we all know by now how very much I love Pride and Prejudice. It was my first introduction into the grumpy/sunshine, enemies to lovers, he fell first tropes. And boy do I lap those tropes up in books. So when I heard there was a queer, trans retelling of my most beloved classic, you bet your ass I immediately went to Netgalley and requested Most Ardently.

"It was a special thing to have ones reflection in harmony with who they were. "
- Oliver

I read and received an E-arc of this book. I am going to be completely straightforward here, I am probably not the intended audience for this book. That being said, I enjoyed Oliver's story and his journey to owning himself. Oliver made me look at P&P in a completely new light. I mean, Lizzy and her dad were so close and she was the most "boyish" of all the girls. Wouldn't it make sense then, that she wasn't actually a girl?

One of the things I appreciate most about retellings is how they challenge the way that we view a story previously told. It makes you question if we really got the full story when we originally read it and I will absolutely be breaking out a copy of Pride and Prejudice to re-read after this to see if there are things I may have missed in any of my previous reads where Jane Austen was telling a different story from the one we all read.

While I felt that the chemistry between Oliver and Darcy was lacking and the way Wickham was fit into the story didn't really work for me, I rated this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. If you love Pride and Prejudice as much as me and want to see it in a new way or you just want to add more diversity into your reading, this is a great jumping off point for trans romance.

This heartfelt adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is a must-read. The story centers on Oliver who is struggling to live his authentic life while figuring out how to let go of his family life as Elizabeth especially as he worries about how his family and society at large will accept him. The book is filled with fun moments of deliberate misunderstandings, Darcy and Oliver's joint love of books, insta-attraction, found family, historical queer realities, and of course a soul-wrenching declaration of love.

Stars: 4.5/5 (rounded up)
Steam: 1/5 (It is YA after all).

TWs:
-As part of the plot Oliver is frequently misgendered and deadnamed. He is, however, never misidentified by the narration.
-anti-queer sentiments carried out by and discussed by Wickham and Collins characters
- some misogynistic rhetoric in how cis-gendered, homosexual Charlotte opts for a traditional life and it being "okay because she's a woman" vs Olivers vehemence that he couldn't subject himself to the same choice because he is not. (honestly, my read on this was more of a cis vs trans conversation of Charlotte feeling comfortable with settling because she was otherwise comfortable in how she was able to present herself to the world while Oliver did not... however, I can see how this could be upsetting to some readers and thus wanted to mention it).

Note: Posted to Goodreads and Instastories. Will post as Instapost next week.

Elizabeth Bennet is actually Oliver Bennet. He's trapped in the body of a woman, when he knows in his heart that he's a man. This book was an interesting take on Pride and Prejudice that looks into how we perceive ourselves and who we are. The original story is one of my favorites so I was really looking forward to this remix version. The story kept a lot of the original character's from the story, but mixed up some of the personalities, sexual orientations/preferences, and made the character's a little younger than the original work. I was happy with the results, although I did hope for more character growth. A lot of the story and thoughts from Oliver's POV became very repetitive, where I felt there could have been more expansion on those feelings, rather than a reiteration that we've already read many times before throughout the novel. I would recommend this book to patrons.

A solid 3.5 stars read. This book was a delight. A long-time Pride and Prejudice lover, I enjoy getting my little mitts on any retellings, updates, etc. that I can and I'm so glad this was one of them. Drawn in initially by Marlowe Lune's gorgeous cover, I was swept up in the world Gabe Cole Novoa created. While Pride and Prejudice purists might take issue with certain changes to the original text (ie. Longbourn is moved from the countryside to London; a friendship between Collins and Wickham; Charlotte, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia all but disappear from the book's final act; etc.) everything serves the greater narrative we've all come to know and love: the relationship between the second eldest Bennett, Oliver, and Darcy.

Love this! Was so cute. Caught the characters so well. Really captured who they are immensely. Loved getting to see how much research was done.

I’ve read several books in this Remixed Classics series and enjoyed every one of them. This is hands down my favorite retelling of Pride and Prejudice.

Many readers are familiar with the character of plucky, intelligent Elizabeth Bennett. In this retelling, Elizabeth is really Oliver. Only a handful of people are aware of his real identity, including his sister, Jane, and best friend, Charlotte. Much of the story remains the same – Jane and Bingley’s romance, Mr. Bennett (one of the best fictional dads ever) wanting his children to marry for love, Mrs. Bennett caring more about her children making good matches, the annoying Collins, and insufferable Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Bad guy Wickham slinks around every corner, but there’s a different spin on his character.

And then there’s Darcy. He’s still arrogant, aloof, and unapproachable, but Oliver gets to see a side of him that Elizabeth never could. Their path to romance is full of potholes, but it’s no less compelling than in the original novel. The author does an excellent job in telling Oliver’s story, and I nearly needed a tissue at one point. Trust me, it takes a lot for that to happen.

This is a joy to read, and I loved the mixture of the original story with the new take. Highly recommend for fans of retellings.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I was so excited when this book was announced and even more excited when I was approved for an advanced copy of this book. I adore Pride & Prejudice and the film is one of my favorite comfort movies. I also have enjoyed all the Remix stories I have been reading in this series, and couldn't wait to see what Novoa was going to do with this classic tale. I ended up really enjoying it. I will say it is pretty low stakes and some parts seemed a little too idealistic based off of the time period, but I tend to prefer that in a story. I don't like when stories are too upsetting and I think Most Ardently had a pretty nice balance. I will say there was one part at the end that threw me, and makes me concerned for Charlotte's and Oliver's friendship, and it is not addressed what-so-ever. Other than that, I did enjoy how the story concluded.

Most Ardently was a queer retelling of Pride and Prejudice with a trans MC and a queer Mr. Darcy. I loved getting to revisit some of these beloved characters in a new light and I really enjoyed the story as a whole. It was also a pretty short read. I managed to finish it in one sitting and it left me feeling happy and satisfied. I look forward to more Remixes (if there are more) and more from Gabe Cole Novoa!

This was a fun remix! I haven’t read the original (which is chaotic) but this was a fun read for me! I’d definitely recommend to those who enjoy remakes!!

Most Ardently A Pride and Prejudice Remix is everything you love about the original but make it queer! Oliver is living a farce. Only a handful people know the truth about who he is and those who don’t seem far too interested in making him someones wife. Most Ardently is Oliver’s beautiful coming of age story with a sweet and swoon romance. We watch Oliver contend with who is he and want he wants for himself and what society is telling him. The people who know the true him made his journey a little easier. The relationship he has with Jane and Charlotte was a beautiful representation of what friendship and family is. The interactions we get between Oliver and Darcy are new and wonderful to see. I loved seeing them both come to terms with who they are and what they felt. I feel like me you hate wake up. I promise you you’ll hit him just a little bit more in this one. I adored the way everything worked out and my heart was full and happy by the end of it and through out. I think Gabe did a wonderful job writing this story with care. Through Oliver he shared what one experience of being trans can be like. I felt for Oliver and was rooting for him from the beginning. If you’ve read pride and prejudice the most memorable moments are taken and explored in such a heartfelt and fresh way. I loved this remix and I urge everyone to read it! 4⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 Stars rounded up to 4

This book is pretty much exactly what it says in the description, a remix of Pride & Prejudice where Elizabeth Bennet is actually a trans boy named Oliver. It is a retelling that has massive shoes to fill given how beloved and genre defining Austen's original work is. And for the most part, I think Novoa does an admirable job at mimicking some of the most important elements of P&P while embracing what it means to make this a queer narrative. Overall, it is a very sweet and wholesome story that I can definitely see appealing to queer teens.

As a P&P retelling, it very closely follows most of the story beats from the original novel. The chemistry between Oliver and Darcy is there, both the bickering & tension, and the building romance. The parts of the book where those two are in the same room are the best parts of the novel. It also means that when certain characters enter the narrative, there's no real surprises with how they behave or their motivations. There are enough differences to keep readers familiar with P&P entertained though, particularly the extra scenes with Oliver and Darcy and incorporation of some queer-centric locations like Molly Houses.

Ultimately I think the queerness is handled well in the novel. One of the main challenges of writing a queer novel in a very gendered historical setting like P&P is how closeted people needed to be. This can lead to a lot of works focusing on queer pain and the threat of their identities being revealed. Most Ardently does not do that. While the threat of outing is present in the larger setting, the characters we interact with are for the most part not needlessly cruel and transphobic. This leads to some scenes that at first feel too convenient with how easily a queer character is accepted but I also realized how important it is to have media that is just indulgent and happy rather than always circling back to queer pain. There is also a historical note at the end of the novel to give more context to what queerness and queer gathering places looked like at this point in history. This is an excellent addition to a YA novel to show teens that queer people have always existed and what that looked like.

Ultimately, Most Ardently is a sweet and indulgent retelling of Pride & Prejudice. There is nothing that surprising or revolutionary in the text, but is a solid queer romance for a YA audience to enjoy and feel seen by.

A queer take on Pride and Prejudice where the main character is Oliver, a trans man in regency England who must pretend to be Elizabeth Bennet. This follows the plot of the original pretty well until the end, but I enjoyed the author’s changes! Novoa does a great job of handling Oliver’s feelings and putting a twist on the classic. I will say they spend a lot of time in London, which felt weird. But I do understand that might have been a choice to make places like the Molly House in a bigger city.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A fascinating approach! While I wish that this remix spoke more directly to the themes and character growth arcs of the original, the novel is a heartfelt tale with a hopeful end. Readers under the trans umbrella should be aware that dysphoria and fear of being outed predominate, making the central conflict often painful and potentially triggering, but seeing Oliver come into his own was just the dose of optimism and trans joy I needed to kick the new year off right!

A queer take on Pride and Prejudice in which Elizabeth Bennett is actually a trans character and goes by Oliver Bennett, yet he is still navigating a matchmaking mother, a bad first meeting with Darcy, and trying to fend off Mr. Collin and Wickham. Elizabeth Bennett knew that he was born a boy, he prefers to go be Oliver and has yet to fully reveal himself to his family. He's been keeping it a secret and dressing up as his true self and going out as a boy in secret. Yet with the arrival of Mr. Darcy and Bingley, his world is going to turn upside down as he is further pushed to be "Elizabeth" in the social world and forced to endure the suitors his mother keeps trying to push on him. Oliver wants nothing more than to not be someone's wife, he wants someone to love him for him. Then he meets Darcy, his first interaction with Darcy when he was "Elizabeth" went poorly yet when he runs into him again as Oliver, he meets a warm side of Darcy he never expected. Can Oliver reveal his secret to Darcy and his family, or will someone threaten him? This was definitely a different take on the classic story. I love a new take but my only thing with this one was it was kind of missing it's character depth and the changes that were made just didn't really feel organic. Darcy and Oliver barely had any real romantic scenes so you don't really get to see them or feel them fall in love. The changes done to Mr. Collins and Wickham were definitely a choice. Overall, if you are a fan of the classic I would say read this because it's definitely a new take on the original and I think it's fun to experience new takes.

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Feiwel & Friends for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

This was a quick and easy read. The writing is easy to follow. I don’t envy anyone who has to rework Pride and Prejudice and this was cute enough. It has trans representation as well as other LGBTQ+ characters.
It overall just lacked a depth and tension. One of the reasons I love P&P is all the tension and pining and while some of that was written here I just didn’t feel like it was as deep. I’m sure for some this story will resonate and it could be powerful to see someone like you written in a timeframe you wouldn’t “normally” see. I just wanted to see more chemistry between the characters and complexity.

Honestly, this book is such an incredible disappointment. I wanted to like it. I wanted to love it, even, and I've enjoyed the Remixed Classics series in the past. But this book just isn't it. It doesn't deliver Pride & Prejudice very well, and it doesn't give a great insight into queer life in 1812. And with neither of those fronts being incredibly successful, this book is just a letdown.


PROS
Solidarity: One of the bright spots of this book, for me, was Oliver's friend Charlotte and her lady lover Lu. I kind of thought, heading into this book, that Oliver would be all on his own with his struggles, but that isn't the case. He's got a queer (if necessarily clandestine) community around him, and I love that. He doesn't need to go it alone.

Queer Life: I wanted way, way more of this, it's true, but I do think we get a taste here of what queer life could have been like in 1812. And I can appreciate that taste, even if it didn't fully satisfy. I especially liked the consideration of Oliver's birth certificate we get at the end... that is, the fact that birth certificates weren't quite a thing. That definitely would change some aspects of trans life, even if many other constraints would make such a life in 1812 very, very difficult.

Acceptance: Sometimes it's just nice to read a book where a character can simply be loved and supported. While that's not entirely the case here--there does, after all, need to be some conflict--there is a lot of acceptance in this book. Oliver is really struggling internally and socially with his identity, and so the fact that he gets a lot of support as he works it out is nice.


CONS
Selfish Oliver: I didn't like Oliver. I get that he's struggling. I get that it's a hard time to be trans. It's still a hard time to be trans. But Oliver is so incredibly selfish. He thinks only of himself. Queer people in 1812 necessarily have to make compromises (you know, for the sake of survival), but Oliver doesn't want that for himself--which is fair enough. But it was so, so hard for me to read his utterly selfish judgement of Charlotte for the choices she makes to protect and preserve herself. Where's the solidarity that she shows him? He certainly doesn't return it. I couldn't root for Oliver at all, which is so unfortunate, since Jane Austen's character (though equally independent and forward-thinking in her mindset) is such a great protagonist where Oliver just isn't.

Weird Changes: An adaptation is, by necessity, an adaptation. I get that. Changes can and will be made, especially when you're using a familiar story to examine something rather unfamiliar (such as queerness in 1812). But some of the choices here... just didn't make sense. These changes just pointed to a general misunderstanding of the period the book is set in, the social conventions, the original text, et cetera. The Bennet family lives in the countryside. They don't live a fashionable London life, and so the fact that Novoa places them within walking distance of London (which in itself feels odd) just doesn't make sense since nothing else about their social calendar (or spending) seems to change. You can't just change settings like this. Country life and London life are very different, today and certainly in 1812. And I know these characters have been aged down (though I don't know that they had to be, honestly, but I guess publisher age marketing categories must be appeased). But at 17+ years old, it feels very odd for Oliver to call himself and his acquaintances "boys." Even modern teens of that age probably would be looking to age themselves up from "boy." And the fact that Mrs. Bennet similarly calls Mr. Wickham a boy, even though he is established to be several years older than Oliver... It just isn't period-appropriate. Add to that Oliver's complete unwillingness to consider the risks and limitations of queerness in his time, and I had a really hard time with this book. I get that Oliver wants more, but it just doesn't feel realistic that a trans man in 1812 wouldn't be considering, you know, the very real social constraints upon him. He might want things to be different but needs to make compromises... or be willing to face the consequences of not compromising. And that's not a discussion that we get here, much to the detriment of the story.

Mr. Collins: This poor man gets butchered. He's not meant to be a likeable character in Pride & Prejudice. You're not supposed to want him to marry Lizzie, for obvious reasons. They are, objectively, a bad match. But he's a silly and ridiculous man, not a horrible one. This book makes him out to be so uncompromisingly horrible that it wasn't fun to read. In what Regency situation would it be appropriate for a man to greet a woman by telling her she has great "childbearing hips"? I know this is thrown in to really drive Oliver's dysphoria home, but really? That's just a disgusting comment, no matter what. One of the things that makes Austen's classic a classic is the timelessness of the characters, and I think pretty much any adaptation will fall short. But this one just butchers the characters--or doesn't quite seem to understand what made them memorable in the first place. The flavor of Austen's work is here, but alas, none of the substance.

Rating

⭐⭐
2/10
Fans of Sophie Jordan's Sixteen Scandals might like this unconventional Regency romance. Those who enjoyed Rosalyn Eves's An Improbable Season may enjoy the unlikely pairing that arises in this Regency tale.

I’m a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice, so naturally I had to read this. Overall, I really enjoyed this book! Of course what I loved most about this book was the queer and trans representation! I think the author does an incredible job of retelling the story while making the changes feel authentic and natural within the story. The book was delightful and wholesome. I highly recommend for fans of the original or anyone interested in the premise!