Not the P&P retelling I was wanting, but a queer romance with a charming and wholesome story about being comfortable with who you are and finding someone who accepts all of you. It was sweet and cute. As a P&P retelling, I was not really into it. Honestly, at the beginning of this read, I was constantly trying to find the thread, trying to find the beloved characters and interactions you expect from P&P. Once I realized I was not going to find what I was looking for and that it was hurting my experience of the book, I let it go. I took that aspect out of the narrative and enjoyed it so much more. So, don't go into this expecting a P&P retelling. Go in looking for an utterly charming queer romance about two men finding themselves and each other.

This is the queer rom com version of Pride and Prejudice. For people who know the source material well, there are many nuggets to squeal at. One of the challenges of bringing this story into the modern world is maintaining the urgency of the situation as it compares to marriage and proposals. Samantha steps away from that urgency. No one is trying to get married. The marriage proposal that Lizzie turns down doesn't happen in this story. Samantha also separates from the original story by moving through the “dislike” phase of Ben and Avery’s relationship very quickly. They become unlikely best friends. With that, we got a lot of Ben and Avery interaction. It lacks the tension of the original tale, but it replaced with pining on Ben's side. Ben is saddled with the undesirable position of having a crush on a friend he believes is straight. Because Avery is grappling with his own understanding of his sexuality and his choice to live his life out, I understand how Ben could believe being offered a place in Avery’s hotel bed on a trip might not ring as Avery having a crush on him. But come on! I was screaming. I also screamed when we got fade to black scenes. WHY? Why must it fade?

When the book description starts off by mentioning one of the characters owns a bookstore, I know I’ll be reading it. Plus, to top it off, this book is set in Tulsa, OK, just a couple hours down the road from me. I love it when I find a book set in my part of the country.

Ben and Avery were great characters; it was so much fun to read their journey towards one another. Add to that that Avery seems to be hiding something and you’ve got a recipe for a great book that will hold your attention (at least it did mine!).

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher/author for this copy of the book.

I gave it 3.5 stars.
I thought that the plot was really interesting. The concept of the author who is secretly the love interest is definitely interesting. However, I felt like the author did not set things up well enough. If there were more hints as to the plot points at the end, then. I think this book could get 4 or 4.5 stars. However, instead there was not a lot of setup for a lot of the plot points.
Additionally, I felt like the way that the characters were set up more by telling me what their personality was then showing that that is their personality traits. This is a bit of a minor knitpick buck it still brought down the book a little bit. This also led to the characters sometimes behaving in ways that seemed inconsistent with themselves, which again, could have been prevented with more showing less telling.
Finally, I feel like the moral lessons could have been better hidden. The parts of the book where the main character has a sort of internal semi-fourth wall breaking conversation about acceptance are good, and clearly the message of the book, but the longer the book went on the more it happened and I felt like building them better into the narrative would improve the book.
Overall, though, the narrative was good, and the plot was good. The book was still fun to read, it just needed a little bit better setup for the plot and characters.

📚📝 Pride by Samantha Ryan is a sparkling, modern-day queer take on Pride and Prejudice that was pure joy from start to finish!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️5/5 stars
Ben Bennett, a lovable 39-year-old bookstore owner in Tulsa, is comfortable in his life and values his family (even the overbearing Mrs. Bennet), his beloved cat Ziggy, his Sunday rom-com nights with his sister Mallory, and his love of gay romance novels. Enter Avery Fitzgerald, the alluring, enigmatic son of a Big Oil dynasty, who keeps surprising Ben in both tender and thoughtful ways. Despite being wealthy and charismatic, Avery has his own vulnerabilities, and the chemistry between these two is undeniable as their friendship deepens amidst hints of something more.
From classic tropes like "one bed" and "friends to lovers" to Avery's hidden identity and the heartwarming homage to Pride and Prejudice, every detail is beautifully woven. The plot twist, along with nods to the original story's iconic scenes, added depth and excitement, especially during their final heart-to-heart that mirrors Elizabeth and Darcy’s legendary conversation. This is a fresh and heartfelt love story perfect for fans of queer romance, slow-burn pining, and literary classics!

#pride #samantharyan #queerromance #gayromance #comingoutlaterinlife #mrdarcy #onebed #skitrip #knowshiscoffeeorder #masquerade

First off, I think nobody should ever set someone up on a blind date with a pastor. 😂😂😂I feel like that's the sort of first date where you'd rather have this detail prior.

And so chatty, too!
'I hoped he would find a nice man who was either an incredibly good listener—or potentially hard of hearing.'💀💀💀

This is a really sweet romance featuring two 40-ish MCs. Ben, who's known he was gay since he was 12, and Avery, who's seemingly very straight.

And them two rub each other- the wrong way, almost from the instant they meet. Until things begin to shift.

We only get Ben's POV, so we have a lot about him spiraling over falling for YET another straight guy, and agonizing whether it's worth ruining the friendship to confess his doomed feelings.

Ben legitimately believing that if he told Avery about his feelings and got rejected, he'd die is very relatable to me.😂

Because what do you mean I've told someone about my feelings and they now continue to exist but also, other people know about them now?

The angst revolves around that but through it all is a man so in love that he's willing to walk away if it means keeping a friendship that's become so important to him, and another that's so in love he's willing to face his lifelong fears if it means getting a chance at happiness.

And when Avery was having imposter syndrome about feeling like he belongs at Pride....
"Just remember, we’ve slept together. It doesn’t get gayer than that."
💀

Well....

Overall a sweet, mild enemies to lovers (much in the same way as Elizabeth and Darcy in that nobody can figure out what on earth they have against each other —including them) with low angst.

And I loved how the title could be interpreted in many contexts, given the story.

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

2.5 stars rounded up

"Pride" was a conflicting read for me. It's a fairly low-stakes MLM romance that loosely is based off of Pride & Prejudice and I mean LOOSELY. For how this book was marketed I expected a modern retelling. The most it pulls from P&P is names and a little bit of the relationships within.

The good parts:
The plot was fairly easy to follow and it was a quick read, maybe 6 hours at most. The characters were easy to root for and the inclusion of a non-binary character was nice. It will give you some nice warm and fuzzy feelings.

The meh parts:
The ending was very abrupt and didn't leave me feeling super satisfied about Avery's inner growth. This book also most definitely reads like an "mlm book written by a cishet woman" and while I'm not aware of Ryan's sexuality, nor do I claim to define it, it gives off VERY minor gay fetishization. This may be a personal thing.

I think that this book has it's merits and while it was a fairly cozy read it still wasn't a something overly outstanding.

Loved this book. Its so great to see that everyone's coming out story is different and unique and you dont have to figure everything out by the age of 40. You have doubts and insecurities and come out when its right for you.

I’m not sure this is really a retelling of P&P (I read of lot of retelling of P&P, some of them are modern retelling, but this one doesn’t sit right with me, it’s seem just inspired by than a real retelling) but I quite love the story. Ben is my son, I adopted him, just for you to know. And I’m in love with Avert, oh my God, such a complex characters.
I just wanted a little more deepness for some of the themes this novel is about, but the love story is really well written.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

A cozy, quick read and while I can see where it started with its pride and prejudice roots it fell short.

I’ve read a few retellings of Pride and Prejudice this year and this one was just okay. I wasn’t attached to either character, I thought their points of contention were silly, and the romance was eh.

This was a very low-angst, slow burn romance. I enjoyed the cozy, lazy river feel of it. I didn't have to worry too much about where the story was going to take me. There were certainly P&P parellels however it was lacking in the pride and prejudice. Obviously retellings don't have to be 1:1 but I would have enjoyed this story more if the comparison to P&P wasn't lurking in the shadows. It would have better as it's own seperate entity. Overall enjoyable and I recomend this read to anyone looking for something warm and easy.

I loved this book. There were times that I wanted to sit the MMC’s down and give them a stern talking to about how silly they were being but that is to be expected when the characters are so relatable. I didn’t like that they were referred to as boys when they are grown men (both over 40) but it was lovely reading a romance book with more mature characters. I’d love to know more about them but I think that would drag the story down too much. Perhaps we could get more information as novellas or bonus chapters.

This is a must read., as a gay man. it is a must read. The way this book had me in a choke hold with the characters and story line. It did a solid good job on portraying feelings and reactions. As a reader I want to be taken into a word, escape and this book did exactly just that.

This was cute!

The formatting threw me off quite a bit, which I think is just an ARC thing, but with so much texting I wish there’d been a clear difference between that and the rest of the writing. Sometimes this made it hard to follow who was speaking or writing, which was a shame.

All in all, this was a fun, quick read. It wasn’t particularly heavy on the Pride & Prejudice elements, though I didn’t go in wishing for that particularly. The writing was a little clunky at times - not bad, necessarily, it just seemed a little inexperienced (not sure if that’s actually the case, though).

This story relies quite a lot on miscommunication and just-not-communicating, which I both most ardently dislike. Particularly with regard to the (internalized) homophobia, I think it’s a shame we never got any kind of confrontation (or discussion at least) due to Ben’s conflict avoidance/lack of assertiveness. I think this also halted the relationship development, since Ben spent a lot of time assuming Avery’s thoughts and feelings, rather than asking him and starting a conversation. Oh well…

I do love a P&P retelling! This has some great aspects - loved the characters of Ben & Avery; The "Mr Collins" bowling date was hilarious - particularly like the intro of the only 2 reasons an adult would ask another adult to go bowling. The first half follows P&P's plot closely enough to be enjoyable / anticipating how various plot landmarks will be interpreted, but not SO closely that it is annoying - it's just right. I love Avery standing up for Ben to his horrid mother - that is definitely one of the highlights.

The second half falls a little bit apart, I think it loses some of the P&P framework; I never felt like I really KNEW Ben, and more-so Avery's character very well (though some of this was intentional) but still felt a bit lightly sketched sometimes; the ski-vacation is very vague, as are some other things like Avery getting Ben a book he really wanted as a gift, but WHAT book is never said.

The big reveal at the end is pretty good.... but also an almost unbelievable twist for what we know of Avery -- still, I do like his coming to realize who he really is.

Overall a fun read -- think the 1/2 half could have been a bit stronger/more P&P-linked, and some of the settings and characters could be more detailed -- but definitely enjoyable for P&P fans!! Ben & Avery were lovely!

Very cute queer Pride & Prejudice retelling in a cozy bookstore setting. I'm a big fan of tropes likes friends to lovers and slow burn, so I really enjoyed this.

**ARC received in exchange for an honest review.**

I was blown away by this debut novel! I could hardly believe it was a first-time effort after finishing—it was so well-crafted!

Now, onto my review:

Imagine *Pride and Prejudice* meets *Notting Hill* meets *Bridget Jones's Diary*, but set in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Yes, please!✨

So yeah, I totally fell for this one. As a lover of all those kitschy ’90s romance movies, this book felt like the literary equivalent! The romance between Avery and Ben was beautifully slow-burn—an entire year of getting to know each other without even a peck on the cheek. Talk about tension! The build-up between them as they transitioned from friends to something more was so intense that I found myself grinning like a fool. (And Ziggy, Ben’s cat, made the waiting game much more bearable 🐱.)

Ben’s dry humor was *so* relatable—I couldn’t help but adore him. Avery, on the other hand, is harder to pin down, but he and Ben were a perfect match. And then there’s this hilarious moment:

"Hair is new? Did I really just say his hair was new, like it was a cheap wig he had purchased as an Amazon impulse buy while drunk one night? I kicked myself mentally."

That being said, there were two aspects that I didn’t enjoy:

1. Ben’s reaction to Avery’s "coming out"- I thought it was incredibly romantic for Avery to surprise him by dedicating a book to the love of his life, bringing all the attention to Ben’s bookstore. While I understand Ben felt blindsided by Avery’s secret identity, his reaction was a bit over the top. Sulking and storming off as if Avery had betrayed him felt childish, especially when Avery had valid reasons for keeping his other persona under wraps.

2. Ben’s mother—What a narcissistic, homophobic, miserable hag. I wish her the worst in the world 🥰

3. I would’ve enjoyed to see more of Tulsa on paper. They did mention the city some time but it would’ve been nice too see WHY and some connection beside stating that Ben loves it there.

Lastly, the slow burn. It REALLY tested my patience! By the time I got to the end, I was so desperate for them to finally kiss that I ended up devouring the entire book in one night. Waiting any longer wasn’t an option—I’m not a seasoned smut reader for nothing!

(And can we talk about this gem of a line?)

"Was he taking pain pills before our session? I tried, with as much effort as I could manage, to not internalize the idea that my therapist needed extra pain relief before I showed up."

The humor was on point throughout the story, which made the slow burn worth the wait.🤭

This was an amazing book, and I’ll definitely be grabbing a physical copy just so I can highlight all of Ben’s witty remarks and puns. 😩

4.5 ⭐️

This was a cute, heartwarming rom-com between two middle-aged men who couldn't be more different, but can't help falling in love. It didn't feel much like a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, but more like its own story, but it was still very enjoyable, and I enjoyed reading it.

I loved this. It was such a fun book to read and a great queer romance. It was a great read and I found myself smiling often when I was reading their blooming relationship.