The only thing that remotely connected this to Pride and Prejudice was the fact that one of the characters had the last name Bennett. In every sense possible, this is a very, very loose retelling.

The writing was clunky, the dialogue and dialogue tags were extremely repetitive and the characters were not distinct enough for me to consider them significant to the story.

I enjoyed reading about Bennett. He was a great character example for the repressed gay that bloomed in college and now wants to live freely. His fears, insecurities and his panic attacks were so palpable and I loved that. Avery however struck no chords in my heart nor in my memory. I struggled to understand his motivations or his affections for Ben...

Another thing that came out of left field was the third act conflict. It had zero build up and only seemed to be placed there so that there would be something connecting Avery to Ben's biggest interest and livelihood. I was not rocking with it. Surprisingly enough I liked the resolution, it gave Avery a few points in my book.

<i>*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review</i>

Thank you NetGalley and Rattling Good Yarns Press for the eARC!

I was really looking forward to reading Pride and had high hopes, but I soon realised my expectations might have been too high.

While the main character is 39, I had to remind myself of that repeatedly, as the dialogue and writing often felt immature and lacking in depth. It didn’t feel like I was reading from the perspective of a 39-year-old man confronting the fear of ‘expiration’ (a prevalent theme in the queer community that could have been a strong focal point for this book). Instead, it felt more like the musings of someone in their twenties guessing what a 40-year-old gay man might be like—unfortunately, missing the mark. The book could definitely benefit from more ‘show’ and less ‘tell,’ as the dialogue was often overbearing and, at times, unnecessary.

That said, I can see why some readers might enjoy it. It’s fast-paced, easy to read, and doesn’t demand much active engagement from the reader.

I finished this book with starry eyes and a heart full of warmth. It’s a sweet story of self-assurance and self-discovery that will make you wish for a love like theirs.

This book is marketed as a queer twist on Pride and Prejudice, but I appreciated that the references to Austen’s classic were subtle. We follow Benjamin Bennet, a bookstore owner—gayer than purple eyeshadow (in a quiet but proud way)—as he gets to know Avery, a dark and handsome millionaire who can be rude but is also caring and thoughtful.

Their friendship is everything good in the world, layered with the gay panic of falling for someone who might be straight. The story captures the struggle of knowing your life would be better with that person by your side while respecting their right to hide. The way he experiences life’s little moments with Avery—and slowly realizes that this could be their life—was incredibly touching.
I loved how Ben was confident and proud of who he was, yet always left space for others to be themselves around him. He captures the struggle of existing unapologetically in a world that often demands labels. As he puts it:
"If I had stayed quiet, I would have felt I wasn’t standing up for myself or my friends. If I spoke up, then I became Gay Ben—spokesperson for all queer folk, which was exhausting."
This balance of self-assurance and exhaustion felt so real and made me respect his character.

Since the story is told entirely from Ben’s POV, it adds the right amount of uncertainty to the plot, but I wish we could have peeked into Avery’s mind a bit more. The final reveal helps clarify his motives, but I still wanted more insight.
I also wasn’t expecting the spice to be fade-to-black, which was a little disappointing, though it didn’t take away from the romance. My only other complaint? I wish had a different book cover that better represented Ben!

It's about Ben Bennett, a 40-year-old man who is not looking for love, but that changes when he meets Avery Fitzgerald.

Both characters are wonderful and I thought it was just nice to experience their story together with them. Often I had to curse quietly or roll my eyes.

The book is not too spicy, but there were some places that were already very charming! I rarely have it, that with a book I am afraid that it will soon be over. With each page I wanted to stick to the story because it is so wonderful and unique. The author has created a beautiful world with so many facets that the reader can only be amazed. In the story, character development plays a major role, many prejudices and black and white thinking are also taken up and treated very emotionally. 🫶🏻

I would like to recommend this book to everyone! I will definitely read it again, as I felt so incredibly comfortable while reading it. 🩷🩵

I will always read a Pride and Prejudice retelling and I will especially read it if it’s queer. This was such a sweet version of the original! It’s always fun to see the story updated for the current time period and I loved that Ben was a bookseller! Once the MMCs got together it was lovely to see but there was a lot of back and forth between them for 90% of the book so there was no real opportunity to see them actually BE together. The pacing and movement of time felt a little stilted as well so the story didn’t really flow. But it was queer, it was cute, and I’d love to see more from this author!

It's about Ben Bennett, a 40-year-old man who is not looking for love, but that changes when he meets Avery Fitzgerald.

Both characters are wonderful and I thought it was just nice to experience their story together with them. Often I had to curse quietly or roll my eyes.

The book is not too spicy, but there were some places that were already very charming! I rarely have it, that with a book I am afraid that it will soon be over. With each page I wanted to stick to the story because it is so wonderful and unique. The author has created a beautiful world with so many facets that the reader can only be amazed. In the story, character development plays a major role, many prejudices and black and white thinking are also taken up and treated very emotionally. 🫶🏻

I would like to recommend this book to everyone! I will definitely read it again, as I felt so incredibly comfortable while reading it. 🩷🩵

I enjoyed some of this book but overall, I cannot recommend it. The premise was great and I was ready to be engaged. But the sulkiness of one character and the ridiculousness of the choices he made combined with some not great writing left me disinterested. I finished it, but that was because I hate not finishing books.

Pride by Samantha Ryan
Length: 237 pages
Source: NetGalley eARC
Publication date: Feb. 4, 2025

“You’re not becoming someone else. You’re just not working so hard to be someone else. This is who you’ve always been.” —Benjamin Bennett

Benjamin Bennett is comfortable. He owns his own bookstore, finds the occasional hookup, and regularly hangs out with his older sister. Avery Fitzgerald, on the other hand, seems sophisticated, is a frequent traveler, and charms the pants off people on a regular basis. They’re opposites, and yet they’re weirdly drawn to each other after a not-so-meet-cute with Ben’s sister, Mal, and Avery’s best friend, Beck.

Soon, Ben and Avery are hanging out on their own. Ben is both attracted to and curious about Avery’s ability to fit in socially and fascinate people everywhere he goes. Avery, for his part, seems attracted to Ben’s ability to fully, unapologetically be himself wherever he goes. Nothing about this friendship feels casual to Ben, but Avery is straight … isn’t he? Then why does it feel like they’d be so good together AND so good for each other?

First things first, there’s positive messaging and a cute story here that made Pride a quick, easy read. The overarching themes of being yourself, accepting love, and going after what you want are ideas that I will always get behind. I liked Avery’s witty banter, Ben’s affection for his sister, and the frequent references to the MCs being “little weird puzzle pieces” that somehow fit together. This is a sweet, snarky, slow-burn romance with two likable guys in their late 30s/early 40s. There are some loose ends, but not everyone will find them important.

That being said, there are also some things about Ryan’s book that feel problematic and keep me from rating it higher. There are a lot of gay stereotypes here, things like: rainbow everything; constantly referring to one of the characters as ‘petty’; one MC’s constant ‘rescuing’ of the other as if he’s helpless; and the rigid idea of “straight or gay” rather than a sexuality spectrum. The instances of homophobia in the book feel formulaic and forced, and they don’t necessarily feel like they advance the story, although I see what the author was trying to do with them. These things didn’t keep me from enjoying the book, but that is based only on my lived experience. I have to mention that such stereotypes may keep someone with different experiences from wanting to read this.

Still curious?
✍️ Opposites attract
📖 Friends to lovers
✍️ Single POV
📖 Secrets!
✍️ Coming out
📖 Only one bed

Takeaway: While this IS a Pride and Prejudice retelling, the vibe is much more the Bridget Jones version than the Elizabeth Bennet one. I’m good with that, but if you’re a Janeite, just be prepared.

3 ⭐️
1 🌶️ (implicit, closed door)

— A

Thanks to Rattling Good Yarns Press, Samantha Ryan, and NetGalley for an eARC of this book. All opinions are mine.

Unfortunately I did not love this book. I was really excited going into it as I love both queer romances and P&P retellings but it just wasn’t for me. The characters, plot, and retelling aspects all fell flat in my opinion. I was also shocked by the number of overt and implied instances of characters drinking and driving, one of which occurs early on in the story and really turned me off from the start.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

4.25 stars

I will admit, that I heard queer Pride and Prejudice retelling and immediately thought I was signing up for a queer story set in Regency England, not a couple of 40 somethings in Oklahoma. But once I was beyond that, I found myself really engrossed in Ben and Avery's story. I deducted a star because I felt like some bits were a bit repetitive and/or could use some streamlining and the twist was predictable (at least for me), but I really enjoyed the story. It was a nice quick angsty story with characters you end up falling for. I also feel that it really embodies that confusing time where a queer person wants to be out and be their authentic self but can't quite do that socially. I thought that was really well done. That said, I went ahead and bought the ebook so I could reread it down the road and I will be recommending this story to friends.

A solid retreading of the original, I felt like it worked well with the "he's rich and I'm not" classic plot but with the addition of "he may or may not be queer and I'm so bright and out it hurts". I found it to be a quick and good read!

I enjoyed the book and I did like the characters, but there were a couple of nitpicks I had in terms of the writing. At parts, it felt like there was overwriting, in terms of action synonyms used instead of “said” or simply going without and letting the dialogue be what it is. Also, there was a few points where a character said something described as “sarcastically,” even though it didn’t seem sarcastic to me, which took me out of the reading experience for a bit.

I did appreciate the longing that Ben had for Avery, and I really felt for his dilemma on whether he should have expressed how he felt to Avery a lot earlier on, but because the book only gives us Ben’s POV it felt like that went on for a bit too long. I’m not suggesting that a dual POV would have been better here, the author should do whatever they want, but I think we needed a bit more in terms of variety in terms of plot obstacles, so to speak.

There definitely were sparkling passages that were really nice, and overall I did enjoy the characters and the setting, just wanted it to be a bit more polished.

This is not what I expected from something marketed as a modern, queer Pride and Prejudice. A far cry from Elizabeth’s misconceptions about Darcy, Ben Bennett is actually drawn to Avery Fitzgerald from the beginning, and the two form a friendship that could be something more . . . if only Ben wasn’t sure that Avery was straight, or closeted, or otherwise off limits. With that premise in mind, and without comparing it to my favorite classic, this is an enjoyable, cozy read.

Benjamin “Ben” Bennet, nearing the big 4-0, has a small bookstore, a pushy sister, an annoying mother, and a cat. What he doesn’t have is a boyfriend, someone to spend his life with — and as stares down his approaching middle age, it’s one of the things he’s most focused on. Ben would like to find someone, he really would, but he’s had a string of bad relationships and he’s afraid to put himself out there. His sister, Mallory, divorced her husband a year ago and isn’t exactly looking for a new man, but when a new teacher at her college comes to town, she can’t help but want to take a look at Charles Beckett. And being a dutiful brother, Ben lets himself be dragged along.

Beck is everything the gossip says he is; he’s handsome and charming, with an easy smile and an affable good nature. He also has a friend with him, Avery Fitzgerald, who is tall, dark, breathtakingly handsome, and socially awkward. While Mallory and Beck are hitting it off, Ben and Avery are off to a bumpy start, which only seems to get worse … until suddenly, it gets better.

The only problem is Avery is straight, no matter how much Ben wishes it were otherwise. So he’ll rein in his feelings and treat Avery like the friend he is. But the more they get to know one another, the harder it is for Ben to ignore the elephant in the room. He’s falling in love with Avery.

Pride isn’t so much a Pride and Prejudice retelling, as it a book inspired by Pride and Prejudice. Instead of following along, beat by beat, it takes the framework of the original story — two people see one another at a party, do not hit it off, but end up seeing one another again and again because their respective others are together, which leads to a growing relationship — and puts in the author’s own characters.

Ben isn’t Lizzy; honestly, he’s almost more Darcy. Ben is cautious, polite, and more inclined to take the safe road when possible. His mother hasn’t forgiven him for being gay, and Ben’s first crush, first kiss, and first love were with a boy at school who was fine making out with Ben when no one was around, but when they were caught, tossed him aside like he was so much garbage. Even when Ben thinks Avery might be feeling something more than friendship towards him, might feel a little of the attraction for Ben that Ben feels for him, Ben isn’t interested in encouraging that. He’s not interested in being with someone who isn’t ready to step out of the closet. He’d be willing to support Avery, to be his friend, but Ben is out and proud, and isn’t interested in a partner who isn’t.

Avery is bright, gregarious, witty, cruel, and clever. He’s right, powerful, and full of ideas on how to fix Ben’s bookstore. He’s also afraid of being gay, of admitting it to himself, let alone being open with someone else, but he is clearly caught by Ben’s warmth. Avery is almost always the one making the first move, and is also the one to pull away when things get to be too much. He’s flighty, and yet loyal. He’s trapped by his own obligations and the expectations he places on himself.

Ben and Avery’s friendship and growing relationship are so well done. The banter, the growing trust, and the shared sense of humor all work so well for me. But I wish it had been more than just surface level. The book is a quick 200-some pages and it rushes through each and every scene with no wasted time for the quiet, small scenes where two characters can sit and be together. It’s all to a purpose, showing all the big moments and telling me what’s happening to whom, and how Ben feels about it.

While I would have preferred a slightly more moderate pace and a little more breathing room for the characters, I still very much enjoyed this book. The romance was well done, and I loved the ending. Ben helps Avery feel safe in his own skin, safe to be … well, to be Avery, to not have to be the famous Avery, the photogenic Avery, the good cousin, dutiful son, brilliant developer. With Ben he can be lazy, foolish, silly and … out. And, yes, proud.

This is a fun, light read for fans of Pride and Prejudice, as well as fans of banter, friends to lovers, and a sweet romance between two men approaching their 40s, rather than their 20s.

Pride was a pleasant surprise, it was just a lovely story, and a great retelling.
Experiencing Ben and Avery journey from strangers to best friends to lovers, over coming internal obstacles to love each other was a breath of fresh air, and it was a closed door romance which I’m not usually about unless it’s done right.

Pride & Prejudice retelling but make it gay and set in conservative Oklahoma.

While there are definitely elements of the original Pride & Prejudice, I wouldn’t say this is a true one-for-one modern version. Some of the dynamics and names are similar but overall, someone could read this book and not think Pride & Prejudice.

I feel the book stands better on its own rather than trying to fit it into a Pride & Prejudice box. This book is the very definition of a slow burn taking time to develop the friendship between Ben and Avery before even broaching the idea of something more. The reader stays in Ben’s POV the whole book and even with this unreliability, the reader can clearly see how much Avery enjoys and relishes Ben’s company.

Beyond the building relationship between Ben and Avery, there are very low stakes creating a quick and easy read. Most of the tension throughout is very underdeveloped and quickly rectified including the big twist at the end.

There are definitely some flaws in queer representation and overall plot structure that can be developed, but as a debut novel, I had a good time. Some books deserve to be read with an open mind and leave the critical analysis to classics and nonfiction.

#pride #netgalley #rattlinggoodyarnspress

Thank you to the author and publisher for this review copy.

I loved this story! Because I am a Pride & Prejudice Stan I am willing to read any retelling or variation of it. I liked the setting, pacing and flow of the romance between Ben and Avery. I especially loved Ben and his thoughts and feelings, but warming up to Avery was not as easy for me. But in general it was a smooth read, low on angst and had a lot of charming side characters.

I would read more for Samantha Ryan.

This is a loose retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in the modern day, with a gay main couple, and main characters in their late thirties and early forties.

Objectively, this book is bad. It’s badly written and the characters aren’t great. There are some amazing lines such as “Show me your kitty” and “Don’t play with my balls” said within pages of each other by a very drunk forty-year-old. All of the characters drink multiple cocktails within a short amount of time while eating no food and still do not get hungover. The main love interest also acts like a child sometimes despite being a forty-year-old heir to an oil company, which we won’t touch on. There are also a lot of gay stereotypes within this book that I felt were thrown in because they were gay. Finally, there were past relationships that were brought up but really never discussed and I wanted to know more about them.

Despite all of that, I enjoyed this book. Not in that I thought this book was beautifully written, life-changing, or an interesting retelling. I liked it in the way that people like trashy television. Truly, I ate up every word and some of the dialogue had me giggling like a little kid.

Overall, I think that if you are looking for a life changing book about the gay experience overlayed with hints of pride and prejudice, this isn’t the book for you. However, if you are looking for a book that is trashy almost to the point of cringe with a cute gay couple, this is the book for you.

P.S. The rating is due to the actual content of the book. My enjoyment of the book was around 4 stars but with how the book was actually written and some of the contents of the book I can’t in good conscience rate it higher than 2 stars.

I received an e-ARC and am giving my honest review.

I really wanted to like this, especially because the romance seemed up my alley, but good lord. The stereotyping was insane. Ben read like every cishet person’s idea of a gay man. Lines like ‘us gays’ had me cringing. I don’t know how to explain it, but Ben felt like he was written for women, not for queer men/people. Avery coming to his rescue so often was endearing at first but slowly became belittling to Ben. I became more and more uncomfortable with the characterization of the two openly gay men: one being meek, feminine, lots of talk about pride parades and stereotypical feminine gay men things. which normally i’d be fine with, if not for everything else. or someone who was a creep, kissed people w/o consent, and tried to blackmail someone with the knowledge of them being queer. The hatecrimes were also so badly written. Avery and Ben being called a slur in the bar was entirely unrealistic, but something I was planning on just dismissing. Until a random other hate crime in the last 10% of the book. A rock through a window. Never really resolved, thrown in there for no reason besides trying to up the stakes of the homophobia. The entire book felt entirely out of touch and made me incredibly uncomfortable, as a gay man. It did not feel as if it was written with queer men/people in mind.

This was advertised as a P&P retelling, but that would be true only in the vaguest of senses. Yes, Ben's last name is Bennett, and yes, the love interest is a single man in possession of a good fortune, but that's just about where the similarities end.

Thankfully, I didn't go into this book expecting a lot of similarities to one of my favorite books, so no harm done. What the story within does represent is its title to the extent that Ben eventually gets to a point where he's happy with who he is, and what he wants out of life, instead of feeling the need to meet some weird societal expectations, and stand up for himself against bigotry and small-minded fools.

The story is told entirely in Ben's POV, and there certainly were some humorous moments that I quite enjoyed. For quite some time, Ben believes Avery to be straight and tries very hard to keep the relationship platonic, without catching feelings. Even when Avery behaves in a way that should make anyone question his straightness, Ben still doesn't quite believe it.

This reader was able to get the sense that Avery cares very much for Ben, even if Ben as the unreliable narrator cannot see it as obviously, so it takes him some time to realize that his feelings and attraction are returned. I'm not saying that Avery is easy to read, and he plays his cards very close to his chest, but the little things he said and did add up for me. Feelings and intimacy do happen, eventually Avery does come clean about the parts he's been hiding from Ben, and they lived happily ever after.

The conflict was surprising to me, since there was little build-up to it; that whole situation came somewhat out of left field. Also, at around 75% or so I started to suspect what Avery was hiding, and it was nice to see that suspicion confirmed.

In some aspects, Ben read younger than he's purported to be, and that sometimes made me question whether his judgment was as sound as he thought it was. I enjoyed his interactions with his older sister Mal, and I enjoyed most of the dialogue.

This is a debut novel, and while this particular book didn't get beyond 3 stars for me, I'd be very interested in what this author has to offer next.