Lauren's Reviews > Most Ardently

I've become a huge fan of Pride & Prejuice since reading it for the first time last year, so when I was in the mood for a romance and saw this book was available at the library, I immediately ignored the rest of my TRR TBR to read it.

So much of this book was simply adorable. Your heart is absolutely with Oliver as he struggles to have the world see him for who he really is, and seeing the support he got from the people in his life who knew his true identity was so wholesome. I thought the whole approach to reimagining elements of the original characters and storyline to incorporate explorations of queerness and transness was incredibly creative, and worked well with the original book.

I think my only complaint, mainly just in terms of this being a P&P retelling, was the progression of Oliver's relationship with Darcy. One of the things that I think has made P&P such a timeless romance is the journey through which Darcy has to change himself and prove his worth before Elizabeth can fall in love with him. In this reimagining, Oliver remarks on Darcy treating him poorly when he meets him as "Elizabeth", but as soon as they meet when Oliver is himself, Darcy is immediately presented as the best version of himself. The way that Oliver almost immediately developed feelings for Darcy took away from the "prejudice" aspect I would expect with the story, and ultimately felt a bit too insta-lovey. Obviously the focus of this book was primarily on Oliver's struggles to be seen as the man he's always been, and the romance was almost a side-note in comparison, but I think the book could have explored both elements and captured that feeling that made Darcy and Elizabeth's love story such a blueprint.

Overall though this was such a quick and enjoyable read, and I'm definitely going to have to check out more of Novoa's work.