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A review by emilyrainsford
Pride and Preston Lin by Christina Hwang Dudley
lighthearted
3.5
Overall I did really enjoy my time with this Asian American modern day take on Pride and Prejudice.
A few quibbles leave this one a cut short of a full 4 stars for me.
The book feels more like a story about Lissie and the various things happening in her life. There is very little romance in it at all. I personally really enjoyed reading about Lissie and all the various things happening in her life, but this isn't a book to pick up if you want to feel swoony. I thought there was a lot more in here about friend and family relationships than the romantic one.
I would like to have seen a little more of the development of the relationship between Lissie and Preston. It seems to change tone rather abruptly and they have zero chemistry. The ending feels very sudden and I didn't feel any romantic tension between them. The abruptness of the ending also left a lot of other plot threads unaddressed.
Lissie is more of a Lydia than an Elizabeth Bennet. The latter is intelligent, mature and quick witted. Lissie is self-centred and ditsy, and I found her very hard to like. I found myself on Preston's side throughout their whole debacle, and Lissie never seems to truly understand the seriousness of her initial error. Her and her friends poke fun at the character with food allergies, giving her a mean nickname, and act like Preston was a big meany for being upset about what happened, which is frankly ridiculous.
In the climax, Preston calls Lissie a "wonderful girl" which felt really weird because she's not wonderful at all and has done nothing to earn such a comment.
There are a few meta P&P elements which I personally didn't mind at all, although I see that other reviewers have found it a little self-conscious. I did think the whole "play" aspect felt unnecessary and without real purpose.
The only commentary on class here mostly consisted of Preston being obliviously rich, and Lissie being like "you're obliviously rich but also hot, so oh well". Girlfriend was getting an English degree while her aunt and uncle who had raised her seemed to be barely scraping by, which seems another of her myopic choices.
Despite all this, I did genuinely enjoy reading this book. I felt invested in the characters (just not particularly in the romance) and I enjoyed the time I spent with it overall. I would recommend it more as a contemporary tale of family and friendship.
A few quibbles leave this one a cut short of a full 4 stars for me.
The book feels more like a story about Lissie and the various things happening in her life. There is very little romance in it at all. I personally really enjoyed reading about Lissie and all the various things happening in her life, but this isn't a book to pick up if you want to feel swoony. I thought there was a lot more in here about friend and family relationships than the romantic one.
I would like to have seen a little more of the development of the relationship between Lissie and Preston. It seems to change tone rather abruptly and they have zero chemistry. The ending feels very sudden and I didn't feel any romantic tension between them. The abruptness of the ending also left a lot of other plot threads unaddressed.
Lissie is more of a Lydia than an Elizabeth Bennet. The latter is intelligent, mature and quick witted. Lissie is self-centred and ditsy, and I found her very hard to like. I found myself on Preston's side throughout their whole debacle, and Lissie never seems to truly understand the seriousness of her initial error. Her and her friends poke fun at the character with food allergies, giving her a mean nickname, and act like Preston was a big meany for being upset about what happened, which is frankly ridiculous.
In the climax, Preston calls Lissie a "wonderful girl" which felt really weird because she's not wonderful at all and has done nothing to earn such a comment.
There are a few meta P&P elements which I personally didn't mind at all, although I see that other reviewers have found it a little self-conscious. I did think the whole "play" aspect felt unnecessary and without real purpose.
The only commentary on class here mostly consisted of Preston being obliviously rich, and Lissie being like "you're obliviously rich but also hot, so oh well". Girlfriend was getting an English degree while her aunt and uncle who had raised her seemed to be barely scraping by, which seems another of her myopic choices.
Despite all this, I did genuinely enjoy reading this book. I felt invested in the characters (just not particularly in the romance) and I enjoyed the time I spent with it overall. I would recommend it more as a contemporary tale of family and friendship.