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A review by booknerd_charlie
His Pride and His Prejudice by April Andrews
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
There are few things I love to read more than retellings, particularly Jane Austen retellings. Pride & Prejudice is one of my favorite books for a reason, because it's the quintessential enemies-to-lovers story, and it has some of the most witty, rapid-fire banter you'll ever see in literature. When done right, a good retelling of this story can be pure genius. When done poorly, well, it's just painful.
April Andrews' His Pride and His Prejudice is a clever spin on the classic Austen story. It seamlessly weaves together the omegaverse and Regency/Georgian-era society, swapping in the restrictions women faced during that time period with the lower social standings omegas held in that alternate universe. This is a mostly gender-swapped retelling, with the Bennets now being a family of five brothers seeking advantageous marriages, instead of five sisters. Jane and Elizabeth are now Jack and Elliot, but their journeys towards love with Bingley and Darcy remain much the same, albeit with some major differences that have to come into play due to the shift to the omegaverse world. I found the correlation between Regency-era "womenly pursuits," such as the arts, now being shifted to "omega traits," rather interesting, and it works mostly well, as do the alpha and beta counterparts.
I do wish that this wasn't perhaps so strict a retelling. To use the most popular film adaptations as metaphors, I wish this was more like the 2005 Keira Knightly version rather than the more "faithful" BBC miniseries with Colin Firth. While part of me loves that I was taken back into the world I love so dearly, I wish that it wasn't the same one I know so well, with just a fresh coat of paint on it. Had the author taken more liberties with making this a more "loose" adaptation/retelling, perhaps by diving more into the world-building of what this Regency-era omegaverse would look like, how was it determined that people were born alphas, betas, or omegas (or when did they learn that they fell into these categorizations), and did their gender identities have any impact in society, as well as their alpha, beta, or omega standings? There was so much more I wanted to understand about the society these characters lived in, to be better immersed in the story and to really relate more to the characters themselves. By relying too much on the audience's pre-existing knowledge of the Pride & Prejudice story and characters, the author really limits how much we care about what actually happens to them in this particular book; why should we care more about this story vs. any other retelling? What makes it more compelling or thought-provoking or romantic?
That aside, I did find myself captivated by Darcy and Elliot, perhaps because we had a chance to see more of Darcy's POV here. I don't know if more consistency between the two POV's would have helped, but I did love getting inside Darcy's head more than I have in previous retellings. He has always been a fascinating character, and I wish we had more time with him here.
There were some grammatical errors and formatting issues that took me out of the reading experience a bit, which is what stopped me from giving this a higher rating. But overall I think this was a really clever take on the Pride & Prejudice story, and I only wish we had more time to explore the universe it's set in so that we could really dive deeper into the omegaverse, and especially into Darcy and Elliot's relationship.
April Andrews' His Pride and His Prejudice is a clever spin on the classic Austen story. It seamlessly weaves together the omegaverse and Regency/Georgian-era society, swapping in the restrictions women faced during that time period with the lower social standings omegas held in that alternate universe. This is a mostly gender-swapped retelling, with the Bennets now being a family of five brothers seeking advantageous marriages, instead of five sisters. Jane and Elizabeth are now Jack and Elliot, but their journeys towards love with Bingley and Darcy remain much the same, albeit with some major differences that have to come into play due to the shift to the omegaverse world. I found the correlation between Regency-era "womenly pursuits," such as the arts, now being shifted to "omega traits," rather interesting, and it works mostly well, as do the alpha and beta counterparts.
I do wish that this wasn't perhaps so strict a retelling. To use the most popular film adaptations as metaphors, I wish this was more like the 2005 Keira Knightly version rather than the more "faithful" BBC miniseries with Colin Firth. While part of me loves that I was taken back into the world I love so dearly, I wish that it wasn't the same one I know so well, with just a fresh coat of paint on it. Had the author taken more liberties with making this a more "loose" adaptation/retelling, perhaps by diving more into the world-building of what this Regency-era omegaverse would look like, how was it determined that people were born alphas, betas, or omegas (or when did they learn that they fell into these categorizations), and did their gender identities have any impact in society, as well as their alpha, beta, or omega standings? There was so much more I wanted to understand about the society these characters lived in, to be better immersed in the story and to really relate more to the characters themselves. By relying too much on the audience's pre-existing knowledge of the Pride & Prejudice story and characters, the author really limits how much we care about what actually happens to them in this particular book; why should we care more about this story vs. any other retelling? What makes it more compelling or thought-provoking or romantic?
That aside, I did find myself captivated by Darcy and Elliot, perhaps because we had a chance to see more of Darcy's POV here. I don't know if more consistency between the two POV's would have helped, but I did love getting inside Darcy's head more than I have in previous retellings. He has always been a fascinating character, and I wish we had more time with him here.
There were some grammatical errors and formatting issues that took me out of the reading experience a bit, which is what stopped me from giving this a higher rating. But overall I think this was a really clever take on the Pride & Prejudice story, and I only wish we had more time to explore the universe it's set in so that we could really dive deeper into the omegaverse, and especially into Darcy and Elliot's relationship.