Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev Narrator: Soneela Nankani
Series: The Rajes #1
Published by Harper Audio on May 7, 2019
Source: Purchased
Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance
Length: 15 hrs 8 mins
Pages: 481
Format: Audiobook
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Award-winning author Sonali Dev launches a new series about the Rajes, an immigrant Indian family descended from royalty, who have built their lives in San Francisco...
It is a truth universally acknowledged that only in an overachieving Indian American family can a genius daughter be considered a black sheep.
Dr. Trisha Raje is San Francisco’s most acclaimed neurosurgeon. But that’s not enough for the Rajes, her influential immigrant family who’s achieved power by making its own non-negotiable rules:
· Never trust an outsider
· Never do anything to jeopardize your brother’s political aspirations
· And never, ever, defy your family
Trisha is guilty of breaking all three rules. But now she has a chance to redeem herself. So long as she doesn’t repeat old mistakes.
Up-and-coming chef DJ Caine has known people like Trisha before, people who judge him by his rough beginnings and place pedigree above character. He needs the lucrative job the Rajes offer, but he values his pride too much to indulge Trisha’s arrogance. And then he discovers that she’s the only surgeon who can save his sister’s life.
As the two clash, their assumptions crumble like the spun sugar on one of DJ’s stunning desserts. But before a future can be savored there’s a past to be reckoned with...
A family trying to build home in a new land.
A man who has never felt at home anywhere.
And a choice to be made between the two.
I really wanted to like Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors. It’s a gender-swapped retelling of Pride and Prejudice featuring a rich Indian-American family, which sounds really promising. I expected a fun, light read – a little wit, a little charm, a happy ending. I got the happy ending, but that’s about it.
Trisha is a brilliant neurosurgeon, the only one in the world who can perform this life-saving surgery but is awkward and can come off as arrogant. She also puts up with her father being pretty terrible to her. DJ’s a brilliant chef, Cordon Bleu-trained, who quit his job at a Michelin starred Parisian restaurant to take care of his sister but can come off as cold and a jerk. Clearly, these two dislike each other, but to be honest I had a hard time there were sparks underneath. I knew they would fall in love eventually, but I didn’t enjoy the story getting there. Julia Wickham was maybe the best character, I mean she was a terrible person, but wow was she a terrible person.
There was a lot going on here and everything was over the top. Money trouble leads to homelessness or losing your business. One character was the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed her parents and now she visions and can’t leave the house. The family secrets are past abuse, a rape that was dealt with poorly at the time or now, and a high-risk pregnancy that the woman is hiding from her husband. It’s a messy soap opera. Honestly, I didn’t like any of the characters and wanted them to act like normal adults. I also could have done without the love scene.
There are some redeeming features, but they’re mostly at the end, and there’s a lot of book to wade through before you get there.
About Sonali Dev
Sonali Dev’s first literary work was a play about mistaken identities performed at her neighborhood Diwali extravaganza in Mumbai. She was eight years old. Despite this early success, Sonali spent the next few decades getting degrees in architecture and writing, migrating across the globe, and starting a family while writing for magazines and websites. With the advent of her first gray hair her mad love for telling stories returned full force, and she now combines it with her insights into Indian culture to conjure up stories that make a mad tangle with her life as supermom, domestic goddess, and world traveler.
Sonali lives in the Chicago suburbs with her very patient and often amused husband and two teens who demand both patience and humor, and the world’s most perfect dog.
Sounds like one to skip.
I kind of wish I’d skipped it.
It’s too bad this was disappointing. I have this on my TBR, along with another of her books. Maybe her others are better, as I have read some good reviews. Did you ever read Lions and Licorice by Kate Fenton? That was one of the best reverse P&P’s I have read (perhaps because it was before the concept was common). When I worked in publishing, I tried to get my boss to let our company purchase the paperback rights in the US but because it was a genre she didn’t like or understand, she said no. Later, St. Martin’s published it and I suspect it did well.
Maybe you’ll enjoy it more than I did. A lot of people have. No, I haven’t read Lions and Licorice, I’ll have to look it up.