Reviewed by Taylin

TITLE: Out, Proud, and Prejudiced

AUTHOR: Megan Reddaway

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

LENGTH: 270 pages

RELEASE DATE:  June 4, 2018

BLURB:

One’s proud, one’s prejudiced, and they can’t stand each other.

Quick-tempered Bennet Rourke dislikes Darius Lanniker on sight. Darius may be a hotshot city lawyer, but that doesn’t give him the right to sneer at Bennet, his friends, and their college. It doesn’t help that Bennet’s restaurant job has him waiting at Darius’s table. So when his tutor recommends him for an internship at Darius’s Pemberley estate, Bennet isn’t sure he wants it. He’s also not sure he can afford to turn it down.

Darius is a fish out of water in the small college town of Meriton, but something keeps pulling him back there. He’s helping out a friend with business advice, nothing more. If he’s interested in Bennet, it’s not serious. Sure, Bennet challenges him in a way no other man has. But they have nothing in common. Right?

Wrong. Their best friends are falling in love, and Bennet and Darius can’t seem to escape each other. Soon they’re sharing climbing ropes and birthday cake, and there’s a spark between them that won’t be denied.

But betrayal is around the corner. Darius must swallow his pride and Bennet must drop his prejudices to see the rainbow shining through the storm clouds.

A standalone novel—a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

REVIEW:

As the blurb says, this story is a modern take on Jane Austin’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice. Hence, the general gist of the story should be well known. I loved the original and was curious as to what this remake would involve. The era is current. The setting revolves around a catering college, and the names are changed, though recognizable. Elizabeth Bennett is now a very male Bennet Rourke, and Mr Darcy is Darius Lanniker. Other characters names are similarly changed, along with their professions. I was pleased though to see Pemberley make an appearance and Mr Darcy is an ancestor.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, which got better as it progressed. The reason was probably that my head was still in the first classic and continuously in comparison mode. Though the more I read, the more this story took on its own identity. This grammatically sound novel contained specific events from the original, though their contents were altered enough to suit the modern setting. It was an element that I was thankful for. The last thing I wanted to read was a word for word, twenty-first-century remake.

Darius is delicious, and Bennet is sufficiently scathing in appropriate places. Both have their pride, and their prejudices come from misinterpretations of words coupled with preconceived ideas of rank. The baddies have their day too, which added some nicely scripted drama. There is also more heat in this tale than the original – a most thankful development of the current era.

If you are a reader who idolises the original to a point where nothing else can compare, then you’d probably best steer clear. IF, however, you are that tiny bit curious then go for it. I was glad I did because I love a classic, and to read one in a current setting was too irresistible to pass up.

RATING: 

BUY LINK: 

Amazon