#pride and protest

[highsummoneraoi]

I recently discovered these books and thought I'd share so we can all read and support these authors✨

[cutelittlenightmarethings]

Pride and Protest

This book cover has been haunting me for months, staring me down in the public library with its bright colours and, by my usual standards, blurb that instilled no confidence. A black woman protesting the gentrification of her neighborhood falling in love with the CEO of the development company involved, it sounded like a weird power fantasy. But being a very sincere Pride and Prejudice retelling, Payne absolutely rocked me, and threw in some impressively hot sex scenes as a cherry on top. I love the pacing, and even knowing the original story and how each character is eventually going to betray or love another, I was still properly surprised with the third act twists.

I am still in love with the cover, the colours are just sososososo pretty <3

A very cute straight romance book, I'm gonna make my girlfriend read it some time for sure.

[misscrawfords]

I'm reading Pride and Protest by Nikki Payne, a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice and I'm struggling.

I actually find what Payne has done with the characters and setting really interesting and there are some touches I really like, especially turning Mary into Maurice - an "activist" who changes his activism regularly and lectures others on what they should be doing. (Any interpretation of Mary that isn't "misunderstood, shy, nerd girl who isn't-like-other-girls and is actually just like me, a misunderstood, shy, over-looked nerd girl" gets a positive vote from me.)

However, I really very much dislike her interpretation of Darcy (Dorsey) and Elizabeth (Liza)'s relationship and that is... kinda crucial!

It's waaaaaay over sexualised. Like, I get this is a romance book, but, like, I'm reading along enjoying the story and plot and then suddenly Dorsey is thinking about burying himself in Liza's breasts and I'm like "wooaah!" It's like it's impossible for the author to show them having feelings for each other without it being explicit and I find that out of place both with the source material and with the rest of the narrative.

Secondly, it is sexual... immediately. It commits the cardinal sin of saying "Darcy and Lizzy were hot for each other from the start and all the tension is ~ s e x u a l tension". The 2005 abomination does this too with the near kiss in the rain. And pretty much every single P&P inspired enemies-to-lovers narrative out there does it too. The problem is... this is a really, really inaccurate interpretation of the original book. Darcy is, admittedly, attracted to Elizabeth very quickly. Something that he manages to show not at all to anybody. Only Caroline Bingley, who is intensely interested in Darcy's romantic feelings, spots it. Later on, arch observer Charlotte and good friend Col Fitz also suspect something but by this point in Rosings Darcy has given into his feelings and is trying, albeit terribly, to court Elizabeth. Not that she notices. Darcy is completely able to conceal his sexual attraction to Elizabeth from everyone who isn't thinking about Darcy sexually. He is not quite so able to conceal his romantic interest later on. But crucially, at no point does Elizabeth notice a thing. She has LITERALLY NO IDEA. This is because Elizabeth has no concept of Darcy as a romantic prospect for her at all. She laughs at thinking what a good match he'd be for Anne de Bourgh, a probably sexless in appearance invalid. She doesn't hate him in a ~sexy~ way, she just really does not like him and does not consider him as a romantic option.

If Elizabeth is aware that Darcy has the hots for her, this changes the dynamic completely. If she is actually attracted to him in the first part of the story, that changes the dynamic completely. And both of these changes alter and potentially cheapen Elizabeth's character. If she is aware on some level that Darcy likes her and is interested in her, then she ends up looking like an idiot when the first proposal comes around. Or she ends up looking coy and like she is actually flirting with him. Yes, there is banter but Elizabeth is not consciously flirting or trying to attract him! Elizabeth spends the whole first part of the novel with a crush on Wickham. Austen is perfectly capable to showing to the audience without needing modern explicit language that a character has the hots for another character. Elizabeth fancies Wickham, not Darcy! As the meme goes, Darcy and Elizabeth are experiencing two very different kinds of tension! That's part of the comedy. And if Elizabeth is aware that she is attracted to Darcy, it just becomes a different story, and a less interesting one. Elizabeth becomes yet another romance novel heroine who likes the "bad boy" and tries to persuade herself not to, until the tension is sooooo strong and she ~snaps.

But one of the major points is that Elizabeth doesn't like bad boys! She falls for (well, crushes on) Wickham because she thinks he's good. She dislikes Darcy because she thinks he's bad. She only starts to consider Darcy positively when she understands and sees for herself the truth of his character. That is what she finds attractive, not him being a buttoned up jerk! "One has all the goodness, the other all the appearance of it." That is central to P&P's story and its message.

Unfortunately, in the aims of writing a "romance" novel, Pride and Protest gives us heaving busoms and erections and almost-kisses and therefore completely destroys my interest in Dorsey and Liza's relationship at the same time as well as finding it just a bit tasteless because it feels like there are two stories going on: an interesting exploration of how the context and characters of P&P would work in a highly politised and racially diverse modern USA - and a very generic romance novel story which doesn't do either Darcy and Elizabeth justice. A shame.

It does make me wonder about how to update Austen's novels in terms of sex. Because obviously one of the major changes between the 1810s and now is that having extra-marital sex is totally normal and people date and break up without social repercussions. So unless you are setting the update in a community where that is not the case, you've got to deal with sex being freely on offer. I guess there are different ways around it but I think if how you deal with sex means that the fundamental beats of the narrative and character development are changed, then something's gone wrong somehow. And I feel that Elizabeth's total obliviousness to Darcy having any positive feelings towards her at all until the moment he proposes to her is a crucial part of the plot and a source of unending humour.

[bookhoarding]

Hey Valentine, have you ordered your copy of Sex, Lies and Sensibility yet?

Pre-order it right now on Bookshop > buff.ly/3HS2dc4

[ID: Cover for SLAS beside text. "Roses are red, Violets are blue. Sex, Lies and Sensibility is just right for you."]

[whitneydaniell]

by: Nikki Payne Published: Nov 15, 2022 Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction 401 Pages, Paperback

★★★

GoodReads Synopsis:

Liza B.--the only DJ who gives a jam--wants to take her neighborhood back from the soulless property developer dropping unaffordable condos on every street corner in DC. But her planned protest at a corporate event takes a turn after she mistakes the smoldering-hot CEO for the waitstaff. When they go toe-to-toe, the sparks fly--but her impossible-to-ignore family thwarts her every move. Liza wants Dorsey Fitzgerald out of her hood, but she'll settle for getting him out of her head.

At first, Dorsey writes off Liza Bennett as more interested in performing outrage than acting on it. As the adopted Filipino son of a wealthy white family, he's always felt a bit out of place and knows a fraud when he sees one. But when Liza's protest results in a viral meme, their lives are turned upside down, and Dorsey comes to realize this irresistible revolutionary is the most real woman he's ever met.

My Review:

This was a s-l-o-w burn for me. I found that the more I read, the more I was interested in the story but for 75% of the book, I was quite over Liza and Dorsey.

This love story, in the foreground of Washington DC, didn't curl all the way over for me. Liza and her sisters are known for their beauty throughout the city: The Bennett Sisters with her oldest sister being a former beauty queen. Through their own trials and tribulations, all three Bennett sisters live in a two-bedroom apartment with their mother and grandmother.

Liza is fighting the good fight against gentrification in their neighborhood when she meets, uber-billionaire DOrsey Fitzgerald. This is truly a 'Pretty Woman' story -- that reference is used a few times in the book.

Here's where the story lost me:

Beverly Bennett is an awful mother who has cast her own insecurities and fears onto her daughters and, is jealous of them. She wants nothing more than for them to marry rich. The whole scene at the awards banquet was cringe-worthy. Ms. Payne, you could have given this family so many other struggles but this was too much for me.

Liza is a beautiful, educated young woman who is pining after a job with WCO, a foundation that Dorsey's mother created. While that is noble and great, however, in DC with her education, there would be plenty of non-profits that she could have worked for to get her experience. It seemed to me like she just wanted WCO or nothing else and that was frustrating.

How did Chicho get back to DC from Philadelphia after the gala? She rode up there with them as Maurice's plus one but, when it's time for them to leave, there is no mention of Chicho in the van.

The whole story with LeDeya and WIC (also, I hate this nickname), hated it. There could have been a better way to have Dorsey swoop in and save the day but, this?! Sidenote, so Janae is Danny Ocean now? She can hack accounts and create false wire transfers?! That was just too much.

My Final Thoughts: It was a cute love story. From the beginning, as a reader, I saw where it was going. Did it take too long to get there? Yes. Did I hate the book? No. Would I read a book solely about Janae and David's romance with backstories about both of them? Maybe.

One-Word Summary: T-Shirt

[wrathofthestag]

A woman goes head-to-head with the CEO of a corporation threatening to destroy her neighborhood in this fresh and modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice by debut author Nikki Payne. Liza B—The Only DJ That Gives a Jam—wants to take her neighborhood back from the soulless property developer dropping unaffordable condos on every street corner in DC. But her planned protest at their corporate event takes a turn after she mistakes the smoldering hot CEO for the waitstaff. When they go toe-to-toe, the sparks fly—but her impossible-to-ignore family thwarts her every move. Liza wants Dorsey Fitzgerald out of her hood, but she’ll settle for getting him out of her head. At first, Dorsey writes Liza Bennett off as an over-caffeinated woke weekend warrior. As the adopted Filipino son of a wealthy white family he’s always felt a bit out of place, and knows a fraud when he sees one. But when Liza’s protest results in a viral meme, their lives are turned upside down and Dorsey comes to realize this irresistible revolutionary is the most real woman he’s ever met.

(X)

[mubiss]

Pride and Protest