Pride and Protest is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice by Nikki Payne.
Finished on: 24.1.2024

Content Note: (critical treatment of) racism

Plot:
Liza Bennett is a radio DJ and an activist at heart. In particular, the gentrification of her DC neighborhood has been on her radar recently with the corporation of CEO Dorsey Fitzwilliam announcing a new building project, Liza is ready to fight. But her attempt at protest goes wrong when she mistakes Dorsey for a waiter at his own event. Sparks fly in many ways and that is just the beginning.

Pride and Protest is a well-done retelling of Pride and Prejudice, but the power dynamics didn’t quite work for me here. Still, I had fun reading it.

Billionaire romances are not necessarily my thing, though, of course, there are always exceptions. And this was also the biggest stumbling block for me to really enjoy Pride and Protest, I have to admit. The power differential between Liza and Dorsey was just too big for me. It is true that in Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth and Darcy are not on the same economic level either, but the difference – at least from my perspective – wasn’t quite that big. Even more than that, I felt like Liza and Dorsey’s romance ultimately undermined Liza’s activism in a way. And since I am politically firmly on her side, that was just a pity.

But other than that, Pride and Protest is extremely well done. Both regarding the care it takes to do justice to the original, and the way it honestly examines issues of race. Making Dorsey a Filippino adoptee into a billionaire family was a good choice as it makes his character a little more accessible and does help with the power dynamics.

The chemistry between Liza and Dorsey is sparkling, and Payne surprised me with actually including sex scenes – I don’t know if I would have interpreted Elizabeth and Darcy as having that much intimacy early on. It was fun to watch them become emotionally closer as well. Without a doubt, though, the most fun was to see how Payne brings all of the characters into the 21st century. She has good ideas and does them absolutely well. That is why I don’t know if you’d enjoy the book as much if you didn’t know Pride and Prejudice. But then, who doesn’t?

Summarizing: a really good time.