Pride and Preston Lin
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In this modern-day retelling of Pride and Prejudice, the quick-witted and contrarian Lissie Cheng must navigate societal pressures and her growing attraction to the rich and enigmatic Preston Lin.
KIRKUS’ BEST OF 2024 PICKS
Library Journal's Best Books of 2024
Named Booklist’s Top 10 Romance Fiction of 2024
* Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews *
"In a world with so many Pride & Prejudice adaptations, a new one has to be truly special to stand out, and this one is. Dudley’s contemporary debut is faithful to its source material but finds clever ways to make it work in a modern setting, while also adding an authentic Chinese American perspective on the beloved story. A warm, sweet story with all the witticisms Austen fans savor."
"Compulsively readable." — Publishers Weekly
"Like Crazy (not) Rich Asians meets Jane Austen, Pride and Preston Lin is a delightful retelling of a beloved classic that had me smiling from page one."
— Evelyn Skye, New York Times bestselling author of The Hundred Loves of Juliet
Lissie is the middle of three sisters, orphaned and taken in by their aunt and uncle. Both she and her older sister, Jenny, work in the family restaurant while pursuing their education and career dreams. When Lissie accidentally serves a dish containing shellfish paste to an allergic customer, she runs afoul of the wealthy Lin family. Their golden boy, Preston, star swimmer and Stanford Ph.D. student, is as handsome as he is self-righteous. Lissie hates him and everything he stands for, but circumstances keep bringing them together. Can she overcome her pride and her initial misgivings about Preston Lin and his condescending mother? Will love prevail, and will these enemies turn into lovers?
Pride and Preston Lin by popular Regency romance writer Christina Hwang Dudley is a hilarious and earnest contemporary riff on Jane Austen’s classic work. And readers will undoubtedly root for Lissie Cheng, a sassy new Elizabeth Bennet for our times, to find lasting love and happiness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dudley (The Accidental Servants) puts a slow-burning but compulsively readable Asian American twist on Pride and Prejudice. Fifth-year college senior Lissie Cheng, an especially prickly take on Elizabeth Bennett who moonlights as a waitress at her aunt and uncle's Chinese restaurant, and Preston Lin, a dashing PhD candidate who proves a worthy Mr. Darcy, get off on the wrong foot when Lissie accidentally delivers a dish containing shrimp to Preston's table and his dining companion has an allergic reaction. Following this meet-ugly, the plot hews closely to the original, so much so, in fact, that it somewhat strains credulity that Lissie, an Austenite adapting Pride and Prejudice into a play for her senior thesis, doesn't notice the parallels. Readers familiar with the original will worry that the Mr. Wickham story line—with the part of Wickham here played by Lissie's sister's middle school swim coach, Wayman Wang—is heading somewhere very dark indeed, but Dudley subverts expectations, keeping the story from getting too heavy but also lowering the emotional stakes of the climax. Still, Dudley brings crisp specificity to her characters' culture, exploring family dynamics and generational differences; the protagonists have heaps of chemistry; and the sweet dynamic between Lissie and her sisters adds heart. Fans of diverse Austen reimaginings will want to check this out.
