[book-info]

Oh my gosh I just finished Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev. I could not wait to start writing my review. I have never read a novel by Sonali Dev and I will most definitely be correcting that error by catching up on her backlist.

I had originally planned to read this novel with the COYER book club but if I’m remembering correctly that was the month my life turned topsy-turvy. I had purchased the book ahead of time so I had it. I decided if I had the book and I had intended to read it that reading it for Summer of Love was a great idea.

I have zero regrets about picking up this book and I’ll be picking up the rest in the series for sure. There was so much that I loved about Dev’s story telling. The family aspect was just so good. I adored the way Dev told us the story of Trisha and her Animal Farm. I was just as invested in the family as I was in Trisha and DJ. I loved the diversity that this gave me. Here in the Midwest we just don’t have much of it. I get it vicariously through reading.

I loved (and I cannot stress this enough) all of the mouthwatering descriptions of food. I really hope that this is a sign of Dev’s writing and not just because DJ is a cook. Even more so I loved that Dev took Pride & Prejudice and made it her own. I could see the more obvious hints of it but there were times I genuinely forgot I was reading a book inspired by another book.

I also really loved how Dev worked Wickham into the story. There were so many points where I wasn’t sure that Trisha and DJ were going to make it. When I read romance, what makes a book a 5 star read is when an author can make me question the HEA I know is coming and still deliver it and make me gooey happy. Dev did that with Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors in spades.

There were only a few things I didn’t like. When I was listening to the audio I would catch a lot of characters “saying” things but then not saying them. The character would just “say” it in their head. I think listening to that on audio was more confusing than if I had been reading it. I also had some secondhand embarrassment a few times on both Trisha and DJ’s behalf. If I’m being honest more for Trisha than DJ.

In the end the few things that I had struggled with don’t even come close to all of the things I adored about this book. I will absolutely finish this series and pick up the rest of Dev’s back list. I loved this book so much that Dev may have achieved instant auto-buy status. I highly recommend that if you love Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, food, and a gooey romance (or really any combination of those things) that you pick up Pride, Prejudice, & Other Flavors by Sonali Dev.