Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors: A Novel

Series: The Rajes Series, Book 1

By: Sonali Dev / Narrated By: Soneela Nankani

Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins

Yikes! Like, 8 hours of wanting to throttle our heroine, but SAVED by remaining portion of book. Do I wanna continue with series…?

Seriously, m’ husband kept hearing me shout, “Oh GOSH I wanna kill her!” and, “HOW much time is left in this danged book?!” cuz clocking in at 15 hours, and being a P&P With A Twist, I’d been sooo looking forward to Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors but TOTALLY wanted to do some damage…

The setup? Trisha Raje is our Darcy of the story: She comes from a background of royalty and an Uber-proud family where ALL were demanded to be exceptional, and ALL were compelled to NEVER do anything to tarnish the political sheen of the son’s political destiny.

Trisha is a triiiiiifle on the outs with her family. Yes, she’s a hugely respected neurosurgeon who just won a massive grant, but oops! A betrayal by a friend, her gross miscalculation of that friend’s character, could indeed destroy her brother’s political aspirations before he can become governor of California, and then move on up from there.

Then we meet DJ (Darcy James) Caine, an up and coming chef who desperately neeeeds the Raje catering jobs, ANY jobs, to help pay a beloved sister’s medical bills. Unbeknownst to him, Trisha Raje is also Emma’s (His only remaining family) patient.

An altercation between the two in the Raje family’s grand kitchen sets off BOTH characters’ prejudices and piques each’s pride. -However- Trisha comes across as exCEEdingly rude, disrespectful of another individual’s basic dignity and humanity, and her character, for the next OOOOODLES of HOURS just continues on her downward slope of Complete Lack of Self-Awareness, Gross Ignorance, Total Asshattery.

I read another reviewer’s complaint that DJ’s anger hung over anything like a dark dark dark cloud, and that she was delighted that the heroine was beyond intelligent and skillful, etc. etc. et freaking cetera. Boooo to that I say. It was Horrible I tell you, when the Born Rich Trisha demands that DJ use a coat hanger to break into a borrowed car because she locked the keys inside. “Are you kidding me?!?” DJ screeches, and goes on to remind her that he’s Black, and as such: ‘Twould appear BAD!

Sure enough, after she INSISTS, a cop turns up, gets gun-happy, and humiliates and terrifies DJ. What I’m saying is: The dude has plenty of right to be angry. And once more? Boooo to danged Trisha!

Okay, there’s where I almost completely gave up on her -AND- the book. But I ALWAYS finish, so I went on, and soon Trisha realizes that DJ, who keeps popping into her life given the ties between the two families, is kinda sorta popping into her mind, like, all the freaking time. It unhinges her, especially as she’s entirely unused to thinking about others, and so she opens up to him and spews the “Darcy and Elizabeth First Proposal Debacle” -of the original P&P Canon- but in a new and deLIGHTful fashion: Trisha basically dribbles all over herself, admits she can’t function for thinking about him, and it’s freaking her out cuz she can’t understand it given his paltry station in life, etc. etc. et hilarious cetera.

Author Sonali Dev had me hooked from that point on because Trisha DOES begin to gain an awareness of herself as an individual who might be cold and slighting, an individual who, given thought, COULD make a huge difference/impact on the lives of those around her. DJ starts thawing, he starts seeing the morphing of Trisha’s personality, eventually discovers secret acts of exTREme kindness and thoughtfulness. And >PHEW< The last several hours of the book were engaging as all get-out and so much fun as Dev truly DID provide P&P With A Twist when all was said and done.

I’ve reviewed Soneela Nankani before, and I’d found her adequate but her narration didn’t POP. Hmmm, gotta admit that she does much better here, but only because she has A LOT to work with. Dev provides character moodiness, to go with some intense situations, to go with a wide variety of characters, and oh so much more. Nankani, however well she portrays our Of Indian Ancestry heroine, doesn’t really do our Brit-Born Black man of mixed heritage all that well. She has an accent (Which, granted, Dev made him a tall order to fill!) kinda sorta on target, but then he “thinks” in American English, so we have his unaccented thoughts thoughts thoughts -Then- a bit of dialogue with a bit of an accent then more unaccented thoughts thoughts thoughts. It rather makes it difficult to fully engage with him as a character, so I question Nankani’s choice to portray him that way. Still, the unfolding of our heroine as she develops a sense of the hope and humanity within others was spot-on.

All in all? I’m really quite glad I’ve picked up the next two in the series during sales. All in all? Dude! I’ve already downloaded the second…!