Book Review: Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

Last Spring, I attended BookCon in New York City. In all four of the panels that I attended, at least one member of the panel mentioned Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev. Each author spoke highly of the book and how important it was in adding diverse voices to the romance genre. The admiration for Dev that these authors had instantly made me add the book to my “To Be Read” list.

Trisha Raje is a successful neurosurgeon who is passionate for her work. Despite her achievements in her career, she feels like the black sheep of her family. Years after an event almost jeopardizes her beloved older brother’s political aspirations, she still carries the guilt with her. DJ Caine is a private chef, who, like Trisha, has a deep passion for his career. His life is uprooted when his younger sister, the only family he has left, is diagnosed with a terminal tumor and he moves from Paris to San Francisco. Trisha and DJ’s paths cross as she is the only doctor who can operate on his sister, and he is the chef hired to cater her brother’s political fundraisers. There are preconceptions, misunderstandings, arguments, and, eventually, love. 

Despite loving books and reading (and having a mother who studied British literature in college), I have never read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It’s been on my “To Be Read” list for years, I just haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. All my knowledge of the story comes from the 2005 movie featuring Kiera Knightly.

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors was more inspired by Austen’s original work, rather that being a modern retelling of it. Unlike Mrs. Bennet, who’s main priority is to marry off her daughters, Trisha’s mother’s priority is to get her son elected as the Governor of California. Trisha’s older sister, Nisha, most-closely resembles Jane of the original story. While Jane has somewhat of an on-again, off-again, on-again relationship with Mr. Bingley, Nisha worries of her husband’s faithfulness when he attends a school reunion with his ex-fiancée. While no one runs off with and marries someone inappropriate, as Elizabeth’s younger sister Lydia does with Mr. Wickham, Trisha’s brother, Yash, had an improper encounter with a woman named Julia Wickham in his past. And Trisha is not the second of five daughter, but the third of four children (six if you count the two cousins she thinks of as sisters).

The biggest way in which this book diverges from its inspiration, is in the role of the two main characters. At first, based on the family dynamics and the gender of the characters it seems as though Trisha is the modern Elizabeth and DJ is the modern equivalent of Mr. Darcy (even more so, DJ’s first name is Darcy). Whereas, in the original story, Elizabeth Bennett must overcome her prejudice and Mr. Darcy must overcome his pride, Dev reverses the roles – it is Trisha who needs to overcome her pride, and DJ who needs to overcome his prejudices.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. There were a few mentions to pivotal events in both Trisha and DJ’s pasts; events that clearly had long-term repercussions and influenced who they were in the present. The author does not reveal what exactly these events are until the end. I enjoyed trying to guess what had happened to both characters to make them who they are. I also enjoyed the relationship between Trisha and DJ. They grew from enemies to friends to lovers and I enjoyed seeing how their relationship evolved and changed.