Pride and Preston Lin by Christina Hwang Dudley (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

What is your favorite retelling of a classic story?  From fairy tales to Jane Austen, I love when classic stories are rewritten into a modern setting.

Pride and Preston Lin by Christina Hwang Dudley is a truly delightful Pride and Prejudice retelling.  Lissie a college student working in her family’s Chinese restaurant.  When she accidentally serves a patron, a dish she is allergic to, she almost unwittingly takes down her Aunt and Uncle’s entire business.  One of the patron’s friends, Preston Lin, wrote a scathing article about the incident, citing the restaurant by name.  Now business is down, and Lissie is desperate to help her family.  She despises Preston Lin.  Unfortunately for her, Preston Lin keeps appearing wherever she goes.  Can Lissie and Preston both get over their pride and initial misconceptions of each other to find love?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This retelling worked well as Christina Hwang Dudley kept the major bones of the classic story, but made it her own with the setting, and modern tweaks to the storyline.

·       I liked the inventive names Christina Hwang Dudley used to keep the names similar, but with a Chinese American twist.

·       I really loved the Asian American representation and spin on the classic story.

·       The San Francisco Bay setting was perfect.  I also liked how Preston attending Stanford and coming from a wealthy family was juxtaposed with Lissie attending San Jose State and her family owning a restaurant. 

·       Lissie and her sisters Jenny and JoJo are orphans, but their Aunt and Uncle have stepped up to parent them.

·       Lissie takes over taking her little sister JoJo to swim lessons where she meets the attractive Coach Wayman Wang who has a mysterious past with Preston Lin.

·       The characters are great.  Lissie has a quick wit and is a strong woman.  Preston seemed like a stuck-up prick, but he grew to be a nice guy by the end.  The side characters were also well developed.

·       Mini Spoiler Alert, I appreciated that the tragedy at the end that brings Preston and Lissie together has to do with Coach Want having inappropriate relationships with the mothers of the students rather than inappropriate relationships with the students themselves.

·       This book would be classified as New Adult rather than a romance.  Preston Lin and Lissie don’t have much of a romance in this novel.  They just realize that they like each other and have a kiss, and the book ends. 

·       I would love a second book to give Jenny and Charles more time to develop their romance, and to find out what happens to Lissie’s play and other open storylines.

·       This book just was a happy book that kept me entertained during a very stressful week.

Overall, Pride & Preston Lin is an enjoyable modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in the Chinese community in San Francisco Bay.  This story is timeless, and it works across so many settings, time periods, and cultures.

Book Source:  Review copy from Third State Books for being a part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour. Thank-you!  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

BOOK 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.

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.


AUTHOR BIO

Christina Dudley's books have been called "enchanting," "sparkling" and "swoon-worthy" by reviewers like Austenprose and Austenesque Reviews. She's authored two award-winning Regency series: The Hapgoods of Bramleigh and The Ellsworth Assortment, as well as PRIDE AND PRESTON LIN, a contemporary riff on Austen's classic which was chosen as a February 2024 Editor's Pick by Kirkus Reviews Magazine and received starred reviews from both them and Booklist. She and her family live in Bellevue, Washington.

ADVANCE PRAISE
"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."— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"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