Pride and Preston Lin

January 29, 2024
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.

March 8, 2024

The ever-popular modern Jane Austen retelling gets a thoughtful spin in Dudley's (Miranda at Heart) latest. The well-known Pride and Prejudice story is transported to a Chinese American community in the Bay Area for this version, with hardworking, bold Lissie Cheng at the center of the tale. While working in her family's restaurant, Lissie accidentally serves shellfish to an allergic customer, putting her and the restaurant in the crosshairs of the arrogant Stanford doctoral student Preston Lin. In classic enemies-to-lovers style, Lissie and Preston find their paths crossing in a variety of surprising situations and begin to reluctantly soften toward one another as they begin to understand each other better. The novel is clearly Austen-inspired, but Dudley deftly translates the timeless tale in a way that feels authentic to the setting. Not every character or plot point is depicted exactly from the original novel, giving readers enough to keep their interest even if they've read several of the popular retellings. VERDICT In a landscape with dozens of Pride and Prejudice retellings, this clever rendition stands above. Austen fans and romance readers will be pleased.--Jenny Kobiela-Mondor

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2024
Lissie Cheng and her older sister, Jenny, were ready to be self-sufficient when they lost both parents, but their younger sister, JoJo, needed to live with their aunt and uncle. Now JoJo spends most of her time training in a competitive swimming club. While working her shift in the family restaurant, Lissie mistakenly serves a dish to a young woman who has seafood allergies. Led by the customer's handsome and wealthy companion, PhD student and top swimmer Preston Lin, the backlash negatively impacts the business. As Lissie and her family attempt to repair the damage, Preston suddenly seems to be everywhere, including JoJo's swimming meets. As they reluctantly get to know each other, might Preston and Lissie be suffering from another hasty judgement? Anyone looking for a fresh take on Austen's Pride & Prejudice will be thrilled with Dudley's romance. Thoughtful insights into a variety of complex relationships and the individual growth within them give depth to the main characters. No previous knowledge of Austen's work is needed and all readers are sure to enjoy the family dynamics, Chinese American cultural elements, and competitive swimming details.

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February 1, 2024
A truth universally acknowledged comes to a Chinese restaurant in California. Lissie Cheng is doing her best, but she's balancing a lot for a college student. She and her sisters, orphaned young, are now cared for by their aunt and uncle, so she and her older sister, Jenny, work in their family's restaurant to help out, even though Lissie's Mandarin isn't great and she's struggling to keep up with her schoolwork. Unfortunately, she accidentally serves a pork dish with a teaspoon of shrimp paste to a customer with a seafood allergy, making her life even more complicated. When Preston Lin, the customer's friend, writes a nasty article about the restaurant for the Stanford Daily, she starts doing damage control online. Since she has to take a break from working at the restaurant, she's roped into becoming her younger sister's official chaperone for regional swim meets, a massive time commitment that unexpectedly brings her back into contact with Preston, who's a volunteer for USA Swimming. She'd like to hate Preston, that "arrogant, brilliant swim star," but the more their lives intersect, the more she realizes she might have misjudged him, though he's difficult to read (and readers never enter his perspective, either). Stunned when he confesses his attraction and asks her out, she turns him down; by the time she realizes she's made a mistake, she fears it's too late to say yes, and fans of the Bennets can probably guess where it goes from there. 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. A contemporary spin on Jane Austen that combines the charm of the original with a new perspective.

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