3,5 * – Don’t let my rating deter you from reading this book. I did find this story enjoyable! Ultimately, though, it just wasn’t enough to fully captivate me. 😕

I think my main problem was the romance. Oliver started catching feelings for Darcy almost immediately after they met. The 1st time they met, Oliver was dressed as “Elizabeth”, and Darcy was rude to him. The 2nd time they met (the 1st time Oliver was dressed as a boy), Darcy, Bingley and Oliver hung out. The 3rd time they met (2nd time as Oliver) Oliver was already very much attracted to Darcy, and I genuinely couldn’t understand why… At that point they were acquaintances at best, yet Oliver was completely into Darcy (who, mind you, had been awful to “Elizabeth” unprompted, so, for all Oliver knew, Darcy was a mean, sexist ass), and they were already lowkey flirting with each other, at some points! It felt too sudden, and I ended up never really buying their attraction to each other. I didn’t feel *anything* AT ALL about the romance in this book. It wasn’t offensive or anything, and it was very sweet at times! But, overall, the romance just left me completely indifferent. 😶

I did enjoy the characters, for the most part. Oliver’s body dysmorphia was obviously very well portrayed, given that this is #ownvoices, and I really appreciated seeing the struggles of a trans boy at a time where being trans was unthinkable in society. I liked that he found so much support in his friends and family, and the queer joy in this book was definitely a delight (though, do keep in mind that, for the entirety of the book, Oliver is being misgendered and forced to live as a woman, which can definitely be triggering for some!). I also enjoyed Darcy as a LI, and I thought that using his gayness as an explanation for his sour moods at balls and his displeasure at the prospect of marrying a woman was a clever way of adapting the original story, all while making Darcy more likeable.

Which brings me to this: this book kind of felt like a watered-down version of the original “Pride and Prejudice”. The conflicts and social critique didn’t feel as deep in this book, which, to me, wasn’t a huge deal – I didn’t mind keeping the original themes to the original P&P, and have this retelling explore mainly Oliver’s journey with his gender – but I can see how this retelling might not be for everyone because of that.

But I will say that, even though I didn’t mind that this story focused more on the queer rep and I personally didn’t need a deep social commentary like in P&P, I still think the other aspects of this story were lacking a bit. Particularly, a lot of the SCs were either irrelevant or extremely superficial. Oliver’s sisters (other than Jane) were barely in the book, Charlotte and her gf Lu kind of disappeared after Charlotte married Collins, and Wickham was cartoonishly evil in the end. I wish we’d seen more of the SCs, and that they had some more depth.

But, either way, I still think this is an enjoyable book with great rep (and I REALLY loved the historical note at the end!!!!!!!!!!), so I’d still recommend it!