Classics Reimagined: Sonali Dev’s Jane Austen Series
A couple of years ago, I saw Sonali Dev present at a writer’s conference. She was both lovely and impressive, and I picked up the first of her Jane Austen-inspired novels, Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors.
But when I first started reading, the book was an immediate DNF for me—too much backstory at the beginning. I gave it to my wife, who is infinitely more patient than I am, to read and tell me if I should go on. She liked it, but it took me another year and a bout of COVID to start again with the determination to read on.
I wasn’t sorry. In fact, I was obsessed and immediately picked up the other three books in the series. Dev takes the familiar outlines of Austen’s plots and weaves them around the stories of the children of the wealthy and influential Raje family. The books and the characters belong to Dev, not Austen, but finding lines or scenes from Austen’s books made for a delightful Easter egg hunt. If you haven’t discovered this series, you’re in for a treat.
Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors
Now that I’ve read the whole series, I understand the need for extra explication at the start of the first book. The books revolve around the Raje clan, plus friends, cousins, and extended family. History weaves in with the present, and Dev tells generational stories, mixing humor with healing from the traumas of the past.
In Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors, Dev flips the gender from Austen. Tightly wound brain surgeon Trisha Raje is prejudiced the first time she meets chef DJ Caine, assessing that what he does in the kitchen is less important than her work. She makes it clear who has the upper hand—literally—pricking DJ’s pride. The two are thrown together, reluctantly, because Trisha is treating DJ’s sister for a brain tumor. Dev hits the highlights of Austen’s story—the overheard insult, the rejected offer—and weaves them with a rich story of family, pride, and history that will continue to unfold through the rest of the books in the series.
Spice level: closed door
Humor: some slapstick—the best kind of humor
Tropes: enemies to lovers, family rift
Recipe for Persuasion
Recipe for Persuasion is a second-chance love story based on the mother of all second-chance stories. It might be my favorite of Austen’s books; I love watching Anne come out from under her mentor’s thumb and realize she hasn’t lost her only chance at love. Dev’s retelling involves a reality show, a soccer star, and a chef who needs a miracle to save the crumbling restaurant her father left behind when he died. It’s delicious.
Spice level: closed door
Humor: funny!
Tropes: second chance, family secrets, reality show
Incense and Sensibility
In Incense and Sensibility, a political up-and-comer and the center of his family’s ambitions, Yash Raje, was misused by an intern who drugged him and made a sex tape early in his career. As a result, he’s been in a fake relationship of convenience with his friend Naina for years. But when fate throws him in the path of Raje family friend India Dashwood—with whom he has a past—everything changes. This book deals with difficult themes of trauma and violence, and it’s also sweet and funny and includes a stinky but beloved dog. Dev handles heavy issues with deft grace; I felt the healing by the end of the book.
Spice level: closed door
Humor: sweetly funny
Tropes: second chance, fake relationship, hurt/comfort, politician
The Emma Project
Emma is my least favorite Jane Austen story, and the only book of hers I have never read. I started it and disliked Emma so much that I put it down. But The Emma Project is definitely my favorite in Dev’s series. She flips the genders: Naina Kohli is a decade older than Vansh Raje, whom she’s known since he was in diapers. Recovering from her humiliation at Vansh’s brother Yash ending their faux dating, she finds her life, and soon her bedsheets, entangled with Vansh. This is the sexiest of the series, which I love, but what makes it an absolute delight is the dialogue between Vansh and Naina: playful, spicy, brutally honest, and unexpected. The best thing an author can do is upend my expectations and Dev does that in The Emma Project. This is one I’ll read again and again.
Spice level: slightly ajar door
Humor: delightfully witty dialogue
Tropes: age gap, secret relationship, family disapproval
I didn’t have a column last week, and I might be spotty for the next few weeks as I’ll be traveling. Lots of great things percolating and lots of reading time in my future. Share your romcom recommendations, and I’ll add them to my reading list.
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