Book Review | Pride and Protest by Nikki Payne

Title: Pride and Protest
Author: Nikki Payne
Genre: Adult Contemporary / Romance / Retelling
Publication Date: November 15th, 2022
Publisher: Berkley Books
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐✨

“Liza B.–the only DJ who gives a jam–wants to take her neighborhood back from the soulless property developer dropping unaffordable condos on every street corner in DC. But her planned protest at a corporate event takes a turn after she mistakes the smoldering-hot CEO for the waitstaff. When they go toe-to-toe, the sparks fly–but her impossible-to-ignore family thwarts her every move. Liza wants Dorsey Fitzgerald out of her hood, but she’ll settle for getting him out of her head.
At first, Dorsey writes off Liza Bennett as more interested in performing outrage than acting on it. As the adopted Filipino son of a wealthy white family, he’s always felt a bit out of place and knows a fraud when he sees one. But when Liza’s protest results in a viral meme, their lives are turned upside down, and Dorsey comes to realize this irresistible revolutionary is the most real woman he’s ever met.” (Goodreads)

I wanted to pick this one up after seeing Julie @ One Book More review it on her blog. I’ve enjoyed some other Pride & Prejudice retellingso this one sounded perfect!

The book is told from two point-of-views and they come from Liza Bennett and Dorsey Fitzgerald. They come from different backgrounds and how they have grown up definitely plays into their view point of the world. I liked how open they both were to getting to know one another after a spark between them was felt. They were very cute together and I liked when they interacted. Passionate it definitely a word that would describe both of them!

I would say that all of the characters were well done. I was always curious to see how their plot line would turn out in comparison to the original work. Their personalities matched up well but it was also a refreshing take.

A lot of important topics are discussed in the book and it’s easy to see where the inspiration comes from. I liked seeing it relate to our own world and thought it was a good modern retelling. Sometimes retellings can be hard to do, especially when someone has read the original work. Even though I had ideas on how things could go I was still excited to continue on and wanted to listen to it every chance I got.

This is just my personal taste but the internal spicy dialogue was a bit too much. I know others will enjoy this and so it’s not really a complaint but you know what I mean! I also thought that the timeline was a bit confusing when time was mentioned but it didn’t really impact the story.

Overall, this was a good retelling and I thought the narrators did a great job!

Advertisement