Pride and Preston Lin

by Christina Hwang Dudley

Overview

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.

* Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews *
"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."

"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

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798890130044
Publisher:	Third State Books
Publication date:	03/19/2024
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	205,882
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Christina Hwang Dudley is the author of two popular Regency romance series, The Hapgoods of Bramleigh and The Ellsworth Assortment, which have garnered over 23 million page reads since October 2021 on Amazon Kindle Unlimited. She grew up in the Bay Area and earned an MA in English Literature at Stanford University. She and her family live in Bellevue, Washington. 

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"I was captivated by this charming, witty, and delicious reimagining of Jane Austen's classic. An exceptional storyteller, Christina Hwang Dudley has become one of my favorite authors for original, clever, heartfelt romance. I did not want Pride and Preston Lin to end."
—Jane Porter, USA Today bestselling author of Flirting with Fire

"A delightfully quirky treat to read! Move over Elizabeth Bennet, it's time for Lissie Cheng to take the spotlight."
—Sofi LaPorte, bestselling author of the Merry Spinsters, Charming Rogues series

"Christina Dudley nails it with this fun romp! A truly unique twist on Pride & Prejudice."
—Jennie Goutet, author of the bestselling Clavering Chronicles series

"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

Editorial Reviews

01/29/2024

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. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"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

From the Publisher

03/08/2024

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

Library Journal

★ 2024-01-05
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.

Kirkus Reviews