content warnings: racism, misogyny, loss of a loved one, discussion of revenge porn
representation: biracial protagonist and main characters (haitian-dominican), haitian main character, dominican main character, black main and side characters, latinx main and side characters

God, I wanted to love this so badly, but the more I sit with this the more I need to admit to myself that I just didn't. This is a retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (a book I have never read) and features Zuri, a seventeen year-old AfroLatina whose sister returns from college for the summer on the same day that a rich black family moves in across the street. The family has two sons, one who her sister is instantly smitten with, and the other who Zuri immediately hates.

Let's start with all the positives. I really liked all the main characters, with a few notable exceptions. Zuri was an incredibly fun, vibrant main character. She's a poet and has a very distinct voice, with both an amazingly empathetic and fierce personality. I loved her relationship with her sisters as well. She has four of them - one older, three younger - and they've all had to share a room their entire lives. This has made them all incredibly close in different ways, and as someone who has five sisters I can confirm that their dynamic is incredibly realistic.

The dynamics of the entire neighbourhood was amazing. The neighbourhood is an entirely black and Latinx, and I loved the description of the parties they have as a neighbourhood. Anytime Zuri was with her family, best friend or the people in her building, I loved what I was reading.

Which brings me to when I didn't love what I was reading. This is a romance, a genre I love that has one major pitfall a writer can fall into: if your romance sucks, your book sucks. And unfortunately I hated the romance in this. I'm extremely excited to read the original P&P and watch the movie because I've heard the enemies to lovers is *chef's kiss*, but this ain't it chief. 

The hate to love didn't work for me in this because the hatred turned to love in an instant. One second Zuri's trying to murder Darius with her eyes, the next they've got their tongues down each others throats and are professing their love for each other. It doesn't help that I hated Darius the whole damn time. From what little I know about the original text, most of what people love so much about Darcy is that he changes for Elizabeth of his own volition; he becomes a better person so that he is worthy of her. But Darius doesn't ever change. He's a dick the entire time and never deserves Zuri.

The most is also way too short. It's trying to tackle a lot of issues (racism, gentrification, classism, complicated romance, Zuri's future, family dynamics, a dying loved one, etc.) and I don't think it succeeded in most of them because most aren't given enough time. 

These pacing issues and poorly written romance really overshadowed the things I did like, which was really unfortunate because I was so ready to love this book. The audiobook and overall writing weren't too spectacular either, otherwise this might've managed to scrape its way to a 3. This is a book that's going to work for many people but unfortunately I'm not one of them.