Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh is (with „Imogen, obviously“) one of my Top 2 favorites this year. It is a cozy and swoon-worthy love story. I kind of missed these warm and beautiful love stories for the saphhics, which just concentrate on the love between two women and their special bond. I really think Rachel Lippincott got better with each of her books and now she has written my favorite book of hers up to now. I‘m so excited for whatever else she has in peto.
„Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh“ is about Audrey and Lucy. Audrey is from 2023 Pittsburgh and at a point in her life, where she feels lost. Pittsburgh seems to close in around her and become too small for her ambitions but at the same time, Lucy is afraid to take a chance and leave her family and their shop behind. Now, she feels trapped and alone, without her boyfriend or her dream of attending an art school.
Lucy is also trapped - but not because of her fears but because she is a woman in the year 1812 without a say in her life and soon to be married to an ugly old man.
When Audrey gets transported back in time and lands in Lucy‘s garden, the two of them are completely shocked. Lucy takes Audrey in anyhow and they become friends. But soon, Audrey feels more than friendly feelings, although this realisation seems to be absolutely non-befitting for 19th century Victorian England.
I can‘t say anything about the historcial accuracy of the depiction of England around the 1800s but I sure liked the atmosphere and the Jane Austen references. I had vivid pictures of the ball scenes and walks through the gardens in my head which may or may not have been taken out of the 2020 movie „Emma.“.
If I haven‘t made it clear yet: I loved this read and would recommend it to anyone who wants a funny and romantic queer story about two independent and smart women who forge their own way and their own future.
