Elizabeth

I, like Darcy, am an astrology sceptic, but don't let it stop you from thoroughly enjoying this.

Of note it's not really a Pride and Prejudice retelling. Sure they get off on the wrong foot, but the beats of the story are not the same and characteristics of P&P are not included.

This is a coming of age story with romance tropes but it's not a romance. Much more literary fiction or women's fiction, read if that's your vibe.

I feel like I need to curate a list of these Hollywood romances that I just gobble up.

Thank goodness this man got sober.

This book is overall charming and fun, but really only 3.5 ⭐️. The setting in Maine caused me some annoyance in how the author got things wrong about Maine/New England. There's a point where the narrator says driving across town takes 45 minutes, point a to point b in most any New England town cannot take 45 minutes driving, towns just aren't that big. Then the narrator (supposedly a Maine native) talks about how New England states are close together (true) and how Maine is a small state. Maine is the largest state in New England, and those from New England won't say that Maine is small because it's about the size of the other 5 states combined and Rhode Island exists. The weather described for the timeline of the book also didn't really fit, but this misunderstanding may have occurred because I read this book as an audiobook. Early on our main character compares his coastal Maine small town to Stars Hollow, it's lazy world building, stars hollow is a fictional town in Connecticut that is ~not~ full of fishermen. Lastly, the characters visited a store in Portland, and the store was named that has a location in Connecticut but not in southern Maine, maybe purely coincidental but it was truly jarring to read.
The humor and story ultimately save this book from an immature narrator and setting foibles that needed a stronger edit.
Tl;dr if you are a cranky yankee and will be annoyed at someone writing something set in New England without understanding New England don't read. If you couldn't care less go ahead.

If you loved Anne of Green Gables and are a romance reader now you simply must read The Blue Castle. I wish I could go read it for the first time again.

In some ways it feels like a proto- contemporary romance.