Prejudice & Pride — Lynn Messina

You know Darcy: rich, proud, disapproving, standoffish. Bennet Bethle knows Darcy, too -- at least, the type. As a fundraiser for the Longbourn Collection, an art museum in out-of-the-way Queens, he's met a lot of bored heiresses. Watching the aloof beauty swat away all comers at his museum's gala (including himself, even though he didn't make the attempt), Bennet figures he's got her all sized up. He knows exactly how this story plays out. But this story isn't all that it seems. Despite her air of indifference, Darcy's interest has been piqued by the irreverent Bennet, who finds himself frequently in her company while her friend Charlotte “Bingley” Bingston plans a ball at the Netherfield hotel to benefit the museum. Well, plans a ball or woos his brother -- it's hard for Bennet to say because Bingley's motives are murky. One thing, however, is crystal clear: He doesn't like Darcy. And yet somehow that becomes murky too. In Prejudice & Pride, Lynn Messina takes the genres she does best -- chick lit, the mashup, and Regency romance -- and weaves them into one delightfully modern tale with a gender-bendy twist.