Pride and Protest

Debut novelist Nikki Payne reimagines Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice for the present day. Liza B. is a DJ whom her neighbors regard as one of the few who truly cares about the music and the community around it. She is determined to win back her Washington, DC neighborhood from a developer whose sleek, expensive condos keep appearing on every corner. She plans a protest at a corporate gathering, but her plans shift when she mistakes the company's chief executive for a member of the serving staff. The two clash face to face, and the attraction between them is immediate, yet her relatives keep getting in the way of everything she tries to do. Liza is set on pushing Dorsey Fitzgerald out of her neighborhood, and would be content if she could also stop thinking about him. Dorsey, the adopted Filipino son of a wealthy white family, has long felt like an outsider in his own life. At first he dismisses Liza Bennett as someone who is more interested in displaying anger than in doing anything about it. When her protest becomes a viral internet meme, both of their lives are upended, and Dorsey begins to see that she is the most genuine woman he has ever encountered.