PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND PITTSBURGH

Audrey Cameron has hit a roadblock. Literally.

Audrey doesn’t know how to move on: Charlie, her boyfriend, dumped her; she got wait-listed at her first-choice art school; and then she accidentally rode her bicycle headfirst into Charlie’s car. Luckily, elderly Mr. Montgomery, a regular customer at her family’s store in Pittsburgh, tosses her a quarter that magically transports Audrey through time and space back to 1812 England, where she meets prim and proper Lucy Sinclair. Most of the story takes place in the English countryside at Radcliffe, Lucy’s father’s estate, where the two girls become fast friends despite their cultural and temporal differences. Written in alternating first-person points of view, the book presents the two main characters’ voices, but they are sometimes not so easy to tell apart. Nevertheless, readers will find it immensely satisfying to observe past and present cultures through each narrator’s lens. While the time-travel element could have been better fleshed out, the details of Regency-era fashions and ways of life more than carry this sweet, queer romance. The villains are delightfully satisfying, and the supporting cast members are swoonworthy and invite empathy. It’s a delicious will-they, won’t-they romance across time and space. Main characters read white; Lucy has a cousin who is Black.

Perfect for fans of Outlander and Bridgerton.