Dev brings a new spin to Austen’s famous works with her Rajes series, focusing on a formerly royal family settled in California as the hard-working new generation navigate social class nuances, chasing their dreams amid family pressures and expectations and of course, find love. For as Dev wrote in her author’s note for The Emma Project, Austen’s themes are still so relevant today:

Social class and prejudice is still important, being persuaded to give up dreams because they’re not ambitious enough, getting stuck between family expectation and your own dreams. All these are relevant in the modern day as she takes these subjects that Austen touched centuries ago and forges her own path to answer these questions. It’s a really wonderful series that not only delivers the happily ever afters but intergenerational family bonds and backstories too.

1. The Emma Project: This may just be my favorite because I enjoyed the personal baggage both Vanesh and Naina had to work through to realize what they have together is real, and mor eimportantly, that they bring out the best in each other.

The last Raje, Vansh also called Baby Prince has earned his nickname. He is a problem-solver, andoptimist. He has the Raje trait of trying to make things better for people, working on various organizations to help those without. He is upright in that he is willing to take responsibility even for things that aren’t his fault. But because of his status as the youngest and because sof his more social skills than book skills (possibly dysxlexia), he feels that he has been coddled by his family. He fears that he is babied because they secretly or at least unconsciously see him as “stupid”. So he thinks his new project, one meant to help the homeless will help prove to them and himself that he is capable.

Now, Knightlina or “Naina” as she prefers to be called is extremely copetent. She has to be to head up organization in Nepal and other places to help underserved women. Also to make up for her father’s disbelief in her capabailities. Though after all these years, she has realized that will never happen. He thinks she’s only worth something if she can get married well, a sentiment echoed by her mother who wants Naina to get back with Yash. Naina can’t do that obviously as their relationship had been a sham arrangement all along but she most certainly can’t get with Vanesh either. He’s Yash’s brother, he’s twelve years younger, she has literally seen him in diapers!

But now they’re working closely together as millionaire Jiggy will only fund her organization with Vanesh’s name at the helm. She is a bit rankled that Vanesh doesn’t realize how easily he got the job without any qualifications to back him up or that his initial optimism makes him oblivious to that he’s being used for his name. Vanesh is more than insulted that she calls his choice to help the homeless a “Emma project,” something idealistic and unfeasible and aims to prove her wrong.

That’s where the book gets very interesting balancing real concerns and policies about helping the homeless with steamy workplace tension as both struggle to ignore their feelings. Their time spent together also forces them to confront their personal flaws with Vanesh learning adminstrative side to creating a foundation. Also his personal projection, feeling that those who have been coddled just need a push to prove themselve doesn’t always work as with the case of the really talented, yet anxious Hari.

Naina is dealing with her own issues as she longs for the family closeness of the Rajes but also feels uncomfortable with it. It doesn’t help that they’ve been given her a wide berth since her break up with Yash. But more that that, she has to get root of the issue with her estranged adultification relationship with her mother that makes her feel unbearably guilty yet degraded her self esteem everytime they talk. Together, they help challemge those conceptions of themselves.

Plus, the Rajes’ eldest cousin Esha finds her own romance with Sid giving more backstory to the family’s clairvoyant and a true full circle feeling as everyone finds someone they love.

The only thing I wish was explored more was the rajes’ hypocrisy regarding naina and Vanesh. They claim they felt it was wrong because of the twelve year age difference but I feel like there were some leftover baggage from the Yash/Naina split that didn’t get to be explored.

2. Incense and Sensibility: Yash is the eldest Raje and most ambitious to have his poltiical dreams serve for the good of all. However, a shooting at one of his speeches leaves him with some trauma. In fact, he feels pretty numb. The only emotion he really feels is anxiety and guilt because his bodyguard is in critical care because of him. So his sister suggests he goes to India Dashwood whose yoga practice has good reviews in helping relieve stress.

India has her own dreams and expectations that are getting mixed up as she tries to keep up the work at the Dashwood family studio but is burdeed by the potential debts of her mother’s hospital treatmet. Not that anyone knows of this burden, she keeps her emotions to herself as she is awa re that she needs to b the strong one at this time between her sister, China’s new romance that is sucking up all her time and her mother’s illness.

As you can tell the theme here are when dreams become entangled with expectation. You don’t want ot let your family down but then what you want feels like something you must set aside for the sake of responsibility and duty.

That’s also a problem for their romance as Yash in an arrangement with Naina. It’s not romantic to them, merely a way to keep their parents off their backs but the public fully believes in them and if Yash switches affections now, the public might turn on them. But the super honest Yash can’t hide anymore yet India refuses to let him ruin his campaign when he is a symbol for maginalized people.

So I really enjoyed how it explores this torn conflict that is in their way for happiness. But I was most interested in Yash’s story and hw it hits on the problem of masculinity. His trauma of his car acciddent, then his blackmail and now his shooting. He hasn’t been given enough time to mourn as he always has to be on much as India feels she has to be the calm one.

3. Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors: The first in the Rajes series, not only does Dev introduce this large, loving family but also starts right off by showing this isn’t going to be a typical Austen retelling. Dev gives traits of pride and prejudice to both characters so that neither protagonist is fully a substitute of Elizabeth or Darcy but a combination. Though if one has to give Darcy status to a character, Dr. Trisha Raje is the Darcy with a politically-connected family and reigning neurosurgeon in San Francisco.

Upcoming chef DJ Caine would be the Elizabeth Bennet in the situation as he is insulted by Trisha’s snobbish attitude toward his gig as a caterer and the help in general. Well not snobby but very dismissive.

Unfortunately they will be seeing each other often because Trisha is the only one that can help DJ’s younger sister, an artist whose vision is quickly detoriating.

Add the upcoming political campaign of Trisha’s brother being under threat by a Wickham-lite journalist/Trisha’s former best friend (which also explores a rare look into female-on-male assault) and Trisha’s own insecurities of possibly “ruining” her family’s image/disappointing her hardworking parents who gave up everything for them. Plus sveral other threads from other family members that will surely be explored in the next Rajes books.

I enjoyed how Dev wove in the immigrant experience into the story that added depth to the motivations, goals and yes, pride and prejudices to the characters to pull themselves up the social/economic ladder like the Bennets did back in Regency England. It added the realism and topicality that Austen had been known for in the day because it may be a happily ever after but the Rajes don’t live in a small town bubble. They deal and navigate the good and bad of society around them as they make their way through the world.

4. Recipe for Persuasion: The classic tale of Persuasion when one half a couple feels pressured to break it off due to class and societal differences. This is a case of two generations of persuasion.

Asha Raje is the product of a bitterly divorced couple, the youngest prince of HRH, Bram and rugby star, “Shining Shoban.” Asha has always favored her father while her mother was back in India helping underprivileged girls find independence, freedom and strength through sports. Now, her father’s unfortunately gone and she has inherited his resturaunt Curried Dreams which isn’t doing so well.

So she hopes to turn it around by winning the reality show, Cooking with the Stars. But in the worst case of coincidence ever, she’s paired with soccer star Rco Silva. Her ex boyfriend. They don’t let on that they have dated but their surprise meeting and accopanying tension has fans salivating.

Then Shoban returns and Asha has more on her plate than she could ever hope to juggle.

Unlike the other books, Shoban serves as a third POV detailing her background and her marriage to Bram which involved an unfortunate amount of blackmail and marital rape. She was in love with Omar, the son of one of the house servants but because of his status and his Muslm religion, her father forbade the match, threatening to ruin omar and his father’s life despite their goodness and loyalty. So she agrees to marry Bram whose flaws and abuse have her escaping the marriage whenever she can and unfortunately leave her daughter in the process as Asha chooses to stay with her father.

It’s a delicate story but Dev does it well in showing the pain, the stress and the friendship she forms with Shree Raje who is the only one that Shoban trusts with Asha’s care due to Bram’s alcoholism. Her return sets the stage for Asha to confront various of her own issues regarding her father and for a real heart to heart talk regarding mother-daughter relationships and their complexities.

Unbeknowst to her mom, Asha also has difficult feelings regarding her father despite how much she loves him. But undoubtedly her estrangement with her mother affects her the most as she learns more about the nature of her parents’ marriage. She feels tainted and weak, and wishes she could be strong, but is burdened with taking care of her father’s resturaunt. She also struggles with guilt over her cowardliness whereas Rico is concerned.

However, the thing tha makes this rank last is Rico. He fits well thematically in this story of complicated marriage as he is the son of his father’s mistress and thus has felt the need to be hidden for most of his life until his soccer talents sped him to worldwide fame. But now he doesn’t have that thanks to a soccer injury and his reunion with Asha has him thinking of what he should do next. While he’s interesting, he was less so compared to the Bram-Shoban-Asha family tragedy. With all the family drama happening, their romance felt like a sweet addition but unnecessary compared to the cartharsis of Shoban and Asha learning to understand each other.