Outlander meets Bridgerton in this witty, tender LGBTQ+ young adult time travel romantic comedy. Eighteen-year-old artist Audrey Cameron is lost after being dumped by her boyfriend and waitlisted by her dream school, "unable... to draw anything past a stick figure." She is considering giving up on art and love altogether when an eccentric regular at her family's Pittsburgh convenience store offers to help her find inspiration. Audrey accepts. "Everything goes black" and she wakes up on a country estate in 1812 England. The estate is home to Lucy Sinclair, a teenage heiress who dreams of "study[ing] piano at a conservatory," but is being pressured to marry by her domineering father. Audrey becomes convinced that she must find true love to get back to 2023; Lucy agrees to teach Audrey the "etiquette, dancing, [and] manners" that she will need to "win the affections of a suitor." But as Audrey and Lucy grow closer, Audrey begins to worry she is "falling for the one person [she] can't have."
Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh is a gleefully anachronistic take on the Regency love story that blends humor and snark with romantic pining and journeys of self-discovery. Author Rachael Lippincott (All This Time, with Mikki Daughtry) emphasizes small moments of intimacy between Audrey and Lucy, like "fingertips brushing lightly together," that convey palpable yearning from both characters' perspectives. Period drama and rom-com enthusiasts alike should enjoy this story of two women from very different times finding love, artistic inspiration, and self-assurance. --Alanna Felton, freelance reviewer