My Fine Fellow

Utterly delightful gender-swapped retelling on "My Fair Lady." It's obvious how much affection Cohen has for the original while wanting to make the relationships an equal partnership.

Actual rating: 3.5/5

It's no secret by now that I adore retellings and I will read almost any of them, and the less overdone the original material, the better. So, I was really excited to hear that My Fair Lady was getting a retelling, especially since I loved the film version!

My Fine Fellow is a charming gender-flipped loose version of My Fair Lady, with a focus on cooking rather than language, in an alternate 1830s England where Culinarians are at the top of the social pyramid. I found the premise really intriguing, and this alternate version of society was fascinating and definitely reminded me of Netflix's Bridgerton in many ways.

This was a quick and easy read that definitely had a lot of sweet moments. At the same time though, I was show more left feeling like I wanted more of everything. The premise and setting were interesting, but I felt like I didn't get enough of them to really, properly understand the society, its structures and how these affected the characters. There were nonetheless some interesting reflections and representations (Elijah is Jewish and Penelope is of Filipina heritage) and I appreciated how these themes were inserted in the narrative.

Despite that, I just couldn't grow to care about the characters, which for me is a major issue when reading a book. They all felt quite flat and superficial, with no real depth and very limited growth arcs. The romance was cute, but all other relationships felt quite bland. The cooking and the trio's passion for it were interesting, but at times I was a bit confused by what was happening and I wasn't too sure of what the final dish was.

Overall, it's an easy, fun and charming read that's great if you're looking for a simple, entertaining read without much depth.
I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way. show less

I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher (Harper Teen) for promotional purposes.

This was a really cute My Fair Lady retelling! I have seen My Fair Lady, but it was a while ago so I didn’t pick up on any of the references to it. If you’re a fan of the movie I’m sure you would appreciate those references.

I loved that it was a gender swapped retelling. I also loved that Penelope was half Filipino and Elijah was Jewish and that their backgrounds were a central and integral part of the story. The book explored the prejudices that both of them faced.

The three main characters were all well developed. I particularly liked seeing Helena’s character arc unfold and how her actions affected her friendships with Penelope show more and Elijah.

Food is a big part of the story so do not read this book on an empty stomach. You will get hungry! Luckily there is a recipe at the end for the empanadas mentioned in the book.

Since this is a retelling, the story is a little predictable and straightforward. There are no big surprises.

Overall, I enjoyed this historical YA retelling of My Fair Lady. If you like reading about 1830s England or books about food, I recommend checking this book out. show less

Bossy Helena Higgins and her Culinarian classmate, Penelope Pickering, attempt to turn a Covent Garden peddler, Elijah Little, into a gentlemen chef. This clever epicurean riff on My Fair Lady, set in 19th century England, spotlights prejudices of the time, especially against Jewish Elijah. (Sydney Taylor Young Adult Honor)

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an eGalley of this through Edelweiss to review.

Thoughts: This sounded like such a fun premise to me. This is a retelling of My Fair Lady, but in an alternate world where food and the Culinarians reign supreme. In this case Helena takes on a street urchin, Elijah, and is determined to turn him into a gentleman chef. Of course, things don’t go quite as Helena plans.

I ended up being a bit disappointed in this. It takes quite a bit for the story to get going and then all the training Elijah goes through gets a bit long as well. In addition to that you have to slog through quite a names (mostly royalty of the time). I did end up liking the second half of the book a bit better and I show more enjoyed how it ended.

Helena is a hard character to love and it was hard to watch Elijah try to bend to her teaching and whims. Penelope (a fellow culinary student who is Helena’s friend) does help to temper Elijah’s experience and I enjoyed the friendship that Elijah and Penelope formed. However, in general I found these characters a bit frustrating.

This took me quite a while to read; it just wasn’t one of those books I really wanted to pick up and read. I had to force myself to sit down and read it but once I got into it I did enjoy some of what I read. The writing just didn’t flow all that well, although I do appreciate what the author was trying to do here.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay. I liked the concept and it was well thought out. I just felt like it was a bit slow and a bit unrealistic at times, I also felt that the characters were frustrating to read about. Lastly, the writing was a bit difficult to get into and didn’t flow all that well. Still, I did enjoy some aspects of the story. I guess I would recommend this if a retelling of “My Fair Lady” with some twists sounds really exciting to you. show less

I enjoyed this a lot. In particular I absolutely loved the fact that the two leading characters were both good people. I’ve been reading a lot of morally-Grey flawed characters lately.

it was cute and I’m a total sucker for retellings so