First impressions: it was a rec from a trusted source, so fairly promising from the get go. It was cited as a well written AU with alternative pairings.
Conclusion: extremely readable, and very charming. Finished with ease.
Why you may wish to read it: the prose is excellent, the characters IC, the main divergence from canon small enough to be inoffensive despite the big consequences. It is a short and easy read.
Why you may not want to read it: you dislike alternative pairings, or like your stories long, or more slow denouements, or dislike AUs, or have a strong reaction against further changes after the first AU-setting change.
Sense & Sensibility, Regency, AU, G, at DWG.
I enjoyed this story exceedingly. The strongest aspects are, I think, the characterisation and the easy prose.
Marianne would not hear of the slightest possibility of guilt on his part. “How could anyone believe it of you, dear Willoughby?” and “Who would dare to tell such horrid lies?” were wondered aloud over and over by her, with only slight variations in wording and tone. All her blame was focussed upon the nameless villain who had brought this dark cloud over all of their heads.
I think the only problem it has is that it takes too much story and crams it into a short narrative. The first part, that is, the Willoughby/Marianne part, works despite this quite well (perhaps because it doesn’t require extra-canon support to be believable); the second part, which is Elinor/Brandon, does not. We are told almost every thing of their relationship except their first step into mutual affection, and though the telling is well done, it cannot do the work showing it would do.
I’ve also a small bone to pick with the unnecessary ‘Mrs Ferrars dies early on’ plot change, as it’s the second change done to the AU, and it would’ve made, perhaps, a more interesting story to keep her alive. I understand that it would also have made for a longer story, though.
As a short story, the lack of narrative tension in the second part (the one done mostly by telling) does not detract too much from the pleasure of reading it, and it definitively deserves some strong four quills on account of the writing and the excellent characterisation, which manages to keep and show the canonical good and bad sides of the characters’ personalities, without ever slipping into character bashing.
