SORROW AND SECOND CHANCESE Bradshaw Book Headers

Sorrow & Second Chances

SYNOPSIS

Sorrow and Second Chances takes an alternative route to the story told in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, with a twist at its heart that changes the original events of Austen’s plot. In this adaptation, the Bennet family are afflicted with grief following a sudden death in their family, and as a consequence, the fate of the whole family is changed forever.

Fitzwilliam Darcy, who has been filled with regret and deep remorse ever since his last encounter with Elizabeth Bennet, realises that – in this time of great sorrow – he might just have a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of the woman he loves.

Told predominantly from the viewpoint of Mr Darcy, who has been left broken-hearted by Elizabeth Bennet’s rejection, this Pride and Prejudice variation tells the story of what happened next between these two much-loved characters.

‘He could easily see that he had astonished her, and he knew very well that he was skirting well over the line of acceptable conduct with his close proximity and with his use of her Christian name – but he felt that they had travelled well beyond the realms of proper conduct a long time ago.

Somewhere between their heated argument at the Hunsford Parsonage and their private conversation in the dark of her bedroom, they had crossed an invisible line.

They could never return to holding polite, stilted conversations about music or politics, or the state of the weather, when they had already bared so much of their inner souls to one another.

Let other people conduct their courtships in such a way, he thought determinedly to himself, but he could remain silent no longer.

If he had felt less for her then he might have been able to restrain his candour, but he knew he was well beyond that now.’

Reviews

A beautiful friendship

I always a well-written Elizabeth and Darcy love story, and this is one. Well written and true to the Austen characters but with the twist of the loss of their mother. A responsible, kind and caring Darcy emerges. But what is surprisingly beautiful and unique to this story is the deep and important friendship between Darcy and Mr. Bennet. It makes you love both characters all the more. It's lovely and well worth reading and relatively angst free with regard to Our Dear Couple, which I love. The angst comes from the outside.

- Verified - Customer

The elevation was in "the allowance of anger" for grief - well done fact few admit

4.5 rounded up. Beware for Spoilers! I can, honestly, see why other people have noted this book as less pleasurable or with the need for consistent paragraph indents, it was distracting to have para's started with the look like they ran into the one above, and it yanked me from the story often, but ignoring that with the presuming that every next line full left would be a new speaker, I was able to just READ a story. In it's uniqueness, it was artfully done. What made it more a 4 for me than a 5 was the constant repetition of what was past and over, like through every chapter it was brought up, sometimes more than thrice, but what elevated it to a 5 was a very awesome truth about grief, the allowance of anger in it, the fact that a man is pissed off when he realized he had not taken his wife's pains seriously, that behind it was a myriad of truths and false placations and insincerities are at their cruelest when one's own emotions are raw and on display. Again, what made it nearly a 3 was the wasted time on Wickham after the engagement when we were all happy he was gone, rather trite, and the wrong name for Mrs. Bennet. What elevated it to a five for me was the fact that Mr. Bennet was allowed his sardonic wit which was well written. A solid 3 for the way Georgiana was sprinkled but did not matter for she would have been intimately involved in some scenes and was not mentioned, the lack of but three scenes of 10 pages total for Mary, Kitty was mentioned but had 3 lines...maybe? But, again, the word variation applies well as it was not a wholly twist of a tale from canon, it just picked up after Kent and everyone was exactly who you expected them to be. Again, Mr. Bennet's wit and expressiveness and drinking one night too late with Darcy as he battled his grief when it was at it's most intense was very, very well done! So there is the whole evening out for 4.5! Worth your try if you can read past the weird paragraph indenting uses/lack thereof.

- K. Pease

Lighthearted story with a nice friendship between Mr Darcy and Mr. Bennet

I really enjoyed this book. It's told from Mr. Darcy's perspective which is refreshing. The best part is the friendship between Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bennet. It's definitely slow burn kind of book but gives a satisfying and detailed ending.

- Lucilu

A happy turn of events

The author did a good job describing the pain that goes with heartbreak especially when one realizes they were mostly at fault as Mr. Darcy did. Also is describing the deep feelings he has for Elizabeth that makes him change his perspective. Another thing I enjoyed was his relationship with Mr. Bennett and how Darcy comes to his aide and advises and comforts him. The author gives details of relationships after the girls marry and what their lives are like and how they reached out to affect the people around them. No stress in reading this version as Mr.Darcy comes to the rescue and protects the people he loves and proves to be the hero as it should be!

- Amy Leigh Bond

Good love story

I loved Darcy and Elizabeth in this story. They were not so much fighting as in other variations in this nook the discord had already happened and the love story was about them taking that second chance at love!! I loved Mr Bennet in this story also his wit was definitely on display!!!

- Gail Frisby