The Last Man in the World by Abigail Reynolds

It had its fair share of faults, and I ignored every one of them. (Customer service, what?!) This was so much more angsty and tortured and maudlin than anything I would have expected or wanted for my D&L, and I loved every minute of it. I could not stop reading this, much to the detriment of everyone who had to work with/speak to/look at me the next day. But the thing was, I didn't give a damn. There were some things that, in another book, in another author's hands, would have really bothered me. I did feel like Darcy and Lizzie stepped further and further out of character as the book went on. Now, lest I seem fangirly, this is not an unreserved thumbs up. Last year, I read and reviewed What Would Darcy Do? which made me really very eager to read the other Reynolds book I had sitting on my shelves (ie this one) this one made me really very eager to get my hands on everything Reynolds has written: once might be a fluke, but twice is a pattern. But even when I don't- even when I think they've stepped a little too far out of character - I still eat it up.

Even the changes - even when I'm questioning a character and whether they actually would say or do a certain thing, I still find myself thinking, Well, maybe, given this particular 'what-if'. Mostly I think this is because Reynolds understands the characters so well. This is something I do as a reader - and as an insomniac, telling myself stories in my head at night - and I think it's probably what a lot of writers of fanfiction do - but Reynolds does it so well. She does one of my favorite things, which is to take a 'what if' moment and expand it, to follow the ripple and see what would happen, what would change and what stay the same. I think it should be standard practice that, when one finishes reading all of Jane Austen's works, someone presses a copy of an Abigail Reynolds book into their hands. If you like Jane Austen, romance, or butterflies-in-stomach, pick this up.* There are things I thought I wanted to say, warnings I wanted to give, but nope. In this installment of Abigail Reynolds's acclaimed Pride and Prejudice Variations, Elizabeth agrees to marry Darcy against her better judgment, setting off a chain of events that nearly brings disaster to them both. Fitzwilliam Darcy that she wouldn't marry him if he were the last man in the world.īut what if she never said the words? What if circumstances conspired to make her accept Darcy the first time he proposes? In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet tells the proud Mr. The last man in the world she could be prevailed upon to marry.is her husband?

The Last Man in the World by Abigail Reynolds