Miss Tilney finally gets the love story she deserves! I was so thrilled when I first learned that Heather Moll was coming out with a new Northanger Abbey story. Not only are Northanger Abbey fics altogether too rare, but I have long thought that Eleanor Tilney deserved to have her story told. Heather did a beautiful job in giving life to that titled gentleman mentioned so briefly in the original novel with her creation of Phillip Brampton. I thought that the calm, mathematically-gifted Phillip was a perfect fit for Eleanor’s gentle temperament, and a patient and forbearing hero.
Such torture as Eleanor and Phillip had to endure made my heart ache for them, and only the assurance of their happily ever after made the anguish endurable. General Tilney is a brute- far worse even than he was in the original novel. Many times I wanted to punch him! Through Eleanor’s eyes, we see the full extent of his abuse and cruelty to her, and I wonder how Eleanor’s mother was ever fooled into marrying him.
The story, as a whole, is clean. There are a couple of steamy scenes, but nothing explicit, and all of it tasteful. A discerning reader could choose to skip over those parts if they want.
I loved this story so much, and I heartily recommend it to all fans of Jane Austen variations and sequels.
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