As with Dancing with Mr. Darcy I picked up a copy of this novel when Border’s Books closed down in September of 2011 and as such counts as a bonus book for my 2013 Mount TBR Reading challenge. And I have to say I’m glad I picked up a copy. Of all the Austen fan-fiction novels I’ve read so far Odiwe’s book has had the closest language and wit to the originals. It wasn’t as good as the originals, as I don’t think anything can be, but it was definitely the closest in style which was very nice.
Willoughby’s Return takes place roughly five years after the end of Sense and Sensibility and even though Sense and Sensibility isn’t one of my favorite Austen’s that didn’t stop this from being one of the better written and thought out sequels. All our favorite characters from Elinor and Marianne, Colonel Brandon, Edward Ferrars and the idiotic Steele sisters. Many other minor characters make appearances too which was nice.
I’m not sure about the rest of you, but in High School, one of my APÂ literature courses required that we learn a portion of the prologue in Middle English. Now rather than delight you all with a ridiculous video of me reciting it (I can still do the first 10-15 lines or so from memory), you’ll just have to use your imagination.
This book, a collection of short stories, disappointed me. There were definitely a few gems, but overall it left me uninspired and left wanting. Part of this disappointment stems from my the often tenuous connection to Austen in many of the stories. I mean one story’s inspiration came from the horseshoe door hinge at Chawton house, which yes connects to Austen but in such a minuscule way I could even figure out the connection until I read the ‘authors inspiration’ blurb.
So I finally finished it. It took almost an entire month, but I did it. It actually wasn’t a bad read, but it was such a long read that it was painful at times. Thankfully it counts for my 
WordPress decided to move this post to the trash bin and I, assuming it was duplicate draft, permanently deleted it. The first three paragraphs are verbatim as I was able to recover them via caching, however after that is a poor substitute of what I spoke about previously.