keira anne with an e

In this Jane Austen classic, we follow the Dashwood sisters (Marianne and Elinor) as they search for love and belonging.

Elinor is practical and sensible– she focuses on the facts of her situation and strives to make a good life for her and her family through logical steps.

Marianne is emotional and impulsive– incapable of containing what she feels, but wildly excited at the possibilities of life and romance.

This is a favorite of mine– a truly fantastic story of sisterhood and love in the Regency era.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5 stars)

This book deserves every compliment. I think it is wonderful, and simply thinking about the characters and the journey they go on makes me sigh contentedly. This is truly a crowning achievement of this era of writing, and deserves the highest respect (in my humble opinion).

While Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is widely known and very popular, I feel like Sense and Sensibility deserves its own fair share of love, and so, today, I am so happy to be sharing about this book. I will try to keep this review (somewhat) brief, but if you get too bored, just skip to the emoji review at the end.

Firstly, let me start with the romance. Since we have two sisters as our main characters, we have two romances, and… yeah… just thinking about those couples makes me so happy. I don’t want to give specifics, because I don’t want to spoil how things turn out… but, really, I think it’s perfectly wonderful. Marianne and Elinor truly find their perfect matches, which is what always makes me so happy in a story.

Also, the family dynamics in this book feel complex and real. I love how we explain the family tree, and we see the different characters and their personalities. The side characters are all very well-written and I feel like a lot of them end up surprising you throughout the story. (I don’t like to choose favorites, but Mrs. Jennings is pretty fun!) It really adds that more modern element to the story to have so many characters that seem so real.

In many ways, this book feels more modern than a lot of other classics. It has the twists and turns of a romance plot, and the pacing keeps you guessing and wondering. A lot of secrets and figuring out who can be trusted, and, overall, I just think you should give it a try– even if you don’t usually like classics.

Also, may I say that if you’re having trouble keeping up with the plot, or you’re getting confused with the characters and what’s going on, you might want to first watch the 1995 movie adaptation with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, which I feel is a fairly faithful film portrayal of this story, and might provide some context. Although I wouldn’t always recommend that with classics, for certain stories, I think it’s a viable option.

As one more note to add, I most recently listened to the audiobook for this version, which was narrated by Rosamund Pike, and it was excellent. She has a very fine voice for narrating, and it provided a very pleasant listen. I think that’s available through Audible, if you’re interested in looking that up.

For content, I would say that this book was best suited for older teens to adults, because there are talks of scandals and affairs/pregnancies out of wedlock, which can be very triggering (one of the characters involved is underage, though we never meet her, and all mentions of it are kept very discreet).

Alright, well, I’m kind of rambling like I said I wouldn’t, so I’ll try to shorten things a little. This is a great book. I love it so much, and I love the movie as well, so that counts as a bonus recommendation. I think that I’ve said just about all I can say without spoiling some of the goodness of this story, so, instead, I will just tell you that this is one of my all-time favorite books.

EMOJI REVIEW:

• 💖 sweet love confessions
• 👭 sister main characters
• 🏡 all the cottagecore feels
• 👒 running through fields
• 🕰️ regency era
• 📖 classic!!!

Okay, with that little emoji review, I will close out this post. I would love to hear if you’ve read this book, and what you thought of it. Have you seen the movie? What’s your favorite Jane Austen story? I can’t wait to chat about this great book in the comments.

Goodbye for now, dear friends!