Yearning: a Pride and Prejudice variation

by Valerie Lennox

After the accident, the surgeon tells Miss Elizabeth Bennet that her intended will not be marrying anyone. “Essentially unmanned” is what the surgeon says.

When Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy swims out of a laudanum haze to take stock of his shattered pelvis and his lack of an arm or leg and all the other things the horse trampled and destroyed, he can only contemplate what the honorable thing to do might be. He knows he has nothing to offer a woman anymore, and he refuses to trap the beautiful and headstrong Elizabeth in a marriage that can never be anything but a sham.

So, he will sever the connection between them by any means necessary. For her own good. Because he loves her. Because he thinks only of her.

Then, separated by distance and time and her marriage to another man, all that is between them is yearning.

Weaving through the years, this is a story of longing, regret, and eventual surrender.

Dear reader, I present to you an angsty tale that ends in happily ever after. Mr. Darcy suffers a The-Sun-Also-Rises-type injury that nonetheless does not mean there is not steam, because they do figure out a way. Eventually. This is a lit fuse of a story, burning its way through time.

227 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 30, 2026

Reviews

[Ree · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Love that Couldn’t Let Go

It’s really difficult to come up with the right words to express how much this book got to me.

Now engaged to Elizabeth, Darcy is severely injured when trampled by his horse. His injuries are so extensive that he is convinced that loving Elizabeth means he must let her go to live her best life and find happiness without him. And so, Darcy and Elizabeth go their separate ways. Life moves on, circumstances change, and still they yearn for one another, paths crossing.

There is such sadness in this story. I was teary-eyed through the whole of it. There is sacrifice, longing, regret, and a love that survives despite everything that separates them.

I do not know what else to say except that this one got to me. It really, really did. Of those I have read, this is one of Lennox’s best.

For mature readers.



Note: None of my reviews are generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI).

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is an exercise in gratification denial. I was quite unprepared for the physical alteration of Darcy portrayed. After all in this time period, society assumes that men are supposed to be strong and “whole” while women are to please their partner and want a family. I was pulled into the struggle that both Darcy and Elizabeth had around so many aspects of their tentative relationship. It really makes one examine what is important and what you might be willing to accept for happiness. With more sensitive material presented as well as creative suggestions finding an acceptable situation, it was a bit uncomfortable although interesting to see what eventually happened. This is definitely a deviation from the strong alpha Darcy and the virtuous yet headstrong Elizabeth I am most familiar with. In the end, it was very satisfying to see how the HEA finally played out for this reimagined Darcy and Lizzy.
I read an ARC and voluntarily am sharing my review

[Linda Franklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quite clinical masterpiece

Delving into way more clinical detail about male and female arousal, excitement, and orgasm than undoubtedly Ms Austen would have countenanced, this variation is ultimately oh-so-fulfilling. And the years of bodily mutilation and rehabilitation, complete with understanding and misunderstanding and marriage and widowhood, all lead to a life for ODC unlike the envisioned one when they were first betrothed but all the more satisfying as they eventually surmount their obstacles.