Love it! Wish there were more BoTP fics like yours!

This was wonderful, in a stark and gritty kind of way. Being rejected or mistreated by your own mother is probably one of the worst things to befall anyone, and that sequence in the woods was genuinely painful. You've got a talent for writing. As for downsides, I can't think of any, apart for some very personal prejudice things (such as, Alina *was* being a spoilt bimbo unable to provide for herself, and her mother *was* right to make her realise her duties, albeit too harsh in the execution... and thinking like that makes me kind of sick, because my problems are of the totally opposite kind) but I salute you anyway. This story will stick in my mind.