Jane Austen Sighting - Shadows (A Lux Novella) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I had a novella sitting on my Kindle App and I finally got around to reading it, (from reviews it seems that I should have probably read book #1 in the series before reading book 0.5).  Anyway...it seems that most books set in high school seem to mention a class that is reading Pride and Prejudice. I didn't read it in high school, I would have liked to have found Jane earlier than college but *shrugs*

Here's what I found:

Class discussion centered on the themes in Pride and Prejudice. Love was the main topic. 

“What can you learn about love from Pride and Prejudice?” Mr. Patterson asked, sitting on the edge of the desk. “Lesa?” 

“Besides the fact courtships took forever back in the day?” Tossing thick curls off her shoulders, she shrugged. “I guess love is only possible if it’s not influenced by society.” 

“But Charlotte married for money,” Kimmy reasoned, as if that were something to be proud of.

“Yeah, but Mr. Collins was an idiot,” Lesa said.

“A rich idiot,” someone else said.

Lesa rolled her eyes. “But that’s not love—marrying someone for money.”

“All good points,” Mr. Patterson said, smiling. “Do you think Austen was being a realist or cynical in nature when it came to the theme of love?”

And then Daemon's deep, smooth voice said, "I think she was pointing out that sometimes making decisions based on the heart is stupid." 

Bethany closed her eyes.

"Or she is showing that making decisions based on anything else ends badly," Dawson replied, voice even. "That true love can conquer anything." (Shadows by Jennifer L. Armentrout)

So who do you agree with - Daemon or Dawson? Was Austen being a realist or was she being cynical?