To begin with a perhaps quintessentially Jane Austen question: Which of these two do you prefer?
Sample A: "There could have never been two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved. Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement."
Sample B: "A heartbeat ago, there were no two people more in rhythm than Wentworth and I. Now we're strangers. Worse than strangers — we're exes."