A marriage they didn’t choose. A child conceived in a lie. Can they overcome their broken dreams and find happiness in a life forced upon them?At her age, Ruby Jeffries knows better than to dream of love, but then, Lucas Ashbrook sweeps into her life with whispered declarations of love and fervent kisses. He’s everything she’s hoped for, and Ruby would risk far more than the scandal of an … scandal of an elopement to be with him. But when she discovers Lucas faked the wedding to win a bet, Ruby is left with more than a broken heart.
Conrad Ashbrook spends his life mending that which his elder brother breaks, and when Lucas abandons the young lady bearing his child, Conrad has no choice but to shoulder that responsibility as well. Marrying a lady he doesn’t love and raising his brother’s child wasn’t what Conrad wanted for his future.
Can a marriage starting with such pain ever bring them happiness?
The Victorian Love Series is a spin-off series of the Regency Love Series, all of which are interconnecting but standalone sweet historical romances. They can be read in any order, and the series is numbered according to publication date. The chronological order is:
Flame and Ember (1811)
The Jack of All Trades (1812)
A True Gentleman (1817)
The Shameless Flirt (1819)
Honor & Redemption (1826
A Tender Soul (1826)
A Passing Fancy (1839)
Hearts Entwined (1844)
A Stolen Kiss (1848)
The Honorable Choice (1853)
more
At her age, Ruby Jeffries knows better than to dream of love. Lucas Ashbrook sweeps into her life with whispered declarations of love and fervent kisses. He is everything she hoped for. Ruby would risk far more than the scandal of an elopement to be with him. She discovers Lucas faked the wedding to win a bet. He leaves Ruby with more than a broken heart. Conrad Ashbrook spends his life mending that which his elder brother breaks. When Lucas abandons Ruby bearing his child, Conrad shoulders that responsibility. Marrying a lady he does not love and raisin the brother’s child was not what Conrad wanted for his future. – Mary is dowdy and quiet. Her father has taught her that females should not speak their minds and do what their fathers or husbands advise. Conrad is kind and honorable. His parents are loving, accepting, and opposites of the Jeffries. It is difficult for Ruby and Conrad to understand each other. Mrs. Ashbrook is instrumental in helping that. She and Mr. Ashbrook have a good marriage, and that is a good example for Ruby and Conrad. This is an interesting novel. It is entertaining to read about the different families and the manner in which they handle difficult situations. This is very true to life.
The blurb intrigued me, and the book did not disappoint. I’ve not ready anything by this author, but will certainly consider reading others. The characters, especially Lucas and Ruby, were complex and interesting, although I had trouble relating to Ruby’s reticence, but that’s on me because of my personality, not the author. Lucas has to walk a fine line between doing the right thing and standing up for himself. He is an upright man, full of integrity, and I liked him immediately. Description and dialog helped immerse me in the time period. Their journey to a HEA has lots of bumps, and I enjoyed watching them navigate the road. One of the “villains” has an almost immediate change of heart near the end of the which felt a little forced and seemed to come out of the blue. All in all a great story and well worth reading.
A lovely romance.
Well written plot with descriptive, haunting and realistic characters. I haven’t read a book this well written in years!
The Honorable Choice by M.A. Nichols – I really like this family! The Ashbrook’s find themselves once more in a bit of scandal. Lucas gets a lady pregnant, but it is his younger brother Conrad who steps in to marry Ruby. With misunderstandings at every turn, they are going to need their loved ones kindhearted meddling at every step to make their ever after happy! Very sweet! Happy Reading!
M A Nichols is a favorite of mine as she writes about situations that are real and the characters are genuine. Not always beautiful or dynamic but someone you might know.
Emotions build and flow with the story. I am never disappointed when I read this author. Clean and entertaining.
To Love is a Choice
It is very hard for me to describe how much I was moved by The Honorable Choice. This character-driven, standalone novel by M.A. Nichols is all about dishonor versus honor and truth versus lies. It is also about making the choice to be vulnerable and love someone deeply and completely. I absolutely loved it.
Ruby Jefferies is unremarkable, ignored and unloved. Then she meets Lucas. She believes all her dreams have come true…until her world falls apart.
Conrad Ashbrook has devoted himself to the family business. He is honest and honorable, and he has just lately been considering finding a bride….until his world falls apart.
A cad hurts not only his victim, but also every person who cares about him. A cad will use others for his own purposes, then walk away from the chaos without conscience.
Such is the case with Lucas Ashbrook. The fall out from his deception is what The Honorable Choice is all about.
I loved Ruby and Conrad’s emotional story. It felt so real, that I sometimes had trouble reading it, but I also could not put it down. Ms. Nichols is a very good writer both in her descriptions as well as in her character development. Even the supporting players are well placed and realistic.
This is one of those novels I will remember.
Content 411: This engrossing book does not contain any swearing or sex.
It took me a bit to open this book after the last one in the series because I thought there’d be some hard times in the story. I’m so glad I finally did. This was a deeply moving story. I felt strongly the range of emotions of the h & her journey. I was able to emphatize with her. I thought the path the romance took was a good one. I loved the H. He was a wonderful advocate for her. The story the journey took was fantastically done. The brother was an excellent villian. He was loathsome. I wonder if M.A. Nichols will give him his own redemption story. I’m on the fence if I’d like to see one. It’d be nice to read about him hitting rock bottom, ha! Great dialogue, descriptive scenes. I enjoyed every bit about this book.
This is a cautionary tale of what can happen when life throws hard things at you. It is how you respond, the inner character of you stands strong or not.
Conrad and Ruby are very interesting characters who are placed in a awful situation by a selfish and lost character Lucas.
Ruby struggles to see the world through her life experience but has a kind and rich heart.
Conrad struggles with his brother and seeing the world fall into his brother’s lap dispute Conrad’s kindness and hard work.
Together they work past the challenges life gives them and find a love and united front.
When they do something difficult and wonderful happens.
The Honorable Choice is a sweet, Victorian romance which begins with a young woman’s heartbreak and a young man’s choice to save her reputation and his family’s honor. The choice was easy enough for him to make; living with it was much more challenging. This book takes a good look at what really is true love and shows that love is not just a feeling, it’s a choice, an action, a commitment. And, choosing love can lead to feeling it. The characters are well-developed, and I enjoyed watching their story unfold.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
A family drama.
This was a good story from start to finish. Ruby parents I did not think much of but Conrad’s were a blessing. I felt so bad for them to have to turn your back on your own son because of his actions must have been so hard. I was a bit sad to see who the villain of the piece was and also see that the character never figured out he was the one in the wrong not everyone else. The end of the book was good from the interaction between brothers to the event of importance for Ruby and Conrad. It is well-written and I highly recommend it. I did receive a free copy of this book and voluntarily chose to review it.
Just in time for Thanksgiving. MA Nichols writes the worst evil characters and they are usually the ones that you might find around your kitchen table. Not stock evil characters like the mustache twirlers (usually of Mediterranean descent) in HP-Land, but true to life, psychologically damaging characters that exist today: judgmental and manipulative mothers, uncaring fathers, young men in search of notches on their bed, and general callousness and entitlement. The dominating evil character here is the seducer of the heroine, brother to the H. Secondary, but still damaging characters are the well meaning but over-indulgent parents of the H and the EVIL OM.
As the plot develops, the 30 year old heroine succumbs to the evil but charming cad in what she thinks is a marriage. Poor little idiot. Three months later as she waits for him to make good, she’s pregnant. A family confrontation with his family reveals he made a “gentleman’s bet” to seduce her and could care less that she’s pregnant. His parents care as does his brother and we have a MOC between the good son as the OM disappears to the Americas.
In terms of romance it’s barely two stars. S-l-O-W romance as in almost nonexistent, but it was still compelling for me as I had a feeling that bad seed would come back as insolent and unrepentant as ever. The H and h slowly come together as they get to know each other and his family supports them. It comes to an ugly climax when the evil OM comes back. As always, he’s repentant and full of crocodile tears.
The interest for me was in the characters themselves. The heroine is completely abandoned by her own family because basically she was too dumb, gullible, slutty, whatever (their words not mine) to fall for the the fake Vicar and the seduction, but she warms up in the H’s household and around his parents. The parents were the couple in The Shameless Flirt which had its own bad mother.
Call me gobsmacked when the evil one comes back and is welcomed back by his gullible parents. The H and h aren’t on board with this program especially since the H has been doing all the work at their mill. There’s a confrontation where the H lays it out to his parents what they are doing, and I cussed at my computer a lot.
I really, really wanted the heroine to pick up a horse crop or a fire iron and lay into the creep, but Nichols keeps it more or less historically accurate, darn it, and the heroine takes the high road. I hate that. The high road only works when the evil-doer is repentant, and this jackass is horrible to the bitter end.
A sad beginning with some hardships in between, but a lovely ending. Lucas was a really bad guy.
I wasn’t a fan of this book. The heroine lacked confidence and every time the author brought that up, I cringed. It was hard to believe a brother would marry a woman his brother impregnated and then embrace the baby as his own so fully without any issues. There was also absolutely no chemistry between the main characters which probably explains why this book was clean (no sex and maybe a handful of kisses).
Boring
The plot drug on and on and on, with endless self-examinations on the part of the h and H. Just couldn’t get into it.
I loved this book. It is not often that characters are so well portrayed and true to their natures. While the outcome was predictable, the journey to get there was a gradual evolution that was believable.
I found it to be a sweet, tender romance with a few twists and not totally predictable. Enjoyed it thoroughly.
I cried through this whole book. The way they all were in the beginning was so heartbreaking. I am glad for the happy ending, but boy was it hard won.
This one didn’t grab me like some of the previous stories did. I felt like one moment he didn’t like her and then the next moment he was in love her. It just happened very quickly to be believable.
I also felt weighed down by the over-expressed emotions. I appreciate being able to understand a character’s feelings, but it felt a little excessive and sometimes repetitive.
However I loved being able to read more of Ambrose and Mary’s relationship.