Only One Choice

A Pride and Prejudice Variation (The Gentleman Mr Darcy)

De: Julie Cooper

Narrado por: Elizabeth Grace

For the sake of a most beloved sister, and for their father’s dying wish, Elizabeth would make herself submit...

When her dying father demands one daughter marry the heir to Longbourn and the other wed a wealthy elderly widower, Elizabeth makes the hardest choice of her life. She becomes the wife of sixty-year-old Mr. Ashwood—a marriage in name only that leaves her more a daughter than a bride.

Four years later, Elizabeth is a widow at twenty, impoverished and estranged from the sister she once adored. Living in a crumbling dower cottage, surviving on pride and stubbornness alone, she has only one dream left: to save enough money to escape to Venice and forge a life that is finally, truly her own.

Then she meets Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy. Wealthy, brooding, and bound by secrets as heavy as her own, Mr Darcy awakens feelings Elizabeth never knew she could possess. For the first time in her life, she experiences the intoxicating promise of real love but how can she risk her hard-won independence when every moment with him puts her fragile future in jeopardy?

But Darcy too carries the weight of a promise made to a dying father—one that forbids him from pursuing any woman until he's ready to marry, lest he wound his fragile cousin Anne, who believes herself destined to be his bride. As Anne de Bourgh's obsession spirals into something far more sinister, the lovers must face a threat that could destroy not only their future together—but Elizabeth herself. As Elizabeth and Darcy fight against the forces determined to keep them apart—meddling family, financial ruin, and a dangerous obsession that threatens everything—they must decide: Will they surrender to duty and expectation once more, or risk everything for the love neither dared believe possible?

©2025 Julie Cooper (P)2026 Quills & Quartos Publishing

Loved it, loved it, loved it

Love the narration gotta say she’s my favorite narrator. Love the whole entire storyline had me going from day one live anything by this author.

Jane is not as bad as the description suggests

This one was better than expected and relatively low angst for ODC.
I loved that it is mostly about Elizabeth and Darcy's romance.
I hesitated on this one since Elizabeth was previously married, but I was pleasantly surprised with the overall story. The widow part didn't play too much into Darcy's decision.

There is a new character that replace Ms. Bingley as the overall mean girl.
Ms. Bingley ends up nicer than expected in the end.

When I read the description, I thought Jane was going to be super mean to Elizabeth, but there was more to the story there and she redeemed herself. I've read a bunch of these variations so I'm tired of the high angst ones where ODC have too many misunderstandings that could have been easily fixed if they just talked or looked deeper. This was not that. It was Elizabeth and Darcy growing in love regardless of the trouble around them. Also Darcy stands up for Elizabeth well in this one.

The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because I don't love that Elizabeth was married before even if she didn't love her previous husband. So it is more just my preference than something about the book.

story that keeps you guessing

I adore this book and the narration. I Elizabeth Grace does anamazing job on this book, I like her work with varying degrees of enthusiasm, but this one she nailed!!

The story itself is quite unique and unlike any i've listend to before. I won't go thru the details as you can read them in the description. What I will say is that the author did an amazing job at the flow of the storytelling, the dialogue was also very well written and interesting. It is a pet peeve when I read osme of these books and the dialogue makes no sense - except for the fact that we all have an idea of the underlying story, so the lazy authors rely on that. Not here. This book could be read alone with no prior knowledge of P&P and stil be very enjoyable. The author really dove deep into character development on this book and it showed in the conversations between characters. The sory took quite a few unexpected turns also, it was really an enjoyable listen.

Highly recommend!

Perfect Sunday Treat!

The story was lovely! A harrowing tale of Elizabeth navigating society struggles and traumas while slowly falling in love with Darcy. Julie Cooper has done it again! The narrator's performance however, made the story that much better! It was perfect Sunday spent listening to this one.

Unique spin, frequent rewinds

I liked the story and always enjoy Julie Cooper’s variations on the classic. I also enjoy this narrator, but find that I frequently must rewind and increase volume to understand parts spoken lower as in a whisper or intended as inner monologue because they register significantly quieter than the regular dialog.