A solid low-spice Regency with a faith-based backing, Pride and Practicality examines the pressure of societal prejudice, the weight of the past, and the hope that goodness will find and protect us. It has a few bumps along the way, but overall it’s an intelligent and beautiful experience.

Rector Thomas Bridges is not one for stuffy ballrooms; his heart is more concerned with lofty matters. But his mother wants him to settle down and get married already, and his parishioners expect him to do the same, so he endures the matchmaking of both parties. When he bumps into and then kisses a lovely but mysterious woman at a ball, his whole life changes.

Eight months pass by before he sees Arianna Reeves again. By this time, she has been branded a fallen woman thanks to being absconded, assaulted, and then abandoned by a young curate. She is understandably embittered against men of the cloth, so Thomas already has a strike against him.

No one knows that she’s a rich heiress thanks to a bequest from a late benefactress. Shunned by the town of St. Greaves, she lives on the outskirts of the social whirl, trying to get back into the good graces of her remaining living family. When her brother Simon miraculously finds someone willing to overlook the family scandal and accept his hand in marriage, she despairs of ever being treated as more than a pariah and an ornament.

Thomas is determined to feed, clothe and educate the working poor of St. Greaves: he wants to build a boarding school for the orphaned children, in particular, so they can escape the horrors of poverty. Thomas needs a benefactor to do this, and Arianna agrees to anonymously fund the project so he and the church won’t be embroiled in her checkered past. But someone who knows Arianna’s scandal intimately decides to make trouble, forcing Thomas to choose between surface respectability and true Christianity.

Pride and Practicality has a number of wonderful things going for it. Arianna has suffered much and must learn that martyring herself for her sins over and over again doesn’t dig a path forward. Thomas is genuinely brave and self-sacrificing and believes in charity and good works, but draws the line when it comes to other people forcing his happiness to bend to their will.

And in the middle they meet in a reluctant, hopeful romance. Neither of them are entirely sure it could ever work out due to Arianna’s scandal and Thomas’ profession, but they are devoted nonetheless to the principles of forgiveness and seeing the good in each other as they care for the children who need them the most. There are some lovely scenes that spring up from those moments, and beyond the children there are Arianna’s lovely sisters and stalwart brother, plus Thomas’ busybody mother to love. The book does a great job using its character’s faith to differentiate between acting out of misguided belief in ones’ religion and actually acting out the true principles of their beliefs.

The ending was disappointing because in the last quarter, and I’m being vague deliberately, Arianna chooses again to run away from her problems instead of facing them. I was surprised by her choices, especially after so much development in her strength and her character, and felt they undermined the happy ending.

Overall this is a lovely Christian historical romance that appealed to me deeply.

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This guest review comes from Lisa! A longtime romance aficionado and frequent commenter to SBTB, Lisa is a queer Latine critic with a sharp tongue and lots of opinions. She frequently reviewed at All About Romance and Women Write About Comics, where she’s on staff, and you can catch her at @‌thatbouviergirl on Twitter. There, she shares good reviews, bracing industry opinions and thoughtful commentary when she’s not on her grind looking for the next good freelance job.