One & Only

Bryeton Books

De: M.K. Chester

Narrado por: Hannah Kopen

A desperate woman meets a man on a mission.

Maggie Sturgus thought she knew the man she married. She couldn’t be more wrong. Trapped in an abusive marriage inside a prominent family, she sees no means of escape when her husband announces his candidacy for the US Senate.

Four friends enlisted after Pearl Harbor. The secret they brought home will rock their small town. Josh Parrish made a promise to protect the girl he’s always loved.

It’s high time he kept his word.

©2020 Martha K. Chester (P)2021 Martha K. Chester

Love, loss, deceit.

I received an Audible version of this book from Story Origin. This is my voluntary review.
This book has alot of characters. I found it hard to keep track of them without the written word. However, the two main characters were wonderful and I enjoyed their story very much. Abuse. Politics. Selfishness. Post war trauma. Bullying. Cheating. Lies. Secrets. Mystery. Childhood memories and friendships.
The narrator was a little flat. I could here her mouth sounds (swallowing, etc.) and found it distracting. She read at a good pace and was easy to understand.

Baskerville Book Reviews

I wanted to say this isn’t your typical romance novel. Most of the romance I read involves people with very little clothes on, so maybe it is. It wasn’t what I expected, nor what I’m used to.

It’s a slow burn. By slow burn, I mean if it was any slower, it would take another book or two for the plot to go anywhere. The character build up is nice, it was all very casual and I just went along for the ride. It took me a while to even realize it was historical fiction. I don’t read summaries and the various (minor) giveaways about a father marrying off his daughter seemed odd to me, but they were odd even for the time the story is set in, I’m sure.

I wish I had more to say about the story, to be honest. A whole lot of nothing happened. It was just an incredibly slow story set in post WW2 I can’t remember where. The reveals are nice, the romance is…. barely there at all. It’s just the kind of book you put on when you want to relax and enjoy a story without thinking too hard.

I can’t get behind the narration on this one. Initially, I was going to say at the very least the audio was clean and clear. Then the obnoxious background hissing began. The narrator reads every character in the same voice and often lacks any sort of emotion to suit the moment. On top of that, she always sounds like she’s in a hurry.

I listen at 2.55x speed and the natural pauses in dialogue still work. But when narrators don’t take the time to read the lines as if they were an actual conversation, it’s noticeable. They sound like they’re speed reading to get it over with.

Excellent Listen

This was a wonderful book. Very believable characters and some that you will love to hate. well written book. Loves the plots twists & turns.

Beautiful but too slow

Audiobook Review for One & Only by M.K. Chester

Slow burn — 50s household — military romance — domestic abuse — identical twins

The story is beautiful, but too slow and wordy for my liking.

I enjoyed the author’s voice more than the narrator’s voice. The production isn’t great either.

Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Characters: ❤️❤️❤️
Writing and editing: 🖋🖋 🖋
Flow: 👍🏼
Steam: 🌶

Hannah Kopen: 🎙🎙

I received this audiobook for free through StoryOrigin and this review is voluntary. My opinions are my own.

Loved it.

Loved it, will definitely have to check out the rest in the series.
Was immediately drawn into it as the voicing for it is great, and conveys the right emotions. The era felt like the research was done, and felt fitting.
The main woman character being someone you want to root for. How can she escape an inescapable situation? Josh returning home at the right time, but at the same time much too late.

One & Only

There is a lot packed into this wonderful historical story. The complicated relationships and secrets kept me engaged.

M.K. Chester has written a great story. I enjoyed how everything unfolded, and was satisfied with how everything turned out.

I had some issues with the audio quality. I think Hannah Kopen did a nice job with bringing the characters and story to life, but there were quite a few places where the background noises were noticeable.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and I have voluntarily left this review.

Lovely historical romance

Note: While part of a series, all the Bryeton Books are set in different eras. This time there is a familial connection with & mention of characters/events from Bootlegger’s Bride – though you could enjoy this without having read/listened to it.

I really enjoy MK Chester’s writing and the Bryeton series as a whole. I was so happy to see this addition and enjoyed it as much as I did the others. This is a great book when in the mood for a closed door romance with some mystery & suspense elements as well. Set in 1950 and a small town dominated by a financially and politically influential family it’s easy to see why Maggie is trapped and can’t find a way to escape. Joshua is burdened with personal missions, perceived failures, and mostly by the fact that everyone thinks he’s dead.

I enjoyed and was haunted by getting to know Josh & Maggie while loving the development of their relationship. There are a lot of secrets and surprises to be revealed and I won’t spoil them – but I did enjoy the way Chester handles it all.

While part of me wishes there was a tidy epilogue, I do enjoy getting to imagine where I feel like life would have taken them. I also can’t help but wonder whether Chester will revisit Bryeton in subsequent decades in future books. I would buy those in a heartbeat.

Narration:
While I missed the stronger southern accents of the previous books, I thought that Hannah Kopen’s voice was a good fit for Maggie’s timid and Josh’s secretive nature. She also brought forth the personalities of the nastier characters that emphasized Chester’s writing. I’m looking forward to Kopen narrating more audiobooks.

Note: There are several places where it seems the recording is picking up background noises that sound like bumping the mic, lip licking, papers moving, etc. It wasn’t insurmountable to listen to but did pull me out of the experience a few times.

While I originally purchased the ebook, I did receive a free copy of this audiobook from Story Origin.

Wonderfully passionate.

As previous books in the Bryeton series. This story was very well written. The main characters were fully galvanized to do the right thing. To show the truth about the past. It would be so easy simply to go and leave everything behind, but they stayed and fought, and won.
The narrator did a splendid job of making this story live, full of emotions and passion.
Unfortunately, the audio quality was terrible. Almost for the whole book, you can hear background sounds - ice in a glass, mouse clicks, deep breathing, uncut portions (double words and phrases), etc.
I was very surprised about this. Other books were the normal sound quality. What happened?
I was given this review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.