Only Rivals

Only You, Book 1

By: Charity Ferrell

Narrated by: Connor Crais, Samantha Cook

The first boy I ever hated was Jax Bridges. The first man I loved was his best friend.

My plan was to meet a boy, fall in love, and live happily ever after. That ended when my boyfriend died and left me half of his business. Now, his best friend and I are business partners. There’s just one problem: We hate each other.

Jax and I have been rivals since childhood. He wants me out of the business, but it’s all I have left. The more time we spend together, the more we question if we were ever rivals at all.

Will my last love be his best friend? Or will we destroy each other?

©2022 Charity Ferrell (P)2025 Charity Ferrell LLC

kept me on my toes

I really liked how this story played out! Definitely a good listen. Excited to here more from this author!

Don't let the title fool you

Narrated by Connor Crais & Samantha Cook
⭐ 4.5/5
🌶️ Spice: 2.5/5

Content warning: This book deals with suicide, the death of a loved one, grief, and survivor’s guilt. You know going in that a character has died, but these are significant themes throughout the story.

Don't let the title Only Rivals fool you. I went into this expecting a fairly straightforward rivals-to-lovers romance, and this book has so much more emotional depth than the title suggests.

Jax and Amelia meet as kids and develop a wonderful friendship. As they grow older, that friendship starts becoming something more. But then Amelia meets Christopher, and Jax backs away.

Years later, Christopher's death changes everything.

Amelia inherits half of his brewery, something Jax doesn't understand and definitely isn't happy about. He's grieving, angry, and wrongly places the blame for Christopher's suicide on Amelia.

Meanwhile, Amelia is fighting an entirely different kind of sadness. She's carrying survivor's guilt and trying to figure out how to move forward when part of her is still trapped in everything that happened.

This really becomes a friends → enemies → lovers story, but the romance is only one piece of it.

It's about two people working through grief differently. It's about discovering hidden truths, forgiving, trying to live again, and finding a love that was always there but became buried beneath years of pain, guilt, anger, and loss.

I thought Charity Ferrell handled an incredibly difficult subject beautifully and with care. The heaviness is never there simply for shock value.

Audiobook

Connor Crais and Samantha Cook deliver an excellent performance. At this point, Connor Crais narrating means I already expect the performance to be above average, and this one certainly was.

⭐ 4.5/5
🌶️ 2.5/5

Childhood friends • friends to enemies to lovers • grief & healing • second-chance feelings • forced proximity through the brewery • hidden truths

I highly recommend this one, especially if the title has made you scroll past it thinking you already know what kind of romance you're getting.

You don't.

Only Rivals is ultimately less about being rivals and much more about what happens when two people who are still alive finally decide they want to start living again

Hate, Love and Guilt. The soul crushing heartbreak

Not many authors can bring me to tears. However, Charity Ferrell did just that, combine the great story with the amazing narration and I didn’t stop listening until it was finished!
When a life is gone too soon, and those that are left behind are crushed, it’s an internal struggle to heal. The emotions are in constant battle with in, resulting in more pain and guilt. This author draws you in to feel the pain, and heartbreak. It pulls out all of the feels, you’ll find yourself laughing, crying and sympathising with the characters.

I’m excited for the release of second book/audio.