The One Real Thing

The Hart's Boardwalk Series

By: Samantha Young

Narrated by: Tad Branson, Angelica Lee

Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

The New York Times best-selling author of On Dublin Street is back with the first in a sexy new romance series set in a small town on the Delaware coastline.

Welcome to Hartwell, a quiet seaside escape where uncovering old secrets could lead one woman to discover the meaning of a love that lasts....

While Doctor Jessica Huntington engages with the inmates at the women's correctional facility where she works, she's always careful to avoid emotional attachments in her personal life. Loss and betrayal taught her that lesson long ago. But when she comes across a set of old love letters in the prison's library and visits the picturesque town of Hartwell to deliver them to their intended recipient, she finds herself unable to resist the town's charm - and her attraction to the sexy owner of a local bar proves equally hard to deny.

Since his divorce from his unfaithful ex-wife, Cooper Lawson has focused on what really matters: his family and the boardwalk pub they've owned for generations. But the first time Jessica steps into his bar, Cooper is beyond tempted to risk his heart on her.

Yet as their attraction grows hotter and Jessica remains stubbornly closed off, he begins to realize it will take more than just passion to convince her there's only one real thing in life worth fighting for....

©2016 Samantha Young (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Young has done it again. Sexy chemistry and gut-wrenching emotions kept me turning the pages!” (Kristen Proby, New York Times best-selling author)

Hello Doctor.

Ahh, I do love diving into a new series. I was waiting for more books to be out so I could binge. ;)
I adore Samantha’s work and I was expecting Scottish but it wasn’t I was pleasantly surprised.
Doc Jessica was a great main character her past being sooooo secretive got to be a little much but I get it. I still enjoyed her and the way she comes across I love that she befriends two of the women in town one who is so friendly but the coffee/bookstore owner who is terrifyingly shy surprised me and I loved this about Jessica she knew how to interact with both women. This helps her grow a family of sorts. I dug it.

Cooper cracked me up, this dude is looking for no strings and you can’t blame the guy his ex is a bag of NUTS lol. I loved the back and forth you could see the attraction from both of them and when they finally give in. Explosive.

We have to talk about how Samantha brings all these characters together and how she makes us love all the secondary characters so much we want MORE. Vaugh, I can’t wait for his book I am chomping at the bit here.

I loved the narration Angelica Lee does a great freaking job….Yep, I knew it she narrated Hero by Samantha Young to one of my favorites. Tad is newish to me, I know who he is and I like the way he narrated Cooper maybe because I listened at a higher speed maybe I missed some of the emotion I expected from him? I will have to slow down his chapters in the future to see if it was me.

Breath taking journey,

The was a great story, I love Angelica she has such a great story telling skill. My first listen to her was HERO don't remember the Arthur but she can tell a story and tell it so well. I didn't expect the turmoil poor Jessica has lived with and tried to keep hidden. Samantha did really good on this journey.

Point of view is awkward

The narration is awkward for me because Jessica is narrated in first person but cooper is narrated in 3rd person. I have a hard time following it at times because of that

New Series, New TOV

Before you read this book, accept the fact that it is not the Dublin series.

It seems like Samantha Young has pulled in some similar themes but a new interesting set of characters. I'm definitely interested to see where she takes this series.

Worth the credit

It was good

I enjoyed this book! I especially enjoyed Angelica Lee's narration! Her masculine voice was better than Tad's 😳

Worth the listen

The first book I read by this author was “on Dublin street” and it’s one of my favorite books. So I wanted to see what her other books are like and I picked this one. I enjoyed it and I really loved all the characters. It wasn’t as amazing as “ on Dublin street” but it was definitely worth the read plus it is not a predictable story so that was nice too. Kept me listening and guessing until the end. I also enjoyed the narrator.

Good but not nearly as good as On Dublin Street

I liked the story but it's not nearly as good as the Dublin street series. Her Scottish characters sound so exotic and interesting and this one felt a bit boring. I actually increased the speed just to get it over with. Parts of the story just didn't feel real to me. Maybe it's the fact that the characters were older and professional and I felt as they should be on a different stage in their life as portrayed in this story.
The narrators were good and made the dual POV work. In summary this story is good but not great. Nevertheless I will get the next book on the series because Bailey and Tremaine sound like they will be better than this original couple.

Eh

I found Jessica's inner dialogue is a bit whiny (contributed to by the narrator). It reminded me a bit of a valley girl, which game me an underlying feeling of annoyance throughout the story. Great sex scenes, but the plot was a bit weak. Jessica is supposed to be a competent, independent woman, but Young writes her as a woman incapacitated by a man she barely knows. Personally, I found that a bit sexist and irritating. Also, Jessica's big secret isn't that shocking to believe (as a reader), which made me even more annoyed with her that she took unreasonable lengths to hide it 🙄. I read the Dublin Street series and enjoyed it MUCH better than this book. To each their own, though!

Great book 👍👍

I love Samantha Young’s writing really because it’s normally set in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and it makes me think of home. This one was a little different so it took me a little bit to embrace the change.

cute

really adorable story I found it a little cliche but that's what make it likeable. recommendation