The Truest Thing

Hart’s Boardwalk Series, Book 4

By: Samantha Young

Narrated by: Amy Melissa Bentley, Alex Kydd

Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Nine years ago, Emery Saunders moved to Hartwell to start her life over as a bookstore owner. Her inability to trust people made it hard for her to find a place in the small community - until Jessica Lawson moved to town and befriended the shy beauty. But there was one person in Hartwell who tried to befriend Emery long before Jessica arrived....

Jack Devlin has his secrets. One of them is that he fell hard for Emery the moment she appeared in Hartwell. Another is that his father blackmailed him into covering up a dark family tragedy. It forced Jack to sever his relationships to protect the people he cared about. Yet, staying away from Emery has not been easy throughout the years, and he hasn't always succeeded. When Jack's mixed signals hurt Emery once again, she puts him out of her heart for good.

Until the Devlin family secret is finally revealed, freeing Jack from his father's machinations. What Jack wants more than anything is to repair his relationships, starting with Emery. However, Emery isn't ready to forgive, and Jack's not ready to give up. And when the town's latest scandal ties Jack and Emery together, Jack is not above using their new reality to prove to Emery once and for all that their love is worthy of the legend of Hart's Boardwalk.

©2020 Samantha Young (P)2021 Tantor

Absolutely perfect!

I am a huge fan of Hart's Boardwalk, and this one did not disappoint!! Great read!!

Not as good as the others

Too much catch up and not enough story and character development in my opinion. The male narrator was not my favorite.

Supberb!!!!!

Samantha has outdone herself! The book was incredible!!!!! I couldn’t put it down. It was absolutely amazing! And having a male and female narrator made it even more realistic!!!!

Slight let down

Would have given this book a 5 star rating, but the narration was disappointing. The other books in the series were narrated by Angelica Lee who is the best! These narrators were boring and the male voice was worse then the female’s. Still worth a read, because Samantha Young is such a great storyteller!

Samantha is my favorite author.

I loved this book. I enjoyed the history that brought new readers up to speed with the boardwalk characters. I loved the drama and the narration was very good. The one thing that I did not like however was the telling of Jack in 3rd person. It was really weird for the audio version and I couldn't understand why it was not told in 1st person the way Emory's character was. It was very distracting to have the reader say Jack did this or Jack felt this way when he was talking about himself. It is my hope that this will be adjusted in the next book in the series. Other than that, I loved it.

Very VERY Slow Start

Only after chapter 15 did we really get into the story. There was way too much catching up from the other books. I was happy to see that Jack and Emery finally got things worked out. But a very slow start.

Good book

The narrators seem to talk a bit robotic sounding at times, especially in beginning

Unrealistic and Boring

The heroine is celibate for 9 years, while she watches as the hero she is pining for, has multiple short term relationships during this same time, but she doesn’t say anything. She is written as too naive to be believable. And that makes for a very boring storyline.

This was hard to finish

I absolutely love the Harts Boardwalk series. The character development was strong in every book, but this one fell short. It was hard to finish, and i almost didn't. I waited YEARS for Jack and Emery's story only for it to be a long drawn out story that was more than predictable. I did appreciate that the author tied up some loose ends, but I wanted more from these two characters. This book was a disappointment.