Review by books4am -- One Way or Another

[books4am]

[Following is a volunteer review of "One Way or Another" by Mary J. Williams.]

---

4 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

The book One Way or Another by Mary J. Williams is a great contemporary romance novel. The story revolves around a young woman, Calder Benedict, her love interest Adam Stone and is basically the story of their meeting, dating and becoming a couple. Calder, comes from old family money, but she is not resting on her family laurels, instead, she is making her own way in the world as the head of successful multi-million dollar charity. She meets Adam right away in chapter one, and later we learn that Adam is from a working-class family, but has made his own successful career after a stint in the Navy. The story flows nicely and both its character consistency as well as character development are above average.

First, I’ll cover the elements I didn’t care for, but I want to note that these are minor points, not something that I’d hold against the book (as indicated by my 4 out of 4 rating). To start, I’d not call this story a friends to lovers romance, as that implies they’ve known each other and been friends for some amount of time. That is not the case for Calder & Adam, they don’t know each other at the start of the story. Next, the story starts with an 8-page prologue, that gives us some background information on the Benedict sisters, their mother, and differing fathers as well as a brief glimpse of life growing up for them. It’s a bit hard to follow and really drags the beginning of the book down. A simple solution is to just jump right into chapter one and come back to the prologue later, once you have a firm interest in the story. The last issue I have is that throughout the story, Calder is a drama free person, especially when faced with the drama of some of the other characters. At least until the very end, the night before the annual gala. Instead of just talking to Adam about it, she has a major meltdown and goes all drama queen about it. I can only guess that it’s because of the people who are involved, but again, Calder’s reaction goes against her personality from the rest of the story. Still, it’s a minor point, easily overlooked as the story moves on quickly from there.

Now into the elements that I did like, the book moves along at a fairly steady pace and is very well edited. I don’t remember seeing any typos or grammar errors, which usually stick out to me. Which means either there was none, or it was a really good read and I didn’t notice any typos as I was wrapped up in the story. The characters are well developed and other than the last point above, they are consistent. The story is refreshingly original and the author keeps things moving without leaving us feeling like we missed something. There are some nice twists and turns, some you don’t see coming, some you do. Overall, an outstanding and refreshing romance novel that I feel deserves 4 out of 4 stars. As an added bonus, the author gives us enough background and information about each of the sisters to make them interesting as well as to leave us guessing about each of their own stories. I look forward to reading each of their stories.

This book is intended for adult (18+) audiences, as there are sex scenes, though they are not heavy on the details. They add nicely to the story and allow the main characters to connect physically as well as mentally and emotionally throughout the story. If you enjoy contemporary romance novels that are more focused on the characters then you're sure to find this book enjoyable.

books4AM

******
One Way or Another
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

Like books4am's review? Post a comment saying so!