The One I Stood Beside by Piper Rayne
(Plain Daisy Ranch #2)
Release: July 2, 2024
It’s the classic story—best friends since childhood agree to a fake marriage, thinking they can pretend to love each other without their relationship changing.
Jude would do anything for me. He’s stood by my side since we were six, and I’ve done the same for him.
When my father dies, leaving our family farm drowning in debt and on the brink of being auctioned, I’m not surprised Jude steps in to help. I just never dreamed he’d fall to bended knee and devise a plan for us to fool everyone into thinking there’s more than a lifelong friendship between us.
Soon, I’m moving into his house, we’re planning a wedding on his family’s ranch, and we discover a new side to our relationship. I keep reminding myself it’s not real—it’s only to secure a loan to save the farm.
I’ve secretly loved Jude all my life, and now that I know how good we are together, I’m not sure we can return to being just friends.
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Audio Narrated by: Troy Duran & Rose Dioro
The One I Stood Beside by Piper Rayne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Yesterday, as I was gathering all my docs and notes and whatnot to review this title, I was gifted with the knowledge that the audiobook was live on Everand and yeah, I stopped everything to listen to it and I just finished about 30 minutes ago! One of the things I love doing is giving my opinion on which format a story is more enjoyable or not, but I was rejected for the ALC so I didn’t think I would be able to do this for release day, but here we are! Everand saves the day :)
🎧AUDIO REVIEW🎧 >> I adore Rose Dioro and she brought Sadie to life perfectly for me. Sadie’s personality shined even brighter thru Rose’s narration, and it pleased me to no end. I’m also a big fan of Troy Duran and he also brought to life Jude’s personality perfectly. The picture I had in my head of who Sadie & Jude were come across brilliantly in the narration. It was a really great listen!
📖STORY REVIEW📖 >> I’ve been trying to figure out how to say what I want to say without coming off too wordy or giving things about the plot away but it’s getting frustrating LOL The thing is, I think I had too high expectations for this story and it’s because of the joy that The One I Left Behind brought me. This story is good. It’s actually very good, but it’s missing something. For me, based on the plot-points in the story, the depth of it was weak. Honestly, the most emotion the story brought out of me was in the prologue. AND it was because of the prologue that I expected the bond and their friendship and the decision they made to grab me, but it didn’t. The story was just there. The story unfolded and that was that. Their 33 years of friendship deserved more in my opinion. I was disappointed at the missed opportunities in the story to make the reader feel the story. *sigh* That’s all I have for you because anything more and I would just be picking apart the story and I don’t want to do that. Remember, this is a good story!!
Overall rating: 3.5 Stars but enough to jump to 4
On the whole reading vs listening that I like to do, I’d have to say that my preference would be the audiobook because Troy & Rose really gave Jude & Sadie a lot of light in my head, but it didn’t change how the story affected me. *shrug*
I’d like to leave you with this … no two people read the same book … I will die on this hill till the end of my time. Also, I have experienced countless titles by this author duo and more often than not, I am overjoyed with delight. So there’s that. Happy reading!
Piper Rayne is a USA Today Bestselling Author duo who write “heartwarming humor with a side of sizzle” about families, whether that be blood or found. They both have e-readers full of one-clickable books, they’re married to husbands who drive them to drink, and they’re both chauffeurs to their kids. Most of all, they love hot heroes and quirky heroines who make them laugh, and they hope you do, too!
Connect with Piper Rayne:
Website: www.PiperRayne.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15810938.Piper_Rayne
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Piper-Rayne/e/B01ND0R15R
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PiperRayne/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/PiperRaynesUnicorns
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Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PiperRayne?ref=shop_sugg
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Threads: https://www.threads.net/@authorpiperrayne
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