1 out of 4 stars
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One Way or Another by Mary J. Williams is the story of Calder Benedict and Adam Stone. It’s the first book in a quartet about the four Benedict sisters. Calder Benedict is as blue blood as they come, coming from an extremely wealthy family. Adam Stone’s upbring is the exact opposite, coming from a lower class family on the wrong side of the tracks. However, both overcome their issues and upbringings in life to prove others wrong. The two run into each other twice in unlikely circumstances and start a relationship. The story is mainly about their developing relationship. However, there are also a few side stories, including the stereotypical ex-girlfriend and a scatter-brained mother who’s dating a questionable man.
In the Amazon title, this book is marketed as a friends to lovers romance. It is not. This is a book about two people who meet and almost immediately start a relationship. Not a pro or a con, simply an observation for anyone who thought they might be getting your typical friends to lovers romance. If anything, this is more of an insta-love romance than a friends to lovers romance.
One of the redeeming qualities of this book is the relationship between the Benedict sisters. They have an enviable relationship that seems to survive and even thrive through everything thrown at them, including having four different fathers all of who appear to be some of the worst people on the planet. The author writes the four sisters’ relationship in a way that made me want to be one of the Benedict sisters and not because they are literally filthy rich. Their relationship is clearly very strong and you can tell they love and support each other very much.
Unfortunately, that’s where the redeeming qualities end for me. One of my biggest issues with the book is the editing, or lack thereof. I definitely don’t think this book was professionally edited. At times, it felt like there were fragments on every other page and at one point the main male character is referred to as Adam Steel instead of Adam Stone. There is no way a professional editor should miss calling one of your main characters by the wrong name. My issues with the storyline are fewer in number but still pretty problematic. This is a book that felt like it was trying too hard to be feminist. I’m all for “girl power” but this came across as artificial to me. As if the characters were lifting their thoughts from a Feminism for Dummies book. There were also some inconsistencies, some of which probably go back to the editing. For example, there would be times a group of people were talking and then all of the sudden only two of the characters would be talking and it was as if they had transported to some place they were alone (based on what they were talking about - most of the time about someone who was supposedly in the room).
I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. I went back and forth between a one and a two but in the end I simply had to go with the one. There were too many issues with the book for me to rate it above that. I don’t think the underlying plot is inherently bad. I think it actually has some promise to be a decent romance but the editing and writing inconsistencies made it almost unreadable to me. The author is clearly setting up a somewhat interesting subplot that will continue throughout the next three books (the above mentioned mother who is dating a sleazy questionable man) but unfortunately I won’t be able to continue with the book series due to the issues I had while reading.
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One Way or Another
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