A teenaged war widow on a mission finds a disillusioned WWI veteran. As Prohibition begins, Grace Currie searches Bryeton for Aiden Palmer, the man she truly wanted to marry when she was forced to marry another. Seeking cash and excitement running bootleg liquor for an unknown investor, Aiden is jaded and not easily convinced Grace still loves him. To be together, they will need to learn to trust … him.
To be together, they will need to learn to trust again, out-maneuver her power-hungry brother, and outrun fast competition.
And the clock is ticking.
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I was given a free copy of this Audiobook In exchange for an honest review. Aiden has returned from world war 1 and his old flame Grace is now a widow from his best friend. She comes from a well off and prestigious family. His family wants him to be following the preaching tradition, but he is a rebel. He needs to make a lot of money so that grace and aiden can’t marry. Aiden soon finds himself in an illegal late night bootlegging run, he will need to be better than his competition and have some fancy moves to ensure Graces powerful and crooked brother doesn’t interfere with his and Grace’s plan. Will they be able to be together and live happily ever after? Enjoyed this book .
An interesting historical romance set in a time and location not often used. Very original. The story was good. The narrator mispronounced several words, and (in my opinion) went overboard on the accent. I received a free review copy of the audio version of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I offered to review this audiobook because I am such an an avid reader but also almost exclusively audio due to my schedule. Because of this, and the fact that a bad narrator can destroy a great series, I can be very critical of narrators. Especially when books have a single narrator required to speak with different voices for multiple characters. Most cannot do it without having some errors where they use the wrong ‘voice’ for the wrong character. Brenda Brown does a great job in narrating this book! It was a very enjoyable listen and I didn’t have any issues distinguishing between characters.
As to the story, I am not one to give a lot of specific story details since I feel you should read the story for that. The Bootlegger’s Bride is a short story in a series, but holds its own in a stand alone historical romance. It was great to see love win out over greed. The book includes interesting characters, with lots of twists and turns in the main story that will make you want to keep listening until the story is over.
I received a free review copy of this audiobook and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Audible. This was listed as the 2nd book in the Bryeton series. Not only was this set in a different decade, but none of the characters/situations/locations were from book 1. So this can be enjoyed completely on its own.
Short stories/novellas can be quite difficult in that they are often bereft of the kinds of details that fully immerse the reader/listener into the story and it’s world. M.K. Chester suffered no such issues here. I was delighted and intrigued by what she managed to convey in a mere 100 minutes.
This is a lovely second-chance romance set at the dawn of Prohibition. Grace & Aiden have both been transformed by the war and are now seeking to live their lives on their own terms. Grace is a young widow trying to break from her scheming political family while Aiden is eschewing his father’s plans for his future. Chester gives us a beautiful love story along with a little suspense.
Brenda G Brown is a new-to-me narrator. I loved her accented voice as well as her ability to give each character their own unique sound. While I often find myself speeding up narrators, I almost felt she spoke a little too fast. There were also times where the chapter came across as one long run-on sentence. This caused changes in POV or time/location to be abrupt. She wasn’t terrible and it wouldn’t keep me from listening to her in the future, but I felt the pacing distracted a bit from the story.
*** SPOILER-ish NOTE ABOUT CLEAN ROMANCE ***
I believe the first book in this series was listed as a clean romance, which it was. I assumed (yeah, I know) that this was too. It doesn’t claim to be and it’s not. There is a short sex scene, nothing extremely raunchy or overly graphic IMHO, but it’s definitely not closed door or fade-to-black. Honestly, I could care less as I read anything from clean to erotica ~ but another reviewer mentioned this was clean and I didn’t want anyone to be thrown off by that.
*** END SPOILER ***
I received a free review copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is the second book in the Bryeton Series. This is a short and sweet novella. Unfortunately, I had difficulties to stay focused, but I can’t say why. The narration was okay.
This is one of those fast listens that is packed full of action and romance! Taking place as prohibition is being executed, Aiden finds himself in a position to make some fast money. The love of his life, Grace is ready to reconnect with him, but with all families, we find a bad apple in Grace’s! Now racing the clock to their new life, we get to see power hungry individuals try to block their happiness. Will they find their way? I loved this short story. MK Chester has a way of writing that is so easy to listen to and entertaining that I get lost in the story. The characters are well developed and the story does not feel rushed. The narration by Brenda G Brown is perfect, her southern drawl exactly what I would expect from the characters. Highly recommend this novella!
This story was very short and unnecessarily steamy.
I could appreciate the concept, but I couldn’t really buy in to the couple, the emotion. There wasn’t enough detail. I didn’t feel the angst during the liquor runs or the desperation to choose that lifestyle. It felt like it was a puff story glorifying and romanticizing a situation that was anything but.
It had potential. The author had some good ideas, but the plot wasn’t developed enough.
I received this book as an ARC from Story Origin, and I am leaving a voluntary review.
This novella was good. I could have done without the detailed love scene. I enjoyed the narrator of the audiobook, she performed well! The story line could have provided more scenes to get reader more invested in the characters instead of an afterthought approach. It was an HEA so that was a plus in my opinion.