Book Review: One Way or Another

One mother. Three Pregnancies. Four different fathers. Of the social categories, the Benedict girls belong to the upper class; they have immense wealth, live in a mansion, and the four beautiful sisters named Calder, Bryce, Andi, and Destry are successful business owners. Calder and Bryce are twins; they once shared a womb, but not a father. It’s a rare phenomenon that’s only possible for an infamous mother like Billie Benedict. Sometimes, she’s a loving mother, but mostly she’s flighty and self-centered. She never dwells on problems so troubles, like men, are easily forgotten. Since birth, the four sisters have been aware that men only care about their wealth so when Ingo Hunter becomes the nth man to enter Billie’s dirty closet of deceptive men, the Benedict sisters are eager to find a way to reveal his true intentions.

Despite the negative viewpoint towards men, Calder’s interest is captured by Adam Stone, so he becomes a seemingly decent new man in her life. With her sisters’ approval, they trust him with their family’s history. Adam helps them in their quest to save their mom by recommending an investigator. However, can Calder and the Benedict girls really trust Adam Stone? Or will Ingo Hunter’s bad intention prevail?

One Way or Another is the first volume of The Sisters Quartet, a series of romance novels by Mary J. Williams. I don’t normally read romance novels, but the synopsis captured my attention. And I’m glad I chose to read it because the story is very charming; reading this full-blown romance novel brought me back to my younger years when I was still a believer of true love and romance.

I love that the author wasn’t too ambitious in writing extravagant incidents to impress the readers. The whole flow of the story was simple and yet, downright entertaining. The conflict was realistic -- glamorous versus desperate middle-class characters. The author created such wonderful individuals: The Benedict Sisters, Mrs. Finch, and Adam Stone. On the other hand, Aurora, Ingo, and Edwin are pests in the society, but the author was successful in building such despicable characters because they only made the protagonists stand out.

Overall, I am giving this 5 out of 5 stars. Mary J. Williams was successful in adding romance to my reading preference. The only time I put this down was to relieve my uncooperative bladder, and this is probably the first time in my adulthood that I enjoyed a romantic novel. The editing was impeccable, so it’s only fair to give this a perfect rating. I would, however, limit this to mature readers who like romantic novels. The sexual content isn’t appropriate for all ages but there’s nothing too explicit about the love scenes so I would say that the author was artistic in that area as well.