The One

By: Julia Argy

Narrated by: Phoebe Strole, Suehyla El-Attar Young

A razor-sharp and seductively hypnotic debut novel about the very fantasy of falling in love.

Emily didn’t join the cast of The One for fame or for a relationship. She simply didn’t have anything better to do. Newly fired from her dead-end job, it doesn’t take much convincing when she’s recruited as a last-minute contestant for the popular reality dating show. Emily has been performing her entire life—for her family and friends, former boyfriends, and coworkers. How different could it be playing herself in front of cameras?

But the moment Emily arrives, it becomes clear she’s been tapped to win it all. Emily’s producer Miranda sees her as the golden ticket: generically pretty, affable, and easily molded—all the qualities of a future Wife. Emily herself is less certain. It’s easy enough to fall in love under romantic lighting and perfectly crafted dates, but it’s harder to remember what’s real and what’s designed. And as Emily’s fascination with another contestant grows, both Emily and Miranda are forced to decide what it is they really want—and what they are willing to do to get it.

A brilliant send-up of our cultural mythology around romance, The One examines the reality of love and desire set against a world of ultimate artifice and manipulation.

Fantastic book

Loved the character building and story of this book. Julia Argy is a very skilled writer and that shines through!

This one's for fans of The Bachelor

Julia Argy delivers a well rounded debut that has everything I would want from a coming of age story. After listening, I’m wondering if I need to re-evaluate my relationship with dating shows, as I dont normally watch any.

The One follows Emily, she's just lost her job and doesn't have much of anything going on. She meets a producer, Miranda, who gets her to go on a bachelor style TV show to find "love"

as the story progresses, It's clear to Emily that she doesn't know who she is, and the plot is majorly centered about her discovering who she is, in the midst of a national TV show.

The One was an amazing listen! The narrators both gave depth to characters that were each going through their own journeys without it being overwhelming to the plot of the story. Argy’s use of dual POVs paired with the super detailed descriptions and insights on reality shows left me ready to listen to my next Argy novel.

Don't recommend

Not much to this story and was disappointed with the whole book and the ending