You Only Live Once

By: Maxine Morrey

Narrated by: Gloria Sanders

Discover the unforgettable and utterly uplifting love story, from the award-winning top 50 bestseller Maxine Morrey

Perfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane and Sophie Kinsella.

When Lily’s husband dies, she moves to the edge of a tiny village, settling into a solitary life, her only real company her brother and his family. A quiet life becomes her safe space, with no risk of getting hurt.

When her brother offers her spare room to his oldest friend, Jack, Lily’s reluctant – but knowing how much she owes her family, can’t say no.

A lodger takes some getting used to but to her surprise, Lily begins to enjoy Jack’s company. Slowly but surely, Jack encourages Lily to step outside her comfort zone.

But taking risks means facing the consequences, and telling people how she really feels, means Lily might have to face losing them. But as the saying goes - you only live once - and being brave could mean Lily gets a second chance at love…

©2022 Boldwood Books (P)2022 Boldwood Books

Critic reviews

"An uplifting read that stops you in your tracks and makes you wonder '....but what if?' Absorbing, funny and oh-so-romantic, I loved every page!" Rachel Burton

"A super sweet read, guaranteed to warm any winter evening." Samantha Tonge

"A lovely story that kept me turning the pages." Jules Wake

Lovely story, wonky narration/recording

The story is absolutely wonderful, though I do feel we were cheated of a first kiss moment. All that build up and all we got was a “cut-to-scene” kind of deal, which felt unfair. It all felt really abrupt at times throughout. The ending/resolution in particular was rushed and not given the development it deserved.



With all that being said, this is probably the 3rd book I’ve listened to with this narrator and her reading causes a visceral reaction in me—a whispery quality that is really unpleasant, where she doesn’t fully pronounce the endings of her words and she fades away at the ends of sentences. Also, her voice for Jack was COMPLETELY wrong l- it was giving more nonagenarian granny than sexy aristocrat.



Also worth mentioning: the recording quality is poor. At times you can hear ambient noise like footsteps or banging (assuming she recorded this in a home studio). And there is a white noise that becomes really obvious because it isn’t there when the chapters end, so every time a chapter ends (usually extremely abruptly) and a new one begins, you can hear it pretty clearly.

Totally predictable and not worth much effort.

Full of cliches like the emotionally wounded heroine and the reformed rake in modern dress. The reader had a nice voice but her voice for the hero was grating, like she was speaking through clenched teeth.