One True Love

Written by Linda Kage

Narrated by Jon Vertullo and Holly Warren

Custom demanded that Prince Urban get a love mark tattooed to the side of his left eye as an infant, just like the rest of his people, but to him, the stupid things have only brought on the scorn of his father, the misery of his siblings, and caused his entire kingdom to go broke from fighting so many wars over the irritating ink stains.

When Urban’s sister must travel to Donnelly, the kingdom within the sand, for her arranged marriage to align two realms, he goes with her. But he no sooner steps foot inside their castle than his mark starts itching like a son of a bitch, telling him his one true love is near.

It just figures, though, that the woman meant for him is completely forbidden. Now he must decide if he should ignore the persistent mark, telling him she's the one, in order to avoid a possible war between kingdoms, or if he should discover whether she's worth risking everything for so they can be together. Either way, his life gets sucked into chaos with threats of beheadings, dark magic lurking, castle traitors scheming, and sword fights eminent.

Who knew one little tattoo could cause so much trouble?

(ONE TRUE LOVE is the author’s first attempt at a fantasy romance. Please forgive her; she might’ve read an overabundance of Cassandra Gannon, Sarah J. Maas, and Eve Langlais books, then gone off to watch too many episodes of Supernatural, Game of Thrones, and Outlander, because this was the outcome.)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryant Street Publishing
• Release date: May 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781094440903

Linda Kage

The youngest of eight children, Linda Kage grew up on a dairy farm in the Midwest. She now lives in Kansas with her husband, daughter, and nine cuckoo clocks. Linda is a member of Romance Writers of America and its local chapter, Midwest Romance Writers.

Reviews for One True Love

[C. Vierhuis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful, captivating, rich story! It held my attention from the minute I started listening! Everything wondering how it would end and amazed at the story

[Rebecca · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was a delightful lighthearted listen. I loved the relationship between the brother and sister and the way it was portrayed.

[HeatherlyWalker · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Seriously stupid. Oversexed spoiled prince… don’t waste the time listening to this.

[Natale Michaud · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed the story and all the characters. Of course I knew after the wife heard her husband having sex with another who the bad guys were, though not which one of the two had the black magic.

[Karen Wilson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Kinda super cheesy. The use of the words “one true love” constantly throughout every single part of the book was so super annoying. If I wasn’t so ocd I would have stopped less than half way through.

[Cindy McLoughlin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved every second. Action packed, magic and romance all my favourites. Thanks ?

[Ryan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A whirlwind story of castle intrigue, arranged marriages and jealousy are all within this story. With a twist at the end and a HEA.

[h2oborn537 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I decided to blind listen to this audiobook. I am a lover of romance and fantasy and was met with excitement for an old school fantasy world that writers have seemed to pull away from in today's world.

Needless to say I found myself rolling my eyes and shaking my head constantly. To hear "my one true love" a solid 100 times in the first half of the book left me feeling down right silly. The language is a bit awkward at best. For example, the male lead expresses that he wants to "bed" our female lead which is FINE but when juxtaposed against words like "Hard on" and "fuck her" in the same sentence --- the terminology felt inconsistent. Was the author going for present day colloquialism or something in the past? Unknown.

I also felt that the "love mark" gave our male lead, Urban (and yes his name is URBAN) an excuse or a reason to display stalker-like tendencies. Within the first few chapters you see it all—Here is a man who has only looked at his "one true love" and all of a sudden he is disgusted that another man touched her because she is HIS. And that no one understands her but him and only he can bring an end to her social neglect etc etc.. without giving too much away, Urban gets pretty taken with some other aspects to the story concerning her condition. I just felt major fear for this poor woman but kept reminding myself that hey 'ITS OK' because it's his MARK that makes him feel this way.

The story was fine enough to listen all the way through albeit experiencing some second hand embarrassment at times. I'm surprised I pushed through.

[Linda Pinggera · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved it sooo so much. Please write more of them.

[sharon dean · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Such a cool story I love this writer’s storytelling. With fairy tales back grounds ! read me I’m good!

[Lindsay Groder · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this story. I fell in love with all the characters and am excited for the next book

[Jenna Vaughn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book right up to the multiple monologues by the bad guys at the end. I just feel there would have been a better way for the end to unfold. That kind of killed it for me. ?‍♀️ But I enjoyed the world and characters.

[Patricia Budreau · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The author used the phrase “one true love” so many times I wanted to throw my phone. I’m one of those people that once I start a book I finish it. I’m new to fantasy romances s so I may be harsh in my criticism but I just read ACOTAR (Maas), Blood and Ash (Armentrout), and Fourth Wing (Yarros)…..back to back. I’m not sure any authors can top those series.

[Rae · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Full disclosure I only got to the 3rd chapter before quitting. Like other reviewers, I couldn't appreciate the story because of the bad dialogue. One True Love was repeated so often it started to feel like bad fanfiction. "Jesus Christ on the Cross!" As an internal exclamation from the main character is where I rolled my eyes so hard I gave up.

[Jeremy Maji · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A perfect story. Full of entertainment value and adventure, plus feel good. And as important, finding the right performers for the story, they were just as good!

Thank you for this type of story.

As a chronic audiobook listener, I’ve grown so tired of authors so into themselves trying to ‘out serous’ the other and creating word salad stories just to increase the story time with so little substance.

This book had no down time, no boring inner monologue trips, and thank God no long, way over drawn out, predictable suspense.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Jeremy Maji

[Alisha · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If books had nutritional value, this book is a dinner roll.

The writing quality is very average, but there are some surprises in this story.

This is a solid mindless pleasure book. If you like spicy, discount bin romance and don't mind almost all information delivered as exposition, then you'll enjoy this book.

I'm not sure what time period it's supposed to be, because there is a constant mix of current day colloquialisms and sad attempts at old school ways of speaking. They have carriages and dragons; so i think it's supposed to be a mystical alternative past.

All the villains are evil with no redeeming qualities or reasons that make you understand why they do what they do.

I dont feel compelled to read any more in the series, but i wouldn't be opposes to it.

[Mindy Ngo · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

A lot of cussing for a romance book. I concur with another review that it takes away from the story when it’s supposed to be romance.