The One I Stood Beside

Plain Daisy Ranch, Book 2

By: Piper Rayne

Narrated by: Tory Duran, Rose Dioro

Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

It’s the classic story— best friends since childhood agree to a fake marriage, thinking they can pretend to love each other without their relationship changing.

Jude would do anything for me. He’s stood by my side since we were six, and I’ve done the same for him.

When my father dies, leaving our family farm drowning in debt and on the brink of being auctioned, I’m not surprised Jude steps in to help. I just never dreamed he’d fall to bended knee and devise a plan for us to fool everyone into thinking there’s more than a lifelong friendship between us.

Soon, I’m moving into his house, we’re planning a wedding on his family’s ranch, and we discover a new side to our relationship. I keep reminding myself it’s not real—it’s only to secure a loan to save the farm.

I’ve secretly loved Jude all my life, and now that I know how good we are together, I’m not sure we can return to being just friends.

©2024 Piper Rayne Inc. (P)2024 Piper Rayne Inc.

Swooning over Jude and Sadie!

Did I finish this book in a day? Yes! Am I obsessed with Jude and Sadie? Also yes. I just loved their love story! It had all the happy swoony feeling I look for in a contemporary romance. Small town romances just hit different. I feel like this is a great comfort read and I can't wait to go back to Plain Daisy Ranch for the next book! I am also a sucker for duet narration and these two did a fantastic job! If you like small town, friends to lovers, and marriage of convenience with all the swoon then pick this one up!

a small town x friends to lovers delight

This is the second book of the 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝘿𝙖𝙞𝙨𝙮 𝙍𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙝 series featuring the grumpy oldest brother of the Noughton family, and his best friend since childhood.

Jude and Sadie have been the best of friends since they were kids & have only gotten closer over the years. When tragedy strikes, Sadie’s family farm is put in jeopardy leaving Jude to help in the most noble way he knows— by proposing to enter into a fake marriage in order to save the farm. Will forced proximity & secret feelings for each other allow their friendship to blossom into more?

Jude is very stoic by nature, yet only opens up for his best friend Sadie. She is the sunshine to his grumpy, and will not let anyone’s unwarranted opinions thwart her dreams of having a chicken farm coming true. The thing I loved about this dynamic is how Jude was so supportive of Sadie’s future dreams and (without giving spoilers), even helped get the journey started for her. I also really adored the snippet of their childhood and seeing Jude take comfort with Sadie after experiencing tragedy. Fast forward 27 years and we get to see the roles reversed. Tug on my heart strings, why don’t you!

If you’re looking for your next emotional yet heartwarming read with lots of humor, self discovery, and second chances- LOOK NO FURTHER and pick up this series immediately! I absolutely cannot wait for Emmett's book because I already know he’s going to steal my heart.

🐣𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓮𝔁𝓹𝓮𝓬𝓽—
grumpy x sunshine
fake marriage of convenience
childhood friends to lovers
mutual pining
forced proximity
band of brothers
small town

“𝓎ℴ𝓊 𝓁ℴ𝓋ℯ 𝓂ℯ?"
"𝒾𝓈𝓃'𝓉 𝒾𝓉 ℴ𝒷𝓋𝒾ℴ𝓊𝓈?" 🥹🫶🏼

Loved it!!!

I loved this one so much!!! I was hooked immediately and didn’t want to put it down! I’m so glad I had the audio so I didn’t have to!!! It was truly a one sit read/listen! The narrators on this one were amazing! They did a fabulous job bringing the story and characters to life!! This one really did play out like a movie in my mind!!

If you love small town, grumpy hero, friends to lovers, fake marriages you won’t want to miss this one! I loved Sadie and Jude so much!! She was the sunshine to his grumpy! I for sure wasn’t ready for this one to end! I definitely got attached to these two and could have read so much more of their story!!!

Overall a great read that I definitely recommend!!!

Love this on Audio

An adorable small town romance. Childhood best friends and neighbors Jude and Sadie have been there for each other through the good times and the bad times. This story starts off with so much emotion my eyes were tearing and it ended the same way. It was emotional and beautiful. When Sadie’s family goes through heartbreak she is the one now in charge of her families ranch. Trying to get a loan from the bank, she is denied and the only way to get anywhere is to fake marry her best friend. This story was absolutely adorable. The love these two share is so special but the friendship they have before true feelings come to light is everything. They care deeply for their friends and their family. I loved all the side characters just as much as Jude and Sadie. The One I Stood Beside is a heartwarming friends to lovers, marriage of convenience romance, with a bit of second chance and of course lovers angst. I have always enjoyed Piper Rayne’s stories and will add this as another favorite.

I had the ARC for this so of course I had to go and listen to this and wow. It’s amazing bow the narrators can bring a new life to these characters. I love it on audio too!!

Two of my favorite narrators

I absolutely loved this book. I knew I would love Jude because I love a grumpy man. I don’t tend to gravitate toward friends to lovers, but this writing duo make me love them. I couldn’t wait to find out the backstory of Jude and Sadie, and it didn’t disappoint. I don’t think I’ve ever had book reel me in so tightly just from the prologue. Jude and Sadie have been best friends since they were six years old. Their need to marry helps them to finally acknowledge their feelings. The whole town already knew they were in love anyway. I so enjoyed Jude’s dad’s part in their story. I’m glad we got to see glimpses of Brooks and Lottie. I’m already looking forward to their book. The audio of this released early so I listened to it. Two of my favorite narrators performed it in duet style. Duet is my favorite style. I don’t toss this out in the universe lightly, but this is one of my top reads of the year so far.