It's obviously not a configuration suitable for everybody, but I read epubs in a similar manner with Emacs, using the read-aloud and nov packages. It highlights each sentence as it's read, using the system TTS (MacOS's `say` in my case.)

    (use-package read-aloud :ensure t)
    (setq read-aloud-engine "say")
    (use-package nov :ensure t)
    (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.epub\\'" . nov-mode))

    (bind-key* "M-SPC" 'read-aloud-buf)