A Notorious Vow

The Four Hundred Series

By: Joanna Shupe

Narrated by: Carmen Rose

Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Joanna Shupe returns to New York City’s Gilded Age, where fortunes and reputations are gained and lost with ease - and love can blossom from the most unlikely charade.

With the fate of her disgraced family resting on her shoulders, Lady Christina Barclay has arrived in New York City from London to quickly secure a wealthy husband. But when her parents settle on an intolerable suitor, Christina turns to her reclusive neighbor, a darkly handsome and utterly compelling inventor, for help.

Oliver Hawkes reluctantly agrees to a platonic marriage...with his own condition: The marriage must end after one year. Not only does Oliver face challenges that are certain to make life as his wife difficult, but more importantly, he refuses to be distracted from his life’s work - the development of a revolutionary device that could transform thousands of lives, including his own.

Much to his surprise, his bride is more beguiling than he imagined. When temptation burns hot between them, they realize they must overcome their own secrets and doubts and every effort to undermine their marriage, because one year can never be enough.

©2018 Joanna Shupe (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

new Yorkers sound like ....

the book was good and touches on the issues of the time. but the narrator gives new Yorkers a westeran accent

Horrible narrator

Good, unique historical romance story. Narration ruined it. Definitely recommend reading the story but avoid the audible version.

Bad Narration

It's amazing how much damage a bad narrator can do. The narrator for this audiobook, Carmen Rose has a weird musical way of finishing each phrase and sentence exactly the same. It is, in fact, musical, but so distracting that it's hard to concentrate on the story line.

This was essentially a Marriage of Convenience, which is a favorite trope of mine. Deaf millionaire Oliver Hawkes marries Lady Christina Barclay to save her from her money-grubbing parents and a really horrible octogenarian "groom." I enjoyed it, but wasn't drawn into the story as much as I should've been because of the bad narration.

Sweet story. Enjoyable.

I enjoyed this story. The lead male character was deaf and I thought that was very sweet. The relationship between both main characters developed nicely and I was rooting for them.

The narrator almost ruined it for me but I successfully tuned out the things that bothered me and I was able to keep listening despite the strong repulsion I felt at first. If this could be re-recorded it would be much better.

Great storyline♥️

What a heart warming story. Enjoyed this book especially that the author pulls in characters from some of her other stories as well.

Loved it

I almost didn’t buy this book because of negative reviews of the narrator. But I have listened to CR in other books and she is fantastic.
The story was great. It had me laughing out loud in some places and wanting to cry in others.
Definitely recommend.

An excellent book from the series!

I love the books I have read from this series but I think this one will be my favorite! I love the love story between our heroine and a smart, rich deaf hero. It added so much more to the story with storyline that may surprise you. I am reading all from Joanna!!!

Bad narrative

Ok story, narration has no emotion. Same repetitive inflection the entire time. Better to just read the story yourself.

The author is great, story decent, but the narrative is the worst out of the hundreds of audible books I have listened to. A book read by Amazon Alexa is better.

Annoying

Christine is absolutely spineless which ruins this read completely. Skipped whole chapters to avoid grinding teeth. A waste of time and a credit. The narrator lacked appropriate emotional tone. Voice too harsh.