The Broken Vows

Zane and Celeste's Story (The Windsors)

De: Catharina Maura

Narrado por: Teddy Hamilton, Lacy Laurel

Duet narration by Lacy Laurel and Teddy Hamilton.

She was his first love, his first heartbreak, and his only regret.

Zane Windsor always loved the way Celeste Harrison’s eyes light up when he infuriates her. It just took him years to realize that what he felt for his childhood rival wasn’t hatred.

When they begin working for their family businesses, competing on a larger scale than ever before, he decides he wants it all with her — and what Zane Windsor wants, he gets.

Zane and Celeste discover just how thin the line between love and hate truly is, falling harder than either of them thought possible...

…until an unexpected tragedy leaves them wondering if any of it was ever real at all.

Led by a desire for revenge, Zane brings Celeste’s company to the brink of bankruptcy, leaving both of their grandparents no choice but to intervene.

The Windsors and Harrisons agree to a merger — on one condition: Zane and Celeste must marry each other.

©2023 Catharina Maura (P)2023 Catharina Maura

Never give up

I love the they made it despite all the odds. It is so real all the struggles and miss communication and the way the chose to not give up on each other

Angsty, second chance, arranged marriage!

3.5 stars! The Broken Vows is the fourth book in the Windsors series by Catharina Maura, which I’ve had a great time with! This one is a second chance, hate to love, arranged marriage, with a whole lot of angst!

So this book is told in two parts, in part one we get Celeste and Zane falling for one another in the past and together for a couple years. And then part two we catch up to them 5 years after they split and their grandparents arrange for the now-enemies to marry! 👀

Celeste and Zane are from rival families, they are both in the hotel industry and always competing with one another. The first half of the book we see Celeste and Zane, former childhood rivals, fall in love. He definitely falls first and is determined to win her. First she thinks he’s playing games, since they have a history from prom night years ago as well. But we see them falling for one another before something happens that splits them up. And then in part two we see them thrown back together again when their grandparents decide to merge their hotel empires and arrange a marriage.

This was a very long one and it felt like it often. I knew this was second chance but I didn’t realize how long we’d spend with them in the past when they were together. The second half of the story in current day is a lot of back and forth, tons of angst, but also a lot of them assuming the worst and having doubts because of their past. I liked this one, but didn’t love it, it’s not a fav in the series, but it’s also not my least fav in the series either. I did like the hate and angst, how he notices her nail polish and all the hidden messages in the colors she chooses, and how close she is with some of his family.

The best book of the series

I struggle with celestial voice but it didn’t take away from the story of her struggle. Teddy is always awesome and together they worked. It was such a great ending

A+ on the story, female narrator not so much

There is not a thing wrong with this story. I loved Zane and Celeste. It was a nice change-up that it was the female protagonist that had to mea culpa. Celeste was hard to like, but I loved Zane's pure heart SO MUCH that I wanted him to be happy, and if Celeste made him happy, then I was rooting for them. As usual, Teddy Hamilton was perfect - especially in duet. He could narrate tax code and I would be impressed.

The problem was the female narrator. I'm not sure if she had a cold, or sounds nasally and congested naturally, but it was so distracting. Like she needed to blow her nose. I read this in Whispersync, so fortunately when it became too much, I would switch. I am not familiar with this narrator, so she may just have been having an off session, but this would've been a a perfect audio if not for that.

Great Story!

Enjoyed this one the most! Definitely love this weird family dynamic that always ends with family over everything.

Emotional and physical

This book are amazing, a lot of drama and suspense but at the same time a lot of love and guilt.

So emotional!

Besides my off the charts love of Teddy Hamilton....this book was so very emotional. I really didn't think any sibling could top the story between Faye and Dion, but these two and the shit they went through. I just want everyman to act like the Windsor boys!

At 38% I had to switch to whispersync and read instead of listen 😡

The female narrator ruined this whole thing for me. I absolutely adore Teddy Hamilton. He is the saving grace of this performance. The story could’ve spent a little more time on Lilly’s backstory but overall I love it. Catharina writes such beautifully broken men. I love them all… just the dang female narrator. Makes me sorry this is duet narration.

Forgiveness

I don’t want to ruin the narrator’s career however, her voice is absolutely terrible! I don’t know how she ever became a voice actor. It sounds thick and nasally at the same time. I hated listening to her, but made it through because I wanted to hear the story.

I loved the heartbreak

Story: 8/10
Spice: 4/5
Spice Hierarchy: Spicy
Narration: 4/5

Zane and Celeste have always been in competition with each other since they were young children. With rival families they keep their dating as adults a secret until their families will accept it fully. But tragedy strikes. Five years later they are back to being enemies. Except they are in an arranged marriage as enemies.

Second chance but make it enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers again? Yes please. I loved how down bad Zane was for Celeste from the start. He was saying all the dreamy book boyfriend things and doing all the dreamy things.

My heart broke for Celeste with all the grief and trauma she had to go though in this story. While Celeste and Zane’s story wasn’t my favorite of the series, it was the most heartbreaking.

Teddy Hamilton is able to convey all of Zane’s emotions through this story, and Zane has had to go through some stuff! Lacy Laurel is a new narrator for me and I love the way she bought Celeste’s character to life.