A Notorious Vow

The Four Hundred Series

By: Joanna Shupe

Narrated by: Carmen Rose

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.

Not much of a story

I usually like Joanna Shupe books. This one was mediocre. Carman Rose narration was difficult to listen to. She punctuates each sentence by raising the tone of the last word. It seems disjointed.

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.

Horrible narrator

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

good story line but left alot of things unanswered

the author didn't finish the story of his wife parents whether they got the money they wanted. whether his sister got back on a horse again and if his wife learned how to ride and what happened to his wife's first fiance who got him thrown in a asylum

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.