A Notorious Vow The Four Hundred Series

This review was originally posted on Addicted To RomanceI received this book for free from Avon in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. A Notorious Vow is the third book in the Four Hundred series and whew....what a BOOK this turned out to be. I couldn't put it DOWN...I stayed up late reading it because it was so dang good. The writing was incredible and I was hooked into the romance between Christina and Oliver and you know how I just love and adore all the marriage of convenience, the hero being deaf and the gilded age setting. I am falling in love with the Gilded Age, the more I read it the more I adore it. Its so refreshing from all the regency romances out there and I just gobble these up and Joanna Shupe is fantastic in writing them. A Notorious Vow begins with Christina, who has come to America with her parents, who are destititue. They may be members of high society in Londond with all the titles, but her father's gambling problem is a huge issue and they have brought Christina to catch a rich husband so that they may go back to their life in England. The husband that they set their sights on though is four times her age, rich and despicable and Christina has no idea how she will be able to marry such a man as him. Her only peace and comfort comes from her walks in her next door neighbor's garden, the first friend she has made. She finds Oliver intriguing and intelligent and a man who is a bit of a hermit due to his loss of hearing. They become fast friends but when Christina is found at Oliver's home by her parents and cousin, they are forced to marry. At first Oliver only wants to marry Christina to help her out and he can't stand the though of her marrying such a man as her parents have planned for her. Their marriage starts off slow though, Oliver only wants to be married for a year and then to give Christina a big sum of money and start a new life. He wants friendship, but he craves his privacy. Christina, is expecting more from the marriage than Oliver does. She is slowly falling hard for Oliver but soon it becomes apparent that she will need to find her own way in their relationship. Oliver is new to the social scene, he is a brooding quiet man who is content to work on his inventions and books. But he soon realizes that he wants more from this marriage than he had first planned. Oliver and Christina begin to start fresh in their marriage, learning each other intimately and intellectually and love starts to blossom. But there is a man who wants Oliver's wealth and will do anything to get it. I simply had a fun time with A Notorious Vow and I think that this book just might be my favorite of the series so far. I have such a weakness for marriage of conveniences and this one really worked for me. From the very beginning you become hooked on these characters and Christina and Oliver were so fascinating together. If I had my pick of all the women on earth, you would remain my choice I really was endeared to Oliver, you see how he deals with being deaf and the backlash from society and how he is treated. But Christina...she treats his like a equal and only sees the positive of Oliver and even though he tends to hurt her feelings at times, she understands Oliver in a way that no one else does. I love how accepting and eager she is learn his sign language and learn about his inventions. The romance that blossoms between Christina and Oliver starts with friendship...they get on so well together. They can laugh together and talk about science and books together. We see how they learn and grow together. And then their relationship takes a new turn when Oliver realizes how much he wants Christina and not just as a friend and he starts courting her in sweet ways that makes you melt. I really was intrigued by the dynamics in this story from the sweet romance, to the villain of a cousin of Oliver's, to the selfish desires of Christina's parents. (view spoiler)[Then the story takes a new turn when Oliver's cousin manipulates some lawyers and doctors to lie for him to incarcerate Oliver into a mental institution and boy this place is really BAD. I mean, it was so hard to read these scenes of what they do to Oliver. Then we see how determined that Christina is to free her husband. And that everyone is afraid to help including the mayor. But they have one good friend, Oliver's lawyer, who is such a fighter for his friend. And Christina really blew me away in the end when she really fights for Oliver and his freedom and the injustice done to him. (hide spoiler)] From beginning to end this story wrapped me up like a warm blanket...full of laughter and charm, history and endearing characters that tug at those heart strings....DELECTABLE AND SWEET!!   [foogallery id="58366"]

This was BEAUTIFUL!!! Ahh I loved this SO MUCH!!!! This was my first Joanna Shupe and I’m so excited to read more from her!! This was wonderful!!

Lady Christina Barclay is incredibly shy and hates being the center of attention, but her parents have forced her into the social circles of New York City in the hopes of catching a rich American to pay off their familial debts. To find calm amidst the chaos and frightening prospect she will soon be married off to whomever her parents choose, Christina sneaks into the gardens of her cousin's reclusive neighbor for morning strolls. No one is the wiser until Christina is inadvertently knocked out by the neighbor's large dog. Oliver Hawkes is aghast that this lovely woman has been brought into his domain. Having lost his hearing as a teenager, Oliver has taken himself out of society and prefers to focus his life's work on patenting a hearing device to help those who still have partial hearing. Oliver protects himself with his large fortune and by keeping everyone in his life at arm's length. But, Lady Christina turns out to be a warm, kind, and interesting person. Someone who Oliver finds himself wanting to talk to, to teach sign language, and to share his work with. And, when he finds her weeping in his garden, about to be married to an octogenarian with suspiciously many dead wives, he agrees to marry her for one year, in name only. Christina agrees, but is sad that the marriage will be in name only, as she too finds herself falling for the hard-working, gentle, and beautiful man who lets her make her own choices and is her friend, a man who sticks up to her verbally abusive parents. While these two fall in love, outside forces threaten Oliver's livelihood and freedom, as society in the 1890s did not take kindly to those who were differently-abled. SPOILERS AHEAD!!!! A very sweet, sensual slow-burn of a romance that made me hold my breath in a bit of fear, not for worry of the couple's love for each other, but for SPOILER ALERT Oliver's fate after being thrown into a terrible insane asylum. Content warning for physical abuse, historical accurate psychological torture, and historically accurate bigotry towards the deaf. Shupe does a marvelous job with the historical details of the period, Oliver's invention, and the conditions of "insane asylums" of the time period, referencing her research on Nellie Bly's account. I also adored how Shupe handled Oliver and Christina communication. They used a variety of methods, including verbal speech, signing, lipreading, and pen on paper. Oliver often expresses his discomfort with how other perceive his voice and his frustration when people refuse or forget to make sure he can see their faces when they speak to him, as he can read lips. Excellent to see a main character with a disability that isn't magically cured by love or some other means. Oliver is deaf, his hearing aid project is not meant to cure his deafness but to help others. I also appreciated the time Oliver took to become friends, then lovers, with Christina. He doesn't insist on consummating their marriage. When he does feel more for Christina, he moves slowly, he constantly checks in that she is on the same page as he is, and he tells her how to get him to immediately stop if she doesn't want to go further, especially since he cannot hear her if he's not looking at her face. Swoon. Oliver also uses the "pull-out" method when they do make love, and it isn't seen as a

awwwwwwwwweeeee oliver is the cutestt