Grayson’s Vow by Mia Sheridan

Narrated by Maxine Mitchell and Joe Arden

What begins as a contentious business arrangement leads to a path of unexpected healing and love for a couple that once was short changed in the love department, albeit in different ways, by their parents. Lovers of emotional, angst-filled, New Adult romances will not want to miss the satisfying, hope-filled romantic journey in Grayson’s Vow. Further magnifying the feel good, root for the underdog classic feel of this story – and yet fired and heated exchanges between a couple that starts off in a dubious relationship – is the satisfying narration by Maxine Mitchell and Joe Arden. Their dual narration made me feel like I was truly witnessing the book unfold before me.

Time is running out for Kira Dallaire. Money had never previously been an issue for Kira who grew up in a rich political family. But when she decides to try her hand at her own independence after fleeing a rather unfortunate event, she finds herself with limited time to meet the terms of her grandmother’s inheritance.

Grayson Hawthorn is equally pressed for time and he is running out of ideas. More than anything he wants to save the vineyard that he inherited from his father. However, after an incident that lands him in jail, no bank will give him a loan. With the grapes just days away from needing to be picked, he is at his wits end, and it is at this very desperate moment that he crosses paths with Kira.

But can a poor little rich girl (as Grayson first sees Kira) looking for her next philanthropic effort, be his salvation? Not being one to trust easily, Grayson accepts Kira’s outlandish proposal, but remains determined to keep her at arm’s length. However, as past events from each of their lives begin to surface, they will soon find that they need to make a decision as to who they can truly trust their hearts and futures to.

Maxine Mitchell and Joe Arden narrate Grayson’s Vow in the typical New Adult fashion with Ms. Mitchell performing the chapters from Kira’s point of view and Mr. Arden the ones from Grayson’s. This approach fits in seamlessly with Ms. Sheridan’s writing style which focuses in large part on how each perceives the other’s actions and the unconventional arrangement that brought them together.

Ms. Mitchell has the perfect youthful sounding voice to narrate New Adult romances. In addition to her pleasing voice, Ms. Mitchell also did a great job of varying her pitch to create authentic, different sounding characters. Not only were her characters distinguishable, but I also felt that they were an accurate portrayal of the personality traits of each character. For example, Grayson sounded dark and broody, and just generally indifferent as Ms. Sheridan wrote his part, especially at the beginning of book. However, Ms. Mitchell ensured that his voice evolved into a more caring hero as he began to open up later in the book. Kira meanwhile sounded like a well-intentioned, generally good soul, and you could hear her passion and desire to help others by just listening to Ms. Mitchell’s voice.

The one observation that I will make about Ms. Mitchell’s performance is that you could occasionally hear audible gasps for air in between passages. However, this is primarily an effect that could have been subdued or eliminated in the editing, so I did not greatly factor it into the performance grade.

Mr. Arden is equally skilled in creating a number of differentiated voices that also do justice to the character traits that Ms. Sheridan has penned. The difference between his male and female characters is a little less pronounced, but he manages to impart sufficient nuances with slightly less pitch variance such that the listener can easily distinguish who is speaking without dialogue tags. Beyond his characterizations of Grayson and Kira, what I also really enjoyed about Mr. Arden’s performance was his characterizations of some of the secondary characters, like the butler and his wife. Mr. Arden’s portrayal of these important figures in Grayson’s life, who, while not in blood, in deed were in essence like Grayson’s parents, really added a whole other level of dynamic and empathetic cast members to this already touching story.

All in all, color me impressed and satisfied. This may have been my first experience with Mia Sheridan, and the dynamic narrating team of Maxine Mitchell and Joe Arden, but I will definitely be looking to add more of their titles to my listened to titles shortly!

BJ

Narration: B+

Book Content: A-

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: Minimal/Minimal Domestic Violence (Verbal/a slap)

Genre: Contemporary Romance - New Adult

Publisher: Audible Studios

Grayson's Vow was provided to AudioGals for a review.