A new provocative love story from the New York Times bestselling author of All the Ugly and Wonderful Things. “The story of Zee and Gentry is the reason we read.” —Brunonia Barry Their journey will break them—or save them. A moving and complicated love story for our time, The Reckless Oath We Made redefines what it means to be heroic. Zee has never admitted to needing anybody. But she … redefines what it means to be heroic. Zee has never admitted to needing anybody. But she needs Gentry. Her tough exterior shelters a heart that’s loyal to the point of self-destruction, while autistic Gentry wears his heart on his sleeve, including his desire to protect Zee at all costs. When an abduction tears Zee’s family apart, she turns to Gentry—and sets in motion a journey and a love that will change their lives forever.
“[A] mind-blowing book that has left me scrambling to pick up the pieces of my brain and my shattered heart . . . Prepare to have your mind and heart expanded to their limits.” —The Oklahoman
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The Reckless Oath We Made is unlike any other book I’ve read. It’s magical and rich and deep. I am not a big re-reader, but this one is going on my keeper shelf to take down and sip from when I need to remember how great books can be.
One of the great beauties of Greenwood’s voice (of which there are many) is her gift for bringing to life the people most of us pass in the street without a thought. She has deep, unflinching respect for her characters, for a world that’s harsh and often nearly impossible to navigate. She writes about poverty, that place of barely getting by, and the intolerable choices that have to be made, and the challenge of being “good” in a world that only rewards success and beauty.
I finished this book in bed, desperate to finish before I slept, and the ending is so exquisite that I wanted to start all over again at the beginning. It’s a dark tale, filled with lost and wounded misfits–and one misfit with an extraordinary moral code who is unshakable and steadfast, a true knight who does what he must. He’s also a misfit, in so many ways, but I loved Gentry as much as any character I’ve ever met, and he’ll stay with me a long time. But most of all, I loved Zee. She hasn’t been given much, and she makes some terrible mistakes, but she never stops striving to love and give and make the world a better place.
It’s a work of mastery and poetry and a damned good read.
Chivalry is not dead. Bryn Greenwood creates vivid characters whose allegiance to each other lives up to the highest principles of loyalty and honor against seemingly insurmountable odds. A richly written and captivating love story with heart.
—Luna Saint Claire, author of The Sleeping Serpent
Bryn Greenwood is one of the best writers working today. Her imagination is amazing and her characters are unique. Get this one, you won’t be sorry.
This will likely be my favorite book of 2019. I was lucky enough to get an early read — it releases in August — and the story and its characters have stayed with me. The best thing about this book is everything: inventive storytelling, singular characters, perspectives that push and challenge and expand your worldview. A truly unforgettable tale that redefines what it means to be heroic. Your inner phoenix will roar!
A gorgeously-written hypnotic novel….Greenwood is an enormously talented writer, whose stunning prose and uniquely gritty and sympathetic characters completely captivated me.
Leave it to Bryn Greenwood to find loyalty and love in a world that seems devoid of both….Captivating, complex, and relentless, the story of Zee and Gentry is the reason we read, the chance to take a journey we’d never dare in real life, one that changes our perspective forever.
This book is extremely well written and hard to put down. The storytelling from each persons point of view was interesting and allowed you to get to know each of the characters.
I enjoyed this book very much. I didn’t think I would enjoy the parts where mid English was used but the more I read, the more I enjoyed it.
Thank you for allowing me to read this as an ARC.
Heart-tugging, unconventional, and gritty!
The Reckless Oath We Made is an incredibly raw, moving novel about life in small-town Kansas where making ends meet is hard, responsibility weighs heavy, and loyalty, innocence, and love comes in many different forms.
The writing style is unique, with the narration being a mixture of contemporary and Middle English. The characters are tormented, fragile, and opportunistic. And the plot takes us on an emotional rollercoaster ride full of life, love, violence, tension, special needs, incarceration, ignorance, injustice, death, loss and selfless heroism.
The Reckless Oath We Made is a very complex, intriguing, tragic romance that highlights just how powerful and personally destructive a solemn promise can be. It grips you from the very first page and leaves your heart bleeding for every single character, even the ones who at times are truly difficult to even like.
Bryn Greenwood excites my readers heart so differently. Expect the unexpected when it comes to this book. Greenwood pushes boundaries and pushes readers out of preconceived comfort zones so effortlessly. Her writers voice is so unique and so purely honest. I became a fan of hers from her last published book and was quite excited to read The Reckless Oath We Made. And make no mistake, this book is quite different than anything I’ve ever read.
This story of familial loyalty and how these characters learn the good, bad, and ugly from that loyalty was as interesting as it was frustrating. It’s about unlikely friendships and the loyalty we learn from such relationships that catch us off guard. It’s kind of crazy to feel equally fascinated and horrified, quite honestly, in the story you’re reading. I have no idea if I even “like” this book in the traditional sense of the word. I saw another reviewer mention she didn’t know if she “got” the book and quite frankly, I’m not sure that I did either. And having now read two books from this author I think these feelings are what she wants out of readers, to be uncomfortable yet understanding and interested. Because I do know that I was captivated by this and felt a strong need to see it through to the end. What I find is that I liked how different it was, how it made me feel (both comfortable and uncomfortable), how the details slowly kept unfolding and the writing from multiple points of view kept carrying me forward into something new and undiscovered.
The way in which Greenwood hits major themes with her words hammers the authenticity into her storytelling. She constantly keeps you on your toes, keeps you thinking deeply about what’s happening and relishes the darker and poorer side of humanity with a thirst for knowledge and wisdom from experience. The story is sad and hopeful. And while I feel as though I’ve said hardly anything at all useful in this review, because it’s a hard book to review without telling you exactly what happens, know that it’s a uniquely haunting and interesting piece of fiction.
Zee is a waitress trying to keep her family together. Her Dad went to jail for bank robbery when she was little and it has been up to her to hold her family together. Her mom refuses to leave her house and is a hoarder and her older sister has 5 year Marcus as a single mom. She meets Sir Gentry and he is autistic and speaks only in old English and is a knight. He believes he is Zee’s champion. When Zee’s sister is kidnapped by escaping convicts, it is up to Zee and Sir Gentry to save her! I LOVED the characters in the book and they will stay in my heart. I loved the descriptions in the book as I could see everything as described! I truly loved this book!!! I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.
The Old English was a little jarring and took some getting used to, but this was a fantastic story. I have had Bryn Greenwood’s first novel in my TBR pile for forever because of the wonderful reviews it received, but this is my first novel by this author. I loved the different points of view telling the single story. I loved the flawed characters. And, after I got used to it, I even loved the Old English that made ordinary things sound “big”. I will definitely be moving the blacklist up higher on the TBR pile!
Bryn never ceases to amaze me with her characters and the nitty gritty of the real world!
These characters are so real and relatable. I love the way this book is written, and the multiple POVs lend themselves to the story in a unique way. Despite her upbringing, Zee is so accepting of people and their quirks, which makes me very happy for Gentry. So many things could have gone very badly for Gentry in this story and I was so nervous for him during the second half of the book. Zee has a lot of burdens to bare and that is 100% relatable to me. I admired her for trying her best and doing that she felt was right, regardless of societies expectations.
Sometimes in your life you stumble upon a book that forever changes the way you view the world, All The Ugly and Wonderful Things was that book for me. It is absolutely in a league of its own in my heart so I am not even going to try and compare this book to that. I highly suggest you do the same. With that being said, I LOVED The Reckless Oath We Made and am happily adding it to my favorites list of 2019.
When a book has multiple POV’s they can sometimes make the chapters feel choppy and all over the place but Greenwood doesn’t disappoint in weaving all of these together perfectly. You really get the full spectrum of what is going on and what each character is not only feeling but all of their true intentions. Some of the plot lines would have been totally lost to interpretation without those key chapters so I love that we really get the full picture. There are quite a few characters in this book but each very different and given depth so there is never any confusion as to who is who. Zee is not at all your typical princess but Gentry is a full fledge legitimate knight who has vowed to be her champion. I was worried at first that because he spoke in complete Middle English it would be hard to get into but it was such a part of his character that it didn’t throw me off at all, Gentry was actually my favorite! It took only a few chapters for me to feel fully invested in Zee and Gentry, so much so that I even chucked my book across the couch at one point because I was so mad at a certain character. This book was full of bad decisions but at the core of them all was this wholehearted loyalty. A lot of the time I felt myself holding my breath and crossing my fingers that everything would just work out in the end.
Because I just could not put this book down, I went back and forth between reading my physical copy and listening to the audiobook and it worked out perfectly. The full cast of narrators really made the pages and characters come alive. If audiobooks are your thing this is one you do not want to miss out on!
A very different love story between an autistic man who hears voices and fancies himself a knight and a woman with more problems than she can count. At times harsh and gritty it is also sweet and tender. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this beautiful book and look forward to reading more by this author.
I loved this story and I positively loved the characters! Similar to her previous release, Greenwood’s fantastic writing style made the story stand out with her now familiar multiple POV’s, ranging from main characters to the one-chapter minor roles.
Zee is a fascinating heroine who straddles the line between careless and responsible, but her motivations are almost always altruistic. Gentry is one of my favorite kind of heroes- misunderstood and/or underestimated. Since most of his POV was told in medieval English, I had to sometimes read his passages slowly in order to interpret them correctly. They actually seemed easier to understand when listening to the audio version. Regardless, I enjoyed Gentry’s attraction and unashamed reasons for it’s modern use. The author managed to create a couple that normally wouldn’t seem to work and showing all the reasons why they did.
My only negative were a couple of actions by law enforcement that didn’t ring true, but they only managed to infuriate me on the character’s behalf versus decreasing my enjoyment of the book as a whole. Zee and Gentry’s tale wasn’t always pretty and it was sometimes very sad, but I was captivated within the first chapter and wholly satisfied by the story’s end.
Audio Note: This was an amazing audio production and no doubt, will be a favorite of 2020. Nine different narrators voice the various POV’s and I don’t have a negative thing to say about any of them.
I wish that I could find the right words to describe how much I loved this book. I’ve been trying to formulate a review since I finished it almost two weeks ago and I still can’t put thoughts down coherently. If that isn’t the sign of a good book, then I don’t know what is.
There are very few characters that stay with me for long periods of time. Sure, the plot may have been memorable and I may have given it a five-star rating, but eventually that book will fade until I come across it again and my memory is jogged. But to stay with me forever? That is someone special.
There have only been a handful of characters that fall into this category and Gentry is certainly one of them. I don’t know that I’ve ever met a character like him and I applaud Greenwood for creating someone so perfectly…different. As I write that, I struggle with my word choice. “Different” isn’t the right word for Gentry, but neither is unique. He’s endearing and sweet. Loyal and kind. Everything that a true Knight should be (that’s a nod to the character, lol). If there is one reason to read this book, it is because of Gentry
This book is interesting and unusual. The story centers on Zee, a young woman living in rural Kansas who’s never been able to catch a break. After a motorcycle crash, the last in a long line of unfortunate events in her life, she meets Gentry at physical therapy. An autistic man with a haphazard haircut who speaks in Middle English and is dedicated to jousting and building a castle in the woods, he is taken with Zee and vows to be her protector at all costs.
When Zee’s sister is take hostage by two escaped convicts from the prison where she volunteers, the quest narrative begins. Zee must save her sister and Gentry comes along as Zee’s champion. The story is told through many first person perspectives including Zee, Gentry, their parents, friends and many others. I found the shifting perspectives to be too numerous and a bit distracting. Perhaps limiting to four or five would have made the story easier to follow. I often found myself turning back to the beginning of the chapter to remind myself who was speaking. Despite this, I did enjoy the unique premise and watching Zee and Gentry’s relationship develop and change.
What a complex utterly un-put-downable book. Bryn Greenwood in two books has become an auto-buy author for me. Her love stories are hard and real and difficult, but I come away feeling hopeful and affirmed. Beautiful stories set in really tough circumstances – characters are written with utter compassion. An amazing book.
Fantastic. I know a lot of people may be scared to read this book after ATUAWT but I would tell you, pick up this book. Personally, I am a huge fan of the way that Bryn writes in multiple POV and this book was no exception. I thought that the way that Gentry spoke would bother me, but I grew to absolutely love it. The story about a completely flawed drug dealer and her autistic champion won my heart. There were parts they were heartbreakingly sad, and other parts that made me laugh and smile. I knew in the end that all would work out, but it was a long hard road getting there. There were turns I didn’t expect, but in the end the story had me captivated.