The Reckless Oath We Made

June 15, 2019
A hot-tempered, gritty Kansas woman living on the edge and an autistic man obsessed with medieval chivalry team up in an unforgettable heroic quest to rescue her abducted sister. Zhorzha Trego's hardscrabble life takes a turn for the worse when older sister LaReigne, a volunteer at a local prison, is taken hostage with another woman by two escaped inmates. She learns the news while on a late-night train heading home to Wichita with her 5-year-old nephew, Marcus, after making a weed-smuggling run to Colorado. With a father who died in prison and a grieving mother who has become a 600-pound hoarder, the burden of supporting the family has fallen on redheaded Zee's tall shoulders, and waitressing can't even begin to cover her medical bills from a motorcycle accident that left her with chronic hip pain. The attention from the police and press causes Zee to lose her apartment, her job, and her car in short order. To the rescue arrives her eccentric knight, whom she had met at a physical therapy clinic two years earlier. Gentry Frank is on the spectrum; his inner voices convince him that he's Zee's champion. When he invites her and Marcus to stay with his loving, multiracial adoptive family, the unromantic Zee begins to connect with her odd suitor. After the second female hostage is found murdered, Zee realizes she must save LaReigne on her own. Together, she and the loyal Gentry embark on a dangerous journey. As in All the Ugly and Wonderful Things (2016), Greenwood depicts an unconventional romance with honesty and tenderness. Her short, briskly paced chapters keep the pages flying, and she expertly juggles nine different narrators with their own distinctive voices. The Middle English that Gentry speaks reveals his honorable nature and leavens the suspenseful storyline with fresh humor. Greenwood's upside-down contemporary fairy tale captivates with its wonderfully inventive storytelling and its compassionately drawn, flawed characters.

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 12, 2019
In Greenwood’s lyrical yet gritty latest (after 2016’s All the Ugly and Wonderful Things) LaReigne Trego-Gill has possibly been abducted by two escapees from the prison where she volunteers. Now, her sister, the brash and outspoken Zhorzha “Zee,” in near constant pain from a motorcycle accident, must juggle LaReigne’s son, Marcus; her hoarder mother; and a litany of money woes. Her family never recovered after Zee’s father died in prison while serving a sentence for armed robbery, and distrust of the police leads Zee to take LaReigne’s rescue into her own hands. Help comes in the form of self-declared knight Gentry Frank, 24, who is on the autism spectrum, hears voices, only speaks in Middle English, spars with real swords, and is building a castle in the woods. Gentry declared himself Zee’s champion after meeting her at physical therapy, and Zee feels a sense of belonging with his kind adoptive family. Their tentative friendship blossoms into much more, and the loyal Gentry refuses to let his Lady Zhorzha go into battle alone. Greenwood is an exquisite storyteller, using multiple narratives to effortlessly bring to life characters that are complex, flawed, generous, and utterly human, and Gentry and Zee’s tender, unusual romance is drawn in sweetly delicate strokes. Readers will be enchanted by this compassionate, winning novel. Agent: Jessica Regel, Foundry Literary + Media.

August 9, 2019

Zee is on a drug run with her young nephew, Marcus, when she discovers her sister, LaReigne, didn't return home the night before because she was taken hostage at the local prison where she volunteers. Zee arrives at her mom's house, where Gentry Frank, a literal modern knight-errant--swords and all--who is also on the autism spectrum is there to help her get through the ring of media surrounding the house. Zee needs somewhere to stay, so Gentry escorts her and Marcus to his family's home. Zee doesn't trust law enforcement because of her family's history, and she's afraid for her sister, especially after another hostage winds up dead. Gentry has spent his whole life training to be a knight; his anachronistic interests and his autism contributing to most people not taking him seriously. Now both must decide where their loyalties lie and what they are willing to sacrifice. Some readers may be put off by the frequent switching of points of view, especially Gentry's stylized Middle English. Also, the number of side characters and narrative threads means that many plot lines are not tied up so neatly. VERDICT Themes of chivalry, loyalty, family, and personal responsibility, along with a recognition that people don't need to be perfect to be worthy of love, make this latest from Greenwood (All the Ugly and Wonderful Things) a good fit for those looking for gritty contemporary realism in their romance novels.--Sydney Ashby, Metropolitan Lib. Sys., Oklahoma City

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2019
Zee is on her way back from a drug deal when the news breaks: her sister, a volunteer at the local prison, has been kidnapped by two escaped inmates. Immediately, her world, already beset by the motorcycle wreck that injured her hip and by her hoarder mother's thin grip on reality, becomes a nightmarish mess. With media camped out in front of her mother's house and nowhere to take her nephew while her sister is missing, Zee turns to the man who has been shadowing her since they met at physical therapy. Gentry, who speaks only in Old English and hears voices, had been watching over Zee for years at the urging of the voice called the Witch. As desperate circumstances force them together, Zee will find in Gentry a champion who takes on her fight to save her sister. Greenwood is unsparing in surveying the many obstacles Zee is up against?drug dealing and addiction, debt, distrust?and the inventiveness of the plot is nicely matched by the richness of the characters, as the unlikely duo of Zee and Gentry prepares for the battle of their lives.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)