Cute and entertaining at best, cringe-worthy and forced at worst.

I liked the tension between Gray and Kira, and the initial circumstances of their marriage were somewhat believeable, but as the story progressed the characters didn’t. So many cliches. So much telling and almost no showing. Those sudden confrontations where all these major truths that have been not so subtly hinted at beforehand are unearthed… so unrealistic.

But then again!! The descriptions of the vineyard were stunning. Charlotte was a great character. I really was brought into the world of this story, but it sincerely was not for me. It gave me CoHo vibes the way red flags were brushed off and intense topics were skirted over or used solely to progress the romance between the MCs. Not for me, but thanks NetGalley for the free copy.

2/5 ⭐️

As someone who has a love for multiple Mia Sheridan books, this one was beyond disappointing. It lacked an emotional connection. What Mia succeeds at is developing a story with a painful background that leaves you feeling optimistic and just overall happy and relieved- but there was not a moment that I felt that the emotions were built up correctly. There was so much that happened in the book, it felt as if it was too chaotic- to the point where it’s boring and disengaging. I found that Grayson- the male main character- was incredibly immature and acted out on his emotions. This is an example of a couple that just won’t last forever… despite what the epilogue makes you think.

(Honest review in exchange for an ARC from the publisher- thank you for the opportunity.)

Thanks to the publisher and author for providing me with a review copy of Grayson's Vow.

Grayson's Vow took me on an emotional rollercoaster. It's an emotionally engaging read, that brought out all those gut-wrenching, heart-aching emotions for both the hero and heroine. I couldn't stop reading because I kept waiting for their Happily-Ever-After.

This book has all my favorite tropes: a marriage of convenience, enemies to lovers, and a grumpy hero paired with a sunshine heroine.

The story beautifully blends angst and lighthearted moments. Set in a beautiful vineyard with memorable secondary characters, it will remind you of Beauty and the Beast with a dragon of a hero and a witchy heroine (that's how the characters describe one another)

Both the hero and the heroine have had a rough past, and this book takes you on a journey of how they start off by antagonizing one another initially, but slowly, as they spend time together, you see the sparks fly, the walls falling down, hearts breaking and then mending, when despite all the challenges, they make their way back to each other.

Grayson's Vow is a standalone and written in dual POV. It follows Kira and Grayson's journey of heartbreak, healing, and love, and I definitely recommend it!

This is my first marriage or convenience trope book and I loved it. The main characters Kira and Grayson have enough similarities but their differences make them stronger as a couple. There was great character development more from Grayson than with Kira. Overall a good and quick read with a little spice.

Slight Spoiler ahead!
Their character flaws definitely cause a lot of conflict in the end but they move past it not from trying to change each other but understanding each other and promising to do the same.

GRAYSON’S VOW – Mia Sheridan
Bloom Books
ISBN: 978-1-7282-8508-5
July 4, 2023
Contemporary Romance

Napa, California – Present Day

Kira Dallaire desperately needs a husband. Not that she wants to be married, but in order to gain access to her million-dollar trust fund, she must marry. At the moment, Kira is homeless and down to her last few hundred dollars. She could return to her father’s home, but he would force her to marry a man she cannot trust and despises. While at the bank getting the last of her money out of it, she spots a man whom she recognizes. He is former prison convict Grayson Hawthorn, a man her influential father put the screws in to force him into a more harsher prison sentence. It appears that Grayson is attempting to get a loan for the winery he owns, but the bank has just turned him down. Kira’s wheels turn inside her head. She needs a husband, and he needs money. Why not forge an alliance and marry?

The last thing Grayson ever expected was a strange woman coming up to him and asking him to marry her in exchange for half a million dollars. But that is what happens in GRAYSON’S VOW by Mia Sheridan. He spent five years in prison for a crime he did commit—though he was trying to protect a woman in the process and she could never be found to corroborate his story. While Grayson was in prison, his hateful father died. While his stepmother and half-brother received cash from the estate, Grayson was left the family winery—with no cash and the winery in shambles. He needs money to get it going again. After the bank turns him down, Kira shows up on his doorstep and makes him an offer he should refuse—but he can’t. They settle on the terms and marry in a civil service ceremony.

Kira envisions Grayson as being like a dragon. He certainly has the personality of one. He roars and breathes fire but deep down, she can see the pain he has gone through. Their marriage is in name only; however, they soon are getting to know each other, and the beginning of an attraction soon blooms. Kira doesn’t tell Grayson about how awful her father has been to her and how he was forcing her to marry a man she no longer loved. As for Grayson, he has his own deep dark secret. He went into prison loving a woman who then married his half-brother. Meanwhile, Grayson gets the winery going again in earnest with the money from Kira’s trust fund. And she begins to feel safe from the wrath of her father. Or can she?

The chemistry between Kira and Grayson is slow to develop. After all, they don’t know each other, and he makes it hard to get close to him. In fact, Kira is literally staying in a rundown cottage with no hot water while he lives in the main house. He goaded her into it, but once he realizes how resilient she is, he tries to get her to move into the house. Nope. She wants to maintain her independence. But Kira and Grayson must appear married to the outside world and things get dicey when his half-brother and wife show up for a visit. Will staying in the same bedroom change how they feel about each other? Kira and Grayson go through a lot before they can find their way to each other. It will be painful, but it is their growing arc that finally brings them together in GRAYSON’S VOW.

A wonderful and emotional tale of two wounded souls coming together, don’t miss GRAYSON’S VOW.

Patti Fischer
Romance Reviews Today

I rated this book 3,75 stars. I liked it, but didn't love it. The start of the book was a bit slow so it took me a bit to get into it. When I got into it, I read it very fast. I really like the characters, I love how Mia Sheridan writes her characters. They both had a rough past and I liked how it made the characters feel real. I really like Kira. Grayson I really liked in the beginning, but I feel like in the end I began to not like him a lot. In the last chapters, a lot happened which was a to much in my opinion. There was so much happening and it went a bit to fast. That was the part of the book that made me not love it. A lot was thrown in at the end, and I didn't really like that.
If you like marriage of convenience I do recommend this book, it was just not my favorite.

<b>Grayson's Vow by Mia Sheridan is a true emotional rollercoaster. The author captured the full spectrum of emotions through Grayson and Kira's marriage of convenience, forced proximity, enemies to lovers and grumpy-sunshine romance. Sometimes It's swoony, Sometimes it was heartaching, sometimes it was pure angst and sometimes it was full of hope and redemption.</b>

Kira proposes a fake marriage to Grayson Hawthorn, ex convict and owner of failing Hawthorn winery so that she can get the money left behind for her and then she can send it to the charities those she helps. Grayson accepts it because he needs the money Kira will share with him but he is weary of Kira because of her spoiled rich girl background. They have to make it convincing and that means living closely..and that opened up so many parts of their hearts. But life can be really cruel.

<b>I think Grayson and Kira named each other the perfect nicknames..The Dragon and The Witch. Kira the sweetest, the brightest, the kindest soul. Her beautiful heart is her strength and also..her downfall. She is passionate about helping others at any cost. She also loves easily and openly and that means she is frequently hurt too. Her family life has been horrendous and her politically aspiring father manipulated her and almost abused her faith and I am so surprised that she still manages to look at life in such an optimistic and hopeful way. Her witty, cute and borderline sassy personality is infectious and Grayson couldn't help but fall. This man has never received true unconditional love. He has been treated like an unwanted nuisance, an inconvenience by the same people who were supposed to love and protect him. Being a felon just made it harder for him. But this vineyard is everything to him as it was left to him by his father who never considered him worthy of anything. Kira changed him slowly and surely from this brooding grumpy hurting man to the smiling man in love.</b>

But their pasts are connected In a twisted way and too many skeletons are waiting in closet for them. Trust is hard for Grayson and when things are difficult, his first instinct is to shut down and push people away. Kira goes in this self preserving mode too but she does that in a different way. It was an arrangement first and Grayson made it clear with his cold attitude but Kira slowly melted his ice cold heart. It was a torturing slow burn. Excruciatingly slow. The chemistry is cracking but the focus here is definitely on their emotional connection. I was swooning the way they were slowly falling for each other and then the angst struck and I was completely heartbroken. But don't worry. The author will mend it too. The ending was simply beautiful. A perfect read for every hardcore romance lover.</b>

I reviewed an early copy voluntarily

Thank you netgalley and Bloom books for an earc of Grayson’s Vow. This was a great romance and I adore this book.

This was a great romance. Really well written with an excellent story and great characters.. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would award more than 5 stars if I could. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me access to an early copy of this book.

I am a forever Mia Sheridan fan!!
I loved this book so much! Marriage of convenience sign me up!! Kira and Grayson were delightful to read about. The epilogue too was fantastic. I just loved this book, that’s all!

I love Mia Sheridan's books. She always has two broken characters who need each other to heal and be better versions of themselves. That is my favorite kind of story. This book is a marriage of convenience which is not my favorite trope because you spend the whole time yelling at them to actually get together. That was not the case for this book. Why not have some fun when you know it will end in a few months anyway? Kira and Grayson both come from not good families but Kira can get out from her father's thumb. She just needs to marry so she can get her trust money from her grandmother. Grayson's family vineyard is failing and he needs money to help get it back off the ground. This could work out for both of them. They can get divorced later. Or they can fall in love. Whichever. I loved the banter between them and how Kira brought out a playful side in Grayson.

-She kept me constantly off balance, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why I liked it so much.

-"Like you said, it's easier to help in the present if you understand the past."

-"She needs love more than anything. It will hurt her more if you hold it back."

"...there's nothing on earth like the feel of someone who loves you grasping your hand in the dark when you're lost and afraid."

-I wanted Grayson to have love. The love of family he's been denied.

-"True love is the greatest leap of faith there is."

-Because true love is not only the flower, true love is also the thorns.

Tropes: Marriage of Convenience, Grumpy x Sunshine

TW: Grief, Homelessness, Mention of Cancer, Mention of Physical Abuse, Killing of Animal (Not from MCs), Mention of Drugs, Alcohol, Physical Abuse, Verbal Abuse, Mention of Cheating, Mention of Suicide Attempt

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom Books for providing me with an E-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

Kira has limited time to figure out a plan to get her Gram's inheritance or she has to go back to her rich, abusive father's house. After overhearing a man that she didn't think she will see again, Grayson, get denied for a loan for his deceased fathers vineyard, that's when Kira steps in. Kira proposes a marriage to Grayson to help them both out with money. Kira gets half of the inheritance, and she won't be stuck homeless, and Grayson gets the other half of the inheritance so he will be able to run his vineyard business.

I enjoyed following Kira and Grayson's journey throughout this book. In the beginning, they did not get along, but they put up with each other. They gave each other nicknames, "dragon and little witch," and their attraction for one another got stronger and stronger. This book was an emotional rollercoaster. The author wrote flashbacks from both characters, and you were able to see their past and how much it traumatized them. I highly recommend Mia Sheridan's work! I can't wait to read more from her!

Thank you Netgalley and Bloombooks for a copy of this book.

“And bear this in mind: love is not always smooth and easy. Love can be piercing. Love means exposing yourself—all of yourself, every tender part—to being hurt. Because true love is not only the flower; true love is also the thorns.”

💍 Marriage of Convenience
💍Enemies to Lovers
💍Forced Proximity
💍Found Family
💍Grumpy/Sunshine

Kira is desperate for a plan. She either needs to marry for her Gram’s inheritance or go back to her rich abusive father.
After overhearing Grayson be denied a loan for his deceased fathers vineyard, she has her plan. Kira proposes marriage to Grayson to help them both out with money. This is when the marriage of convenience comes in.
I enjoyed Kira and Grayson’s journey. They didn’t get along in the beginning and called each other “dragon and little witch” but the real attraction gets stronger and stronger. Both of their past comes back to haunt them and they need to work through it even when at times it seems impossible. I absolutely adored the secondary characters! It is true found family. I do feel Kira forgave Grayson too easily especially since he could be a real jerk at times. I also would have liked to see more banter and conversation between the two of them.

Grayson and Kira are cute and I liked seeing them fall in love. I do wish that they spent a bit more time with each other when he wasn't being a brooding asshole. I also liked the nicknames that they had for each other, I thought it was adorable.

I received an arc through netgalley.

I will preface this by saying that this is my first Mia Sheridan book - and so I’m going to give her another shot.

However.

This reminded me of reading a Judith McNaught novel in the late 1990’s - I felt like I was back in my late teens. It felt a little dated - and by that I mean, Grayson’s whole persona - ex felon, rejected by his father, trying to redeem the family business and his standing in the community - rejected by the woman he was going to marry (who then married his brother). It was everything piled onto our alpha male. Oh - and he also had a butler and housekeeper.

Then we have Kira - daughter of a power hungry, controlling man. Who’s only option to get out from under his thumb is to marry someone in order to get her grandmother’s inheritance.

It reminded me so much of “Perfect” by McNaught. And that’s not a BAD thing - I just was surprised that’s how I felt reading it.

This story has your:
▪️ enemies to lovers
▪️ redemption story
▪️ escape from a controlling father
▪️ love triumphs all

And I think for fans of Mia Sheridan you will likely really enjoy this one. There is some obvious spice (Sheridan does the chemistry between the characters well)- I think if the book had been about 100 pages shorter I would have been all in. Otherwise it was just a little too long for me and felt a tad repetitive.

Giving this 2.5 stars and I totally think it has its target audience.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Grayson's family's vineyard is on the verge of bankruptcy. Because of his past, you can't get a loan. He absolutely wants to respect the vow he made his father, so when Kira, who is also down on her luck, shows up at his door proposing an arrangement that would benefit both of them, he can't afford to refuse.
This is a marriage of convenience, enemies to lovers, grumpy sunshine romance. Did I love it? No. Did I like it? Kinda. I loved the first half mostly, how they slowly warmed up to each, other up until the two MMCs actually get married. From then on, I felt there was no real tension and chemistry between the two of them. Gray was annoyingly judgmental, and Kira, although she seems to be a very strong woman at first, seems week for part of the book (although I love how everything is resolved in the end and what she did to get what she wanted). I loved Virgil's character and would've liked to see more of him. Charlotte and Walter were also very good characters. I absolutely despised her father (but that was the point). I would've liked a little more dialogue and banter between the dragon and the little witch. All in all, it was a little too long and shallow, but I mostly enjoyed the read.
I received an advance review copy for this book for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

"We met in the middle."

Mia Sheridan sure does know how to write a compelling story full of trauma and characters you can't help but either love or hate. Both Kira and Grayson are in need of an escape from their pasts, but without even a cent to either of their names, a controlling father and a criminal history it's going to take a lot of patience and a somewhat unconventional business deal.

The deal is this: Kira has a small fortune left to her by a grandmother who has passed. The catch is that she has to be married in order to inherit the money. Who better to marry than Grayson Hawthorn, an ex-con who has a somewhat hidden tie to her already, unbeknownst to him? It's perfect. No strings, no troubles. They get married, get the money and after a year, divorce and go their separate ways.

As Grayson uses his share of the money to rebuild the crumbling remains of a family vineyard left to him, Kira and the friends and found family they find along the way manage to repair more than just the vineyard: they also repair his heart. Normally in books, the background characters don't garner much attention. They are their to further the story or provide snippets of comedy and nothing more. However, in Grayson's Vow they each played vital roles. From Charlotte and her homemade sweets and grandmotherly wisdom, Walter with his 'sirs' and constant support, to Harley and his girlfriend, they all made up for a wonderful mix of found-family. (And they kept Grayson a little more human, because if we're being honest, he spent most of this book being an utter pain in the ass.)

Grayson's Vow is about learning to forgive. It's about taking the hard things in life and turning them into something beautiful, and not judging based off of what you see on the surface. It's about compromise, and learning to grow as a person. And in the end, it's about love.

Grayson's Vow was first published in 2015, and is being republished as of July 4, 2023 with a brand new look. Thank you to Sourcebooks, Bloom Books, NetGalley and the author for the digital advanced reader's copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"If you let it, pain makes more space for love within you. And the love we carry inside makes us strong when nothing else can."

I quite enjoy the marriage of convenience trope and Mia Sheridan knows how to write a love story that tugs at the heart. Both our main characters Kira and Grayson had their own family issues and were finding it hard to trust the other but I loved how they came together throughout the book. A combination of sweet and steamy, this story was a pleasure to read.

This book really just took me for a ride. Though I've found that I love Mia Sheridan's storylines more than I love her writing and pacing.

The first probably 25% of this book was slow for me and I almost didn’t finish it. However, I am glad that I did. The rest of it pulled together & kept me wanting to read.

Kira & Grayson meet under weird conditions but the development of their relationship is very realistic, not insta love like a lot of books.

Grayson and Kira take you through so many emotions during their stories. They show you that family doesn’t always mean they’re good for you. These two are both very vulnerable and broken and I think that adds a beautiful touch to the story.

Mia’s writing is beautifully done. Her characters are beautifully written. Marriage of convenience is a trope that I’ve had troubles reading but Mia wrote Grayson & Kira’s story well and it made me keep wanting to read to see what happens next.