Yet Adrian knows his wedded bliss is a fragile thing that could be destroyed when Meriel's memory returns-as, of course, it does. Having forgotten her aversion to Adrian, she promptly falls in love and marries him. She survives the fall, but is afflicted with amnesia. Standing in the royal forest, her falcon perched on her arm, she boldy claimed to be a Welsh commoner, not a noble Norman. Meriel would rather die than marry Adrian, and hurls herself out of a window. Mary Jo Putney - Lady Meriel de Vere had deceived Adrian, Earl of Shropshire. Wrenched from a monastery before taking final vows, Adrian de Lancey's fighting skill wins him an earldom. Adrian is attracted to the beautiful, spirited Meriel, so he locks her into a chamber in his castle and tries to coerce her into becoming his mistress when this fails, he proposes marriage. Uncommon Vows Show full title By Mary Jo Putney 4 / 5 ( 16 ratings ) About this ebook A medieval prequel to the Bride Trilogy In England's tumultuous 12th century.

Twelfth-century England is troubled by political unrest, and Meriel de Vere, not knowing if her family and the Earl of Shropshire are friends or enemies, conceals her identity when she is mistaken for a poacher by the hunting party of the earl, Adrian of Warfield. When he wasn’t defeating a dragon or rescuing a princess, he was often caught posing with Mary as a pair of paragons.

Few authors can pull off a medieval backdrop without stripping the era of its darkness or allowing its dramatic historical politics to overshadow the romance, but Putney makes it seem effortless. The effect is as uninspired as the work's inclusion of the hoary, ugly stereotype of a Jewish moneylender. My research focused on the fact that George and Mary were often paired up in the medieval era as models of the ideal knight and ideal lady, superlatives in a chivalric age of icons. 'Uncommon Vows is my favorite among Mary Jo Putneys books. This disappointing historical romance serves up a plot hinging on amnesia-a hopelessly overworked gimmick-and a distressing scenario of abuse that even Putney's ( Dearly Beloved ) substantial doses of Christian piety cannot disguise.

Uncommon Vows by Mary Jo Putney