Surrender (MacKinnon's Rangers, #1)

by Pamela Clare

Unlawfully charged with a crime and now fighting for the hated British, Iain MacKinnon disobeyed orders and endangered his brothers and his mission to rescue a woman. And though he sensed Annie was hiding something from him, it was too late to hold back his heart...

• ISBN10: 0425244946
• ISBN13: 9780425244944
• Publish Date: 6 December 2011 (first published 1 March 2003)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Penguin USA
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780425244944

Reviews

[Amanda]

If there's anything I got from reading Surrender, it's that my reading tastes have changed over the years. It was an odd realization, even though it seems obvious, given a little bit of thought. (Apparently this is not the kind of thinking I do regarding books.) (I'm fine with that.)

Iain was larger than life (incredibly strong and resourceful), Annie depended on him almost exclusively (I guess penises make everything better), their "fights" always coincided with other people attempting to get them apart. It wasn't a bad book. I just skimmed over parts. Even over some of the sex scenes because my WORD those two get it on quite a bit. Like, seriously. How many times do you have to get it on in a book before it becomes gratuitous?

It always seems wrong when I have to point out gratuitous sex as a bad thing.

Anyway. Surrender feels "old school" historical romance, but it's probably only "old school" in that it's the type of romance I used to love but don't anymore because I've changed. I did like that Surrender's set in 1750s in America, but would have liked more American-ness. If that's even a thing. Iain and Annie were both from Scotland, so it still had that vibe.

I don't have much else to add beyond this---I'd actually forgotten I hadn't finished it some time during the week, if that's any indication how of gripping the book was. I'm vaguely curious about the rest of the MacKinnon brothers, but not, at this point, enough to pick up the rest of the series.

[Angie]

Surrender started off really great! Annie's home is attacked and Iain MacKinnon comes to save her even though it means disobeying orders. Then the two have to trek through the wilderness, evading the French and Native Americans to get back to Fort Edward. It was like a frontier adventure! But once the couple is back with Iain's men, things kind of start going downhill, and then once the first sex scene happens, it really started going downhill.

Like I said, the beginning of Surrender is great. I enjoyed the backstories for both Annie and Iain. Both have been convicted for crimes they didn't commit and are just trying to get by. Iain is waiting for the end of the war, which he's being forced to fight on the wrong side. Annie has fourteen years of indentured servitude after her uncle frames her as a thief. There's also a lot of political tension, because Annie and Iain are also on opposite sides of the war, but love conquers all!

After the initial surviving in the wilderness portion, Surrender started to lose me. It just got boring. In fact, even though I'm writing this review right after finishing, I can't actually remember much from the middle portion of the book. That's a bad sign. I do know that I was completely annoyed by William's parts. What was his purpose?! He wants Annie to himself, then he wants to know her secrets, then he wants to expose her secrets which aren't secrets anymore because everyone found out 50 pages ago, and then he's summoning her evil uncle, and then that stuff in the epilogue. Just...why? It made the story drag and I didn't care.

As for the romance, it was fine. There's an immediate attraction because Annie is "an uncommon beauty" and Iain is so big and strong! There's some stolen kisses, but Annie makes it clear that she is not giving up her virtue as thank you for rescuing her. It's all she has that belongs to her and she's keeping it. Iain is okay with this, because he'd marry her if he took her virginity, but he has nothing to offer a wife. Of course, this means they do other stuff. At least until one night Iain barges into the cabin in a rage and is basically like "Woman, we're doing this thing now!" She doesn't say no, but he also doesn't really give her opportunity to say yes. All of his talk of honor just went out the window because he had to have her right now! Um, no. Let's not.

I was disappointed in Surrender. The first third had me hooked, but then the rest just unraveled. The romance was also lackluster for me. I didn't sense anything beyond lust from either of them, and the way Iain initiates their first time was not okay. The ending was pretty good with the return of evil uncle, but even that didn't make up for anything that happened before.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.