Surrender (MacKinnon's Rangers, #1)

by Pamela Clare

[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.