"Secret Surrender" by Priscilla West

Book Information

"Secret Surrender" (Surrender series #2)

Written by Priscilla West

Note: the advance review copy of this ebook was generously provided to me by Blackbird Publishing, via Net Galley, in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.

The Story

This book picks up right where "Forbidden Surrender" left off.

The adventures of Vincent and Kristen continue, and this time, the theme of the book is safety. After the threat that is Marty is revealed in the last book, Vincent takes an active interest in keeping Kristen safe. They take a trip to the military surplus store, where after trying a few things on for size, she picks up two personal safety items.

Vincent immediately leaves to go on a business trip to Brazil, and he arranges to have a Skype session with Kristen while he is there. They engage in some pretty amazing video call sex while he's away, which leaves Kristen very hot and bothered -- about why he doesn't call her again for most of the rest of the trip.

Vincent redeems himself by telling her he'll take her someplace special when he returns, and she is immediately mollified.

Someplace "special" turns out to be (surprise!) Vincent's private island, where they have amazing sex in a tent on the beach, by a bonfire under the starry night sky, in his villa, and behind a secret waterfall.

When they hop over to a larger island for food and supplies, they run into Ariel Diamond, one of Vincent's ex girlfriends, for whom he got his diamond tattoo. Kristen proceeds to get extremely jealous, and she and Vincent have their first fight -- which is short lived, since he knows just what to say to make any woman forgive him.

This installment concludes with Vincent jetting off to another business trip, wherein he is too busy to call Kristen. She takes this as a sign of disinterest, and pines away for her unrequited feelings.

As soon as he returns, she plans to take him out to dinner at a fancy steak restaurant. Everything goes according to plan until she sees a text message pop up on his phone from Ariel, and completely loses it. She leaves the restaurant in a huff, and heads back home to sulk, totally ignoring his calls and messages, until she hears banging on her door.

She opens the door, thinking it is Vincent, coming to apologize, but it turns out to be Marty instead...

My Thoughts

The way this serial is going, it sort of feels like something on social media where the author hit the word limit on a first post, and just had to continue what she was saying in a second one... Which is sort of the same thing that happens at the end of this book, as well. Not so much a cliffhanger, as just running out of space.

At the military surplus store (in the middle of nowhere?), Kristen picks up a mace necklace, and a taser, also known as the girliest items that the store had to offer. Kristen starts to get on my nerves at this point, because she's so adamant about NOT needing protection, when CLEARLY, she has no idea how to defend herself. It's a little pathetic.

Kristen has decidedly taken a turn for the needy by this point, and it is almost ridiculous how she acts so childlike and he still stays with her, given his many other options.

On the private island, everything seems to be back to normal, with hot sex and the return of the sane Kristen -- until Ariel shows up and makes her completely insane with jealousy. If I wasn't already so convinced of Kristen's neediness, I might feel sorry for her, but at this point I'm sort of rooting for Ariel, even though it's clear that the author doesn't want to go in that direction.

When Vincent returns from yet another business trip, Kristen is predictably thrilled by his presence, then freaks it at the first given opportunity. She has become decidedly irritating, and not at all the girl that Vincent fell for in book 1, who was willing to take the risk of holding a poisonous spider, and go surfing for the first time.

The highlight of the book for me is the sex. The scenes are steamy and well written, and they make you want to phone a friend via your Skype app and reenact the video call experience for yourself.

Other than that, the storyline has taken a turn for the predictable, and the main female character seems to be spending her time turning into a needy, childish brat who no hot billionaire in his right mind would put up with -- especially not a former playboy with many other options.

Overall Rating

3.5 stars. This would be 2.5 stars if it weren't for the really really really hot sex scenes. They're that good.

Only recommended if you've read the first one, and want to see what happens next.