Lisa's Reviews > Surrender

*ARC Given to Blog for Honest Review*

4 “Freedom” “Trecale” “not just one thing” Kisses

Gahhhhhhhhhhhh…I just knew Surrender was going to do some amazing things to me and I REALLY love it when I’m right! I have been dying to get my hot little hands on Gareth Harris from the get go…it’s impossible not to want to crawl around in his delicious brain but W-O-W! I had no idea…it was way more than I ever expected, and I mean that in the best ways possible. I truly loved every second of his and Sloan’s story…I never knew what was coming and that’s not something that happens to me often. So…Surrender is the fourth book in the Harris Brothers Series (Challenge, Endurance, Keeper) – each book is about a different brother and they can be read as complete standalones…but…I highly recommend reading this series in order. The characters and events are building off each previous book and right now I’m so insanely in love with this family I cannot even tell you. Everything is clearly explained so it wouldn’t be a bad thing if they were read out of order…but trust me – this is a series that needs to be read!

Gareth Harris…I think if you look up the definition of tall, dark and brooding there is a picture of Gareth. He has the silent and stoic role down to a freakin’ T – he could probably teach classes, but this isn’t an act for him. There are very good, solid reasons for all of Gareth’s behaviors and every single one of them cracked my heart wide open. What happened with his mom changed all of his siblings, clearly – I’ve been able to experience how her death changed every single brother leading up to Gareth’s, but no one knew her like Gareth did and holy tissue alert…I was not ready!!! I cannot even begin to count the number of times this man stole my heart…he was beyond all my expectations and dreams.

“I miss you, Sloan. We used to be friends.”
Her eyes are practically hooded when she licks her lips and replies, “We were never friends.”
I smirk. “We were friendly.”
She smirks back. “Too friendly I seem to recall.”
I lose the humour on my face and pin her with a sincere look. I do miss her. I miss her face and the effect she has on me. She makes me feel lighter, even if she’s twitching nervously. “Well, I don’t have many friends, but I counted you as one.”

Sloan Montgomery…well, it would truly take a very unique and special woman to capture the interest of Gareth Harris and I don’t think anyone could have fit the bill better than this woman. I don’t even know what I was truly expecting…but she’s exactly what I didn’t know I wanted for Gareth. She’s captivating in the most unexpected ways…she’s kind and gentle, funny and sweet – it’s impossible to deny her charm. I loved her intuitiveness…I loved her passion for her job…and I loved how absolutely genuine she was. Sloan has a lot of inner strength…it’s something that I think she has had to develop over time with her past, and as much as I hate some of the things that she has had to get through, I love that it has made her such a strong, reliable character.

‘Gone is the insecure, hostile woman from outside. The woman standing before me, sliding the short black scarf around her neck back and forth, is a bloody siren calling in ships from the sea. It’s enchanting. On the surface, she’s peaches and cream with a sweet, pleasing sort of nature. But there’s a fire beneath the surface of her that cannot be denied.’

GAH! These two slayed me…and I loved every second of it. Honestly, after seeing the brief interaction between Gareth and Sloan that we get a glimpse of in Endurance, I was intrigued to get the rest of the story…and I was so not disappointed! The reality was actually better than the story I had concocted in my head, and that’s saying something cause my imagination has had two books to run away with itself. I honestly had no clue what might be facing these two…but I knew it wouldn’t be easy…but damn, I didn’t know it was going to be this hard. It’s amazing to see both of them work through their issues…especially because it’s a breakthrough on so many levels for Gareth – every time he opened up to Sloan I thought my heart was going to melt from the feels. Nothing about them is ordinary or expected but every second is beautiful and breathtaking.

‘More than anything, I want to be free. From my mind. From my thoughts. From my past and my future. I want this.
“Let’s do this, Treacle.”’

Amy Daws…I fall more and more in love with this chicks brain with every word I read of this series – and after reading the first part of Gareth’s story, I want to hug her and strangle her…and then beg her for more. I am so loving every second of where she is taking this story, these characters – there are so many options and she has surprised me with every twist and turn. The growth that she has shown with Sloan and Gareth blows me away with every page, the journey their relationship is taking them makes me want to explode from happiness because this is everything that Gareth deserves. There are a lot of different ways that she can take this next book and I haven’t a clue what she is going to do…but the only thing I do hope there is resolution on (FINALLY) is with Gareth and his dad. What happened between them in Surrender tore me up and I really hope Gareth can have a breakthrough like the other brothers have. Something that did catch my eye with Surrender - all of the other books, for the most part, have been written in UK English – since the book is based in England, obviously it makes sense. There might have been a couple of things that snuck by, but for the most part it has worked really well. The snafu with Surrender is Sloan is American…yet her POV is still written with a lot of UK English spelling – it probably wouldn’t have stuck out to me except there is a running joke about Sloan and Gareth correcting each other on football/soccer and other UK/US terms and stuff – it’s super cute, but it made me question why her POV was written more Americanized.

‘He sinks his teeth onto my lower lip, sucking it between his lips so hard, it’s like he’s draining every last part of me. All those bits I’ve been holding back. All those feelings I’ve denied for weeks, for days, for minutes, for seconds. I’ve kept this part of me away from him because I knew deep down what would happen if I didn’t.
This.
This would happen.
Gareth Harris would claim me.’

Alright…*deep sigh* the ending…wow. Lots of things I loved – so many things…all the things I didn’t see coming, the way they were orchestrated, the way they made me feel, all of it was fantastic. A LOT happens in the last two or three chapters…I can’t really say it felt rushed but it was a lot to keep up with and I would have kind of liked a tiny bit more time to process…get ahold of emotions and check in with the characters. Especially at almost the very end, there was an element of surprise with Sloan’s actions…which I did like…but at the same time, I felt like I missed out on a little bit of seeing some of her thought process – but it was totally worth it given the pay off with what happened, so I got over that quickly. But…now we must discuss…the cliffhanger *dum dum dummmmmmmm* Yes…it’s a cliffhanger – and this one is a dooooozy! Here’s the thing though…I am one of those rare readers…I love cliffhangers. I preface that by saying, I love them if done right…a lot has to come together to make an effective and good cliffhanger and this one had a lot of those elements – I liked it, it definitely achieved its goal, cause I’m D-Y-I-N-G for Dominate but…I can’t say that I completely loved it until I see how it plays out in the next book. I can’t say more without spoiling it but I was really surprised with the direction…but I have questions…so I’m intrigued to see where Amy takes it. Regardless, I looooove Sloan and Gareth and I have to know what’s going to happen next. #HarrisAddict