My Surrender, Volume 3

Wow. I thought this book was the best in the trilogy. The first book was rather tedious, the second slightly better and this one was excellent. While a few things did make me roll my eyes, overall this novel is exactly what romance should be about. The two main characters know each other over a matter of years as spy contacts. They are clearly interested in each other, but don't do anything about it until they have to spend more time with each other. I love the fact that they have senses of humor. Charlotte takes matters into her own hands and deals with everything herself. She doesn't need Dand rushing to the rescue. She has great comeback lines, too. This is no prissy miss. Dand was wonderful. Just the right blend of dashing, diffident and in love. I thought he and Charlotte had wonderful chemistry and their love scenes were excellent. I often just skip over them and really liked these. But I particularly liked that he respected her and her abilities, while not always agreeing with her. Other critics talk about sending Charlotte on a mission to retrieve a letter which could save thousands, but she had been a spy for 2 years and there has to be a certain suspension of belief in a romance novel! The story was interesting, but I thought clear from the beginning of the first novel who the villain was. That part of the novel was pretty much par for the course. Buy this novel for Dand and Charlotte. They have a wonderful romance!

Everybody has their personal favorites but I've always said you can't go wrong with a book by Connie Brockway and MY SURRENDER proves me right again! I just loved Charlotte and Dand! I thought their banter hit all of the right notes and Ms. Brockway creates a delicious blend of sensual tension and suspense as she ties up all of the loose ends of her Rose Hunters trilogy. I thought it couldn't get any better than MY PLEASURE but MY SURRENDER is right up there with the Best of Brockway!

I am so darn tired of romance readers whining about cliches but then when it comes to reading a book that has any subtlety in it at all, they start screaming that it's not hot enough. MY SURRENDER had so much depth to it and the love affair between Charloette and Dand is based on respect as well as intense passion. I really felt the anguish that Charlotte and Dand had over how they could not tell one another they loved one another and still do what they needed to do. It was a very moving story and it was told as much by what the characters couldn't say to one another as what they did. I think this book showed that sometimes when everything doesn't always turn out perfectly its even more satisfying than when it does. For example, bad guys really do slide by without any harm ever coming to them and I applauded the fact that Brockway didn't tie everything up with bows. Another cliche would have been if Dand had refused to let Charlotte become another man's mistress but instead locked her in a room despite the fact that so many lives relied on her becoming this guy's mistress. Okay, the virginity thing kind of stopped me for a bit too until I realized that Charlotte was thrown into her role as a substitute at the last minute. After that I totally bought that she just pushed all that to the back of her thoughts while she tried to see if she could even make the plan work. And that same reason was why the "authorities" let someone so young and inexperienced have such an important mission. She was a last minute substitute. It was her or no one. Anyway I loved this book. Everything was so well thought out and the humorous bits were great. Especially like the baroness. Dand was dangerous and passionate and trying so hard to let Charlotte go and Charlotte was just desperate to do the right thing, no matter how much it hurt her. I'll read it again.

(I'm not sure I can even write a review that isn't bitter about something.) While this is the third book of a trilogy, it could easily be read by itself. Brockaway has included enough background that the story makes sense but it still feels fresh. In a way, the trilogy feels like this was the book she wanted to write and the others were just warm up sessions. Dand and Charlotte jump off the page in that 'instant classic' way some characters do. I don't want to give major plot points away but while this book does have a highlander in it, this isn't a Scottish romance in the genre sense. Nor is it a true spy book. My Surrender steps outside genre convention to involve you emotionally. Charlotte is set on a path that makes her hurt those close to her. Brockaway doesn't gloss that aspect over, as it usually is. The break between Charlotte and those who love her feels very real. Nor does she set Dand up as the white knight saving the day (though he often does). It's not until the last section of the book that you fully understand how the story has been laid out. What you thought you were reading is twisted slightly so that everything which came before is changed. I am very rarely surprised in an ending, but she got me. I almost didn't read My Surrender tonight, thinking the resolution of the 'mystery' would be tedious. I've never been so wrong about being right. I did know who the 'bad guy' was, but his name was all I knew. This is romance at it's best. Clear a space on the keeper shelf for it.

My Surrender completes the Rose Hunter trilogy by Rita award winner and two-time Rita nominee for 2005, Connie Brockway. Charlotte Nash, the most headstrong of the three Nash daughters truly shines in this tale of intrigue, scandal and sacrifice. Charlotte has taken the role of spy very seriously, after all, who would believe that such a flibbertigibbet could carry out such a role. She has cultivated a "certain reputation" among the ton while still managing to keep her morals intact and above question. The questions about her morality don't bother Charlotte, but they do concern Dand Ross. Dand, Andrew, Andre, call him what you will, it is very obvious that this member of the Rose Hunters has his own secrets to protect. At first the reader isn't sure whether or not he even likes Lottie - until one begins to see below the surface. Dand might be called carefree, but again, that is only the surface of this young man. And that, truly, is what My Surrender is all about in my view. Seeing what lies below the surface, seeing what lies below the faces shown to society and to our friends. This third in the series was definitely worth waiting for and anyone who is not touched by the strength of Dand and Lottie, by the fortitude they show to one another and to their cause, is not looking below that surface, not seeing what is truly important. Honor, courage, and above all, love.