Surrender by Amanda Quick

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The Rake Appreciation Society book for September was Surrender by Amanda Quick. This is one of her older standalones and is one of the one's that are popular for Stepback Saturday! I used Surrender to cover the prompts Green on the Cover for Fall in Love and Blue (character that deals with a physical issue) for Color Me Romantic. I also used this to cover the Bang in the Night prompt Published in October and chose the song In the Blue of the Evening off of Frank Sinatra's Reprise Rarities Volume 1.

Victoria is firmly on the shelf. As a lady with a hefty dowry, she has avoided matrimony since a lot of the gentlemen that have been pursuing her have been fortune hunters. When she meets Lucas, the Earl of Stonevale, she can't seem to escape his company. As he finagles more and more chances to be around Victoria, they make a deal. Lucas helps Victoria with the various moonlight escapades she's been wanting to do, and in turn he's going to take the time to charm and seduce her into becoming his wife. When they get caught in a compromising position and forced to wed she finally learns the truth, he is destitute and needs the money. As she travels to his country estate to help get things in order, they struggle to find their footing in their new relationship and with everything out in the open.

Now, I feel like I've said this a lot, but going into a Amanda Quick classic historical, you have to almost expect for things to get a little bit bonkers. I think you just can't go into her books looking to take it super seriously. Not that you can't critique it, but I feel like I get the most enjoyment when I can just go with flow and see what story she's trying to tell. But more specifically to this book, I absolutely adored Lucas. He's probably my favorite of Amanda Quick's heroes so far. I just loved how even though he was going into their situation hoping to seduce her into becoming his wife, he went about it in a way to try to get her to fall in love with him. While I can see others maybe finding this a little bit off, it just really worked for me. Plus Lucas was falling just as much (if not quicker) than Victoria was.

This really only got 4-stars because I really struggled with Victoria at times. She would make some hypocritical decisions that bothered me and then there was her anger that she nurtured throughout the second half of the book. It just bothered me that she would acknowledge society's expectations but then at times act naive or surprised when certain actions were being taken to reign her in or keep her from getting ruined. Honestly though, I could've gotten over that if the second half she really kind of grew up, but I really wanted to throat punch her. Understandably she is angry with Lucas and that he was hiding the true financial status of him and his estate. Where I kind of gave up trying to like her is when she first arrives to the village. She is having a conversation with herself acknowledging that the money he was hoping to receive from her dowry wasn't just to buy fripperies, but actually needed to keep himself and the people that rely on him and his estate living. She recognizes that there needs to be improvements made to get the livestock and agriculture back up to par. She active tries to spend as much as she can in the village to help the local economy. Even though she is realizing that the money he gains from marrying her isn't coming from a greedy place, but one of survival, she actively chooses to deny the reason behind his actions (and the importance of them) and unnecessarily hold on to her anger. She literally tells herself that she doesn't care and she is going to stay angry. It just felt so immature, but the fact that she has this realization when she first arrives on her own but then actively ignores and pretends she didn't drove me absolutely bonkers.

Even though I struggled with Victoria's character, especially during the second half of the book, Lucas really saved it for me and I really enjoyed most of my time reading this book. It's definitely near to the top of my list of favorites of her books so far. I definitely want to continue reading these gorgeous standalones and hope to one day get the full collection with stepbacks! If you haven't participated in Rake Appreciation Society before, it's hosted by Crystal and Jenn on youtube. If you want to check out the live show for Surrender, it was another great meeting. I always have such a fun time discussion historical romance with the other participants!

Have you read Surrender?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Surrender, Amanda Quick, 4-stars, 0 days, Audiobook, 362 pages, published in 1990, traditionally published