Sarah's Surrender (Novella‪)‬

The Bound & Determined series has been such fun to read and this was no exception. Sarah & Jonathan are such interesting characters and their situation was just heartbreaking. This book was such a great example of how misunderstandings can rip lives apart. I just love how the story is set in a "brothel" because for the depth of their love to be discovered in such an unlikely setting is just plain fun. I can't wait to read more!

The second in this series I have read, the first being a full-length novel, and we are again returning to the world of Lavinia Kent’s creation. Sarah had been utterly in love with Jonathan years ago until his unexpected inheritance and unbelievable cruelty pushed her away. She’s been (we are told) reeling from that ever since, unwilling to enter into another relationship that will challenge her emotions.

Now engaged to a man who can erase her father’s debts, Sarah is convinced that love is eluded her forever. She takes a chance for one night of pure passion, with Jonathan, before she subjugates herself to a life she believes will be less than satisfactory.

Jonathan is now older, and has learned from his mistakes. Or so he says. But he can’t forget the Sarah he knew, even as he believes she can never be what he needs as a mate. In one respect, this is a lovers reunited story, but in many ways, their connection was fragile and only felt remotely plausible to me during their play at Madame Rouge’s club.

Dialogue took the place of expanding on characterization and was meant to increase empathy as they traded tales of woe. While in some respects this worked for me, there were so many other moments where a word, or touch, could highlight the tenuous connection that was slowly gathering strength, and then the conversation added yet another element. Extra moments, issues and scenes became extraneous and crowded the story, even if the the repetition of interior monologues so common in Bound and Determined is not as prevalent. While the title felt as if it was edited down to novella length, it didn’t quite go far enough, in my opinion, as so many elements and issues for the characters crowded the field.

Societal expectations are, as expected in an erotic title, ignored for the most part, and it works for this series, but the lack of focus on how the characters were built and presented just didn’t work for me.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.