Title: Risky Surrender
Author: Robin Bielman
Series: Risk It
Genre: contemporary romance
Published: 2013
Pages: 109
Format read: ebook
Rating: C+
Risky Surrender is one of three novellas being released by Entangled’s Ever After line on August 26th as part of their “August Ever After” promotion. Having loved Robin’s Kissing the Maid of Honor, I was really looking forward to this book. In the end it was an enjoyable read, but felt a bit uneven.
Lucy Davenport is an archaeologist on a mission. She’s leery of love, because she feels that everyone she’s ever loved has died and left her–including her archaeologist husband and father, who both died while the three were working a job two years earlier. Her father’s final request asked Lucy to promise to find one last artifact, a legendary Aztec statue.
A legendary Aztec statue that she’s convinced is hidden on Keats McCall’s latest job site–a protected historical village that is closed to the public and definitely off-limits to Lucy.
Keats knows Lucy is up to something, but finds himself drawn to her for reasons that have nothing to do with heritage preservation. Will his determination to keep her close to him keep her out of trouble, or get him into it?
There were some really neat things about this book. Archaeologists, in my opinion, are one profession that should definitely be featured more often in romance books (Indiana Jones, anyone?) and I loved the setting of an ancient Aztec village–actually, I’d like to have “seen” more of it. The hero and heroine spent a day geocaching–again, awesome. As an added bonus, they took a group of students with them, as McCall apparently does every time he’s at a site near a geocache–seriously, how fabulous is this hero?
Overall, I thought Keats McCall was definitely the stronger character of the two. He was instantly likable, and continued to behave in a consistent manner throughout the book. Although I’m still not a hundred percent sure of what his job exactly entails, it is clear that he enjoys his work and is a strong and loyal person. I loved his interactions with the other characters–his friends and coworkers Connor and Clay especially–and, of course, his growing protectiveness for Lucy really made the book.
I found Lucy, on the other hand, to be a less consistent and sympathetic character. She spent a lot of time giving Keats mixed messages, and though she did have a difficult history, it didn’t seem to warrant her attitude towards relationships in general and him in particular. I felt that he’d proven himself worthy of trust far before she came even close to giving him any, and it was frustrating.
In a nutshell: I really enjoyed the hero, and perhaps with more page time, I could have come to appreciate Lucy’s character more. I was intrigued enough to pick up a copy of the first book in the series, Worth the Risk, and am definitely interested in seeing what Ms. Bielman has in store for us next, even though this one didn’t quite work for me.
I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Risky Surrender goes on sale on 8/26/13.
Buy Links
Author’s Links:
Website: http://robinbielman.com
Blog: http://robinbielman.com/blog
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobinBielman
Facebook: http://facebook.com/RobinBielmanWriter
Goodreads: http://goodreads.com/RobinBielman
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