Review: Sweet Surrender by Maya Banks

Joining me today is Daphne, from Daphne's Adventures. Yay!

Book Description:

The author of For Her Pleasure makes readers surrender to erotic romantic suspense. It doesn't get much hotter.

Dallas cop Gray Montgomery is on a mission to find the guy who killed his partner. So far, he's found a link between the killer and Faith, a beautiful stranger-and if Gray has to get close to her to catch the killer, so be it. And closer still when the killer makes his own moves on the vulnerable young woman.

Ames: Compared to Maya's last print book, what did you think of Sweet Surrender? Were you hesitant to read it based on her last foray into print?

Daphne: Oh you mean her last book that I remember the cover to (woman in lacy underwear?) but not the actual story? Hmm yah I know I read that one and I must've not liked it because I can't remember much except that it was two stories?

You're actually very correct... I was hesitant to read SS when Isaw the cover of the book and realized it might've been similar to her last one. I guess I gave this a chance b/c reading the description… it was just one story. And it might just be a coincidence, but right before reading SS I had JUST finished an erotica with a BDSM theme. So perhaps I was intrigued to see how Maya handled the same theme.

What did you think about the BDSM theme in this? Did you think it was pretty tame? Pretty hot?

Ames: Ok - I was hesitant to read this, but I figured I had to give her writing another chance. I mean, I love her ebooks. I'm glad I did give her a chance, I really enjoyed Sweet Surrender.

I'm not a big fan of BDSM, and I thought the BDSM theme in this novel was pretty tame. I liked how she wanted a real dom, not a guy playacting. I guess because that's how I see most books - they're just acting it out. But for Faith and Gray, she wanted him to take care of her, but she was still a strong woman and all that - I thought that worked really well. Am I making sense? LOL

Daphne: Yes absolutely! Totally makes sense. In fact, I completely agree. About halfway through the book when Gray and Faith were finally going to get into the BDSM stuff, I was at that point thinking it was going to be lame. I was pleasantly surprised that Gray turned her down and recognized the fact that it wouldn't have been a true form of submission on her part.

I guess compared to other BDSM books (especially the naughty ebook ones I've seen) this was very tame, but like we said before... most realistic without getting into too kinky playacting roles.
Was it just me though, or did the writing seem a bit... unbalanced... as far as tone of voice throughout the story? Let me explain. I felt like the first half of the book was all tame, no sex, no dirty words... and even Gray's thoughts about Faith were pretty tame. Then all of a sudden when we see their first sexual encounter at The Club (which only took eighteen-freakin chapters to get to), Gray is all of a sudden pushing her down on her knees and telling her to "take it deep." Yikes! LIke all of a sudden it went from mild story to holy smokes.

Here's another example... when Faith and Gray are hiding away, Gray then invites Micah or whoever to have a threesome with them. Where did that come from? Just seemed kinda random considering we didn't see much interaction with Micah until toward the end.

Now am I making sense?

Ames: You're making perfect sense! There was a Part 1, which set up the characters, and a Part 2, where they got jiggy with it. LOL BUT, although it was unbalanced, it was still good stuff. Wouldn't you say? :P

Speaking of Micah - I do feel like their threesome was very random. Just to do it? Maybe if Faith and Gray had developed their relationship further, it would have made more sense. But again, it was still hot stuff.

I think all these arguments just go to show, that although this wasn't perfect, it was still pretty damn good. Definitely better than For Her Pleasure.

Daphne: I agree. Still good despite the few random things. Good because it was hot. Hah! And let's not kid ourselves, half the reason we read this stuff is for the sex, not so much the story. Overall I'd give it a 3 out of 5. Would've been a 4 had the first part not been so long and void of sex scenes. =)

Ames: LOL yeah, I'm going to give it a B-. A definite improvement.

Thanks for the buddy review Daph!