Book Review: Surrender the Heart by Mary Lu Tyndall

Genre: Pirate Romance

You’ll like this if you like: Heroines that aren’t Drop-Dead Gorgeous, Pirates, and Riveting Conflict.

Cleanliness: Twice, the heroine is nearly raped (by nearly, I mean the guy tackled her, though nothing else happened), but she’s rescued both times.

Hero type: Brooding
Noah’s hero type was rather hard to pin down, since for the first chunk of the book, he’s intentionally acting like a cur.

Favorite profound quote:

“You can’t know what God’s purpose is for the things that have happened until you see the end. It’s like the end of a good book, miss. Everything looks real bad until you get to the end.”

Favorite descriptive quote:

“Above him, the masts creaked under the strain of canvas glutted with the breath of the sea.”

 

From Amazon

For the sake of her ailing mother and destitute sister, Marianne Denton has become engaged to Noah Brenin, a merchantman she despises and who has no intentions of going through with the wedding himself. Unwillingly the volatile couple find themselves deeply entangled in the War of 1812 when Noah’s ship is taken by the British and they obtain knowledge that would greatly aid the United States effort. As they battle to stay alive, defy the enemy to save their country, and escape from a British warship, can they also fall deeply in love?

 

First of all, we have a classic case of Enemy Turned Lover and Trapped in Marriage, which causes lots of naturally occurring conflict in the romance. Marianne is very likable. For one thing, she’s insecure and plain, so if we can’t relate to her, we can at least feel sympathy towards her. She’s also stuck with caring for her sick, frail mother by herself. Throughout the book, she’s particularly courageous when it comes to helping or defending someone else. But her pure selflessness is what wins the hero, Noah over in the end. Noah hides underneath the façade of a cur, as mentioned above, so Marianne will break the engagement off herself. He doesn’t want to break the engagement off for her, because his father will be disappointed and it would make Marianne a disgrace. But Noah’s act quickly fades once they encounter difficult situations, and his kindness and protectiveness quickly fuse them together. The only issue I had was that near the climax the book kept switching from the hero’s POV to the heroine’s and back, leaving me on a cliffhanger every single time it switched. This section only spanned a few chapters, but it was kind of annoying. But for the vast majority of the book, how the author balances the tension is wonderful. I always found myself anticipating the next disaster 😉

 

Buy Surrender the Heart on Kindle

 

I’m considering starting a quotes section, as you can see above, in my reviews. What do you think? Do you have any favorite quotes from pirate romances—or any novels?

Recent Comments

  • Hannah
    August 22, 2016 - 7:48 pm · Reply

    Neat book! I think it is funny how Noah was trying to be a jerk to get rid of her. That sounds like something Earion would do, and the original version of Alaric as well. 😉 It sounds like the author was trying to build toward the climax with those cliffhangers, and I can see how it would be annoying, but it seems it accomplished its purpose – you couldn’t put it down!

    I like the quotes at the top! Those are a good idea.

    • Elizabeth Newsom
      September 3, 2016 - 9:37 pm · Reply

      Earion and Alaric are quite the characters 😉 You’ve gotta love them!
      I think that’s what she was doing too. I suppose it did!
      Thank you! Highlighting quotes is something I do anyway, so I might as well share it 🙂

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