Loveswept #604

MILD SPOILERS 😉

5 Stars

The Book

Surrender, Baby was published by Bantam’s Loveswept line and is the last in Suzanne Forster’s Stealth Commandos Trilogy (Loveswept #541 Child Bride & #581 Night of the Panther were the first two installments) about a trio of ex-soldiers turned bounty hunter/mercenaries. Although the plots are similar to each other in that separated lovers come together to reignite their passions, I haven’t yet to read them.

The Set Up

Miranda Witherspoon needs a man. Desperately so.

That is, she needs a soldier of fortune to find her man. Brazilian drug lords have kidnaped her fiancé, and Miranda will do whatever it takes to find him. To do so, she hires Geoff Dias, ex-military, Special Forces.

Miranda is prim and proper, her engagement not a love match but an expected marriage of two supposedly like-minded individuals who value security above romance. While she worries for her fiancé’s life, she’s also worried about losing the position she’s staked out for herself in the business world, having come from adverse circumstances and poverty.

I remember laughing at Miranda’s thoughts when she met Geoff in his musky, all-male gym. He, wearing torn sweats, she, trying to ignore the holes that might or might not reveal his junk while eying the posters in his messy excuse of an office: posters of guns, naked women, and naked women with guns. Subtle this guy wasn’t about his tastes.

Geoff seems eerily familiar to Miranda, and there’s a good reason why.

The Plot

Years ago, Miranda had been stranded at the altar. Drunk and wearing her wedding dress, she roamed the streets of LA in a daze. Geoff, riding by on his motorcycle (a Harley, natch), saw this strange sight and, Good Samaritan that he was, pulled over to check up on her. He offered her a ride home, and Miranda hopped onto his bike. That rolling vibrator was too much for the emotionally vulnerable Miranda, and she let her hands slip and do the talking. Before these two knew what was going on, they were at it like bunnies.

The next day Miranda was gone, and Geoff has been haunted by her ever since. So intense was their time together that Miranda has been in his dreams and fantasies as his muse, and Geoff, also an artist, created poignant and evocative works of art that sought to recreate that lost moment.

Geoff recognizes Miranda on sight, while it takes her some time to remember him. When she does, she’s torn. Miranda has put her past behind her, which includes torrid one-night stands with long-haired, artistic hunks who ride Harleys. But Geoff is the only man she trusts who can help her save her fiancé.

Against his better judgment, Geoff takes the job, and he and Miranda head to Brazil during Carnaval. The hot, sultry atmosphere of Rio de Janeiro makes for pulsing heart rates. Along the way, their chemistry is sizzling. Miranda tries her best to deflect it, yet Geoff is too much of a virile man to be dismissed so easily. Miranda’s boyfriend is eventually freed, but is she happy with her chosen life? Will Geoff’s free spirit and crazy ways melt her cold heart?

Final Analysis of Surrender, Baby

The writing here is intense but also tongue-in-cheek at times. This book is hot and funny. The fact that Geoff’s a badass with a hog, one with a hot-pink heart, and the words “Surrender Baby” emblazoned on it in honor of his woman? A thing of cornball, romantic beauty.

This book was so OTT crazy, it–dare I say it?–made me laugh and cry. That is a hackneyed cliché of a line in a review, but Surrender, Baby by Suzanne Forster is one of those reads I loved because it’s so brainless. You might hate it for the same reason, or might not, but it will definitely draw out emotions as this book was not boring.

(Note: The cover of this book isn’t that great, I know. Just ignore it and focus on the story, and you’ll have a blast reading this.)