Sawyer Quinn, $3.99, ISBN 979-8201003869
Historical Erotica, 2022
Oh no, Isla Deveroux is fearful and worried because Caden Gallagher, the man she loves, is implicated in killing a bloke in a duel. He has to flee, while she is to be wed to a guy that, conveniently enough, is an enemy of the Earl of Andilet.
Caden wants her to flee with him, but she has a better idea. You know what her idea is, I’m sure (hint: look again at the title of this thing), as this one needs a reason to be classified as a work of erotic historical romance.
Similar to the first entry in Sawyer Quinn’s Innocence Lost series, Surrendered Innocence ends on a cliffhanger and it’s like a few chapters of a longer novel that may or may not be published anytime soon. I wonder if the author could have tampered the irritation of readers that may not be happy with the cliffhanger part had she not sold her short stories at $3.99, which is normally the price of a series romance or a long novella.
I admit, I like a lot of things about this one.
For one, the author is confident that I don’t need every scrap of information dumped onto me in the first page, so information here is presented slowly and cohesively as things develop. The heroine, for example, is worried and scared for the hero, so her internal monologues focus on these emotions. She doesn’t go on tangents about how she first met the earl, how the earl has six strapping brothers, et cetera.
As a result, the story flows in an urgent, tight, precise pace that reels me in from the first page. Whether it’s turbulent emotions or rolling in the sheets, everything here adds to the story and makes it flow. Nothing feels wasted. I can’t help feeling that the author should hold classes on how to do solid pacing and engaging internal monologues.
On the other hand, come on. Come on.
The author ends her story like that, in a way that is super cruel in how it leaves me hanging. I am actually enjoying how Caden is so obsessively in lust and love with Isla, and then… woosh, the story ends on a cliffhanger that just leaves me hanging by two fingers, so to speak.
That’s really mean! It’s a good thing that I am happy enough with the rest of the story that I didn’t instinctively send the author a how-dare-you email. Hopefully, other readers will be as charitable, heh.
