Surrender: Wrecked Book 2, Kelly Fox

Jake and Jean-Pierre have a memorable meet-cute only to find that there's a whole lot that could keep them from grasping every happiness together.  When Jake's past and their individual mental and emotional health combine it could spell disaster for their budding relationship, but with determination, patience, a fantastic community, and a bit of bedroom spice, they just might find the key to everything they've ever hoped for.

This dealt with a few heavy topics and quite a bit of attention was focused on it.  I definitely thought it was important to be thorough in discussing exactly what was going on mentally for Jake so we could understand just what stood between him and the world he could have with Jean-Pierre.  That intention meant well, but the execution became long and drawn out and quite repetitive after a while.  It dominated the entire story and rather than letting Jake become who he was supposed to be, there was a whole lot of telling and no evolution until nearly the end of the story.

There was a bit of a subplot dealing with Jake's past and how he became the way he was and it was a big surprise confrontation at the end that wrapped that up.  The villain was a surprise, but the whole scene was kind of a jumble that didn't work for me.  A lot of build-up within the scene for both Jake and the situation itself and the actual action felt disjointed and unsatisfying for all the anticipation.

In terms of the more intimate encounters, there wasn't a whole lot of that and what we got was a very loose application of their shared interests that wasn't given enough attention to feel right and grounded.  This could likely have been solved by more objective streamlining.  Having their needs mentioned in the synopsis and then to have so little attention given to it in the story itself was a bit of a miss for me.  I think it just needed a better overall balance.  A better balance between PTSD, romantic progress, and character evolution was definitely needed.

The positives were the overall attitude of Jean-Pierre.  His insistence that Jake is his heart's home was so incredibly sweet and I loved his determination to give Jake everything he needed.  And combining that with his honesty about his own struggles gave him a genuineness that was a bright spot in the story.  The other huge bonus of this story was the community of Wrecked.  I'm crazy about all these men and the safe environment they've created for everyone.

I liked the story as a whole, it just needs a bit more work to be great in my opinion.  There are quite a few characters that I'm incredibly interested in and will likely be back for more, and I may even jump back to Sanctuary to dive in from the beginning.  As a series I find this quite enjoyable, as an individual story, it likely isn't the best representation of either the author's work or the overall series' intentions.

*$3.99 on Amazon

Dark cloud, meet seven-foot wall of sunshine.

We’ve been friends for almost a year, we both volunteer at my brother-in-law’s gym for combat vets, and the chemistry between us is undeniable. So, getting together should be a no brainer, right?

Yeah, not so much.

Pairing up the joyful refugee NBA hero with me—the grumpy wanna-be artist who cracks jokes about being waterboarded—has got to be the mother of all bad ideas.

An even worse idea? Let’s add a splash of kink to the mix.

We’re all going to need a little therapy after this.