Guest Review: Wicked Surrender by Jade Lee

The daughter of an actress, Scher Martin feels she’ll never fulfill her dreams of acquiring a good home and having a respectable family, so she agrees to be the mistress of Brandon Cates, Viscount Blackthorn.

But when Brandon’s cousin proposes marriage, Scher finds herself torn between the propriety she craves and the love of a dark and troubled man.

Scheherazade Martin was to be respectable. The only way she feels that she can do this is to get married and have children. You see, her mother, the actress never had respect outside of her own theatre and in the end that didn’t help her.

Kit Frazier is the 4th son of an earl. He fancies himself in love with Scher and proposes marriage which she accepts. Brandon Cates is Kit’s uncle and was sent by the earl to get either Kit away from Scher or Scher away from Kit but when Brandon sees and meets Scher he ends up wanting her for himself. Unfortunately all he’s offering is to take care of her as his mistress – not marriage. Though Kit is her fiancé, Scher can’t seem to bring herself to send Brandon out of her life for good.

Oh Scher – I liked her so much on occasion and then thought her ridiculous at others. The times I liked her was when she was sticking up for herself – as well as sticking up for those she cared for. It was when she was showing the strength that I think a woman who runs her own business way back then should show. But then there were the times that she was with Kit out in society. Being rebuffed in Hyde Park; having Kit’s family – especially his mother – say vicious things to her while eating dinner; having Kit’s sister-in-law be entirely malicious and not fighting back. These were times that I just felt sorry for her because she wanted respectability but where was her dignity! She just put up with it until it was just too much to bear and then I thought it was ages too late. I think she learned her lesson in the end but it came at a pretty high price.

Brandon – the poor guy was completely tortured by his past, the things he’d done and the events he’d lived through. I really felt for him at times and then he dropped a bombshell on Scher and I liked him a whole lot less after that! He was worried about honor but until the very end of the book I don’t think he achieved it.

While I didn’t love the book I thought it had some very good parts to it and I really liked Jade Lee’s writing style. After reading a blurb for her next book – which is connected to a character from this book – I think I’ll definitely be reading it.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5