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Secrets #3
In Total Surrender
Andreas Merrick is the king of London's dark underworld, having amassed unimaginable wealth and power...and a fierce reputation that leaves even the bravest men quaking in their boots. Yet one person is maddeningly unintimidated by his fearsome presence: the persistent Miss Phoebe Pace.
Equal parts honey and steel, Phoebe will stop at nothing to find her missing brother and save her family. Though associating with Andreas means peril and scandal, she never expects to experience a passion so intense that it threatens to consume her. But enigmatic Andreas is no ordinary man to love. He brings dangers from all sides -- without and within -- while tempting her beyond her wildest dreams...
Equal parts honey and steel, Phoebe will stop at nothing to find her missing brother and save her family. Though associating with Andreas means peril and scandal, she never expects to experience a passion so intense that it threatens to consume her. But enigmatic Andreas is no ordinary man to love. He brings dangers from all sides -- without and within -- while tempting her beyond her wildest dreams...
375 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 27, 2011
82 people are currently reading
2415 people want to read
About the author
Anne Mallory
12 books431 followersSome people have always known they wanted to write. Others fall into it and discover its inherent joy. I’m somewhere in between. As an avid reader, writing a novel had always tickled the back of my mind. There seem to be a lot of people who say, “Someday I’ll write a book.” For me, the feeling tickled, moved into an incessant knocking and finally became a dull roar. All I needed was to make that “someday” into “today.”
I’ve always considered myself a creator, so transitioning to writer was not as grueling as it might have been. From creating two minute stories for people on the street, to creating jewelry, crafts, stained glass, pottery, music, crazy art projects… the list of things I like to create (and buy all the necessary materials for) keeps getting longer amidst my family’s exasperated groans. I love to start something from scratch, and then mold and shape it into a finished project. Writing books provides a challenge I accept with relish (and a bit of hair pulling). Building a world, populating it with characters and giving them a script and satisfying ending - what more could a creative type ask for?
I’ve always loved romance novels, ever since I started sneaking them from my Mom in elementary school. I mean, what’s not to love? Rakish men and smart, feisty women, adventure and mystery, the love and loyalty between two people. Give me a roomful of romances, some Agatha Christie, some Edgar Allan Poe, the Harry Potter series and an armful of other fantasy novels, (and steady meals with chocolate) and I’m in heaven.
And heaven is what I consider a particular cottage on an inland lake in northern Michigan during the summertime. If you are headed “up north” this summer, maybe I’ll see you on the way…
Anne Bytes (or pseudo trivia)
Started writing on September 11th, 2001 as an escape from the day (needed an escape with a happy ending).
Thinks that 11pm is a perfectly normal time to begin reading a 400 page book.
Escaped from Alcatraz (story here).
Got a hole-in-one on a Par 3 and was just happy to have beaten her Dad on a hole for once. After a quick rotating hip dance, she was surprised to see her Dad still looking from the tee to the hole where the ball had bounced once and dropped in. His mouth was hanging open. Anne’s response? “What?” (In coding terms, Anne != golfer. That’s “Anne is obviously not a golfer” for you normal people).
Loves tubing (behind a boat) and roller coasters (Cedar Point, here we come!).
Loves paddleball, especially “extreme” paddleball. In the normal variety of paddleball, she helped score 432 hits with Cousins J and Mg one summer day.
Played at Carnegie Hall and was so excited she launched her violin bow across the stage when she got to the picking section of the piece. Thankfully said bow was recovered in time to start bowing once more.
Saw a Great White Shark in real life (at Monterey Bay Aquarium, thankfully).
Wrote her first (and only until Masquerading) book in sixth grade. It was a thriller/mystery centering around two sixth grade detectives. Her Mom assures her it is still well loved (read: stashed in the attic).
Began Masquerading the Marquess on Good Friday 2002, sold it on Good Friday 2003.
Considers herself a hobby collector. Friends and Family like to call her hobby “pack ratting.”
Can relate to the line in Office Space, “Um, I’m gonna need you to go ahead and come in tomorrow. So if you could be here around nine, that would be great. Oh, oh, yea… I forgot. I’m gonna also need you to come in Sunday too.”
I’ve always considered myself a creator, so transitioning to writer was not as grueling as it might have been. From creating two minute stories for people on the street, to creating jewelry, crafts, stained glass, pottery, music, crazy art projects… the list of things I like to create (and buy all the necessary materials for) keeps getting longer amidst my family’s exasperated groans. I love to start something from scratch, and then mold and shape it into a finished project. Writing books provides a challenge I accept with relish (and a bit of hair pulling). Building a world, populating it with characters and giving them a script and satisfying ending - what more could a creative type ask for?
I’ve always loved romance novels, ever since I started sneaking them from my Mom in elementary school. I mean, what’s not to love? Rakish men and smart, feisty women, adventure and mystery, the love and loyalty between two people. Give me a roomful of romances, some Agatha Christie, some Edgar Allan Poe, the Harry Potter series and an armful of other fantasy novels, (and steady meals with chocolate) and I’m in heaven.
And heaven is what I consider a particular cottage on an inland lake in northern Michigan during the summertime. If you are headed “up north” this summer, maybe I’ll see you on the way…
Anne Bytes (or pseudo trivia)
Started writing on September 11th, 2001 as an escape from the day (needed an escape with a happy ending).
Thinks that 11pm is a perfectly normal time to begin reading a 400 page book.
Escaped from Alcatraz (story here).
Got a hole-in-one on a Par 3 and was just happy to have beaten her Dad on a hole for once. After a quick rotating hip dance, she was surprised to see her Dad still looking from the tee to the hole where the ball had bounced once and dropped in. His mouth was hanging open. Anne’s response? “What?” (In coding terms, Anne != golfer. That’s “Anne is obviously not a golfer” for you normal people).
Loves tubing (behind a boat) and roller coasters (Cedar Point, here we come!).
Loves paddleball, especially “extreme” paddleball. In the normal variety of paddleball, she helped score 432 hits with Cousins J and Mg one summer day.
Played at Carnegie Hall and was so excited she launched her violin bow across the stage when she got to the picking section of the piece. Thankfully said bow was recovered in time to start bowing once more.
Saw a Great White Shark in real life (at Monterey Bay Aquarium, thankfully).
Wrote her first (and only until Masquerading) book in sixth grade. It was a thriller/mystery centering around two sixth grade detectives. Her Mom assures her it is still well loved (read: stashed in the attic).
Began Masquerading the Marquess on Good Friday 2002, sold it on Good Friday 2003.
Considers herself a hobby collector. Friends and Family like to call her hobby “pack ratting.”
Can relate to the line in Office Space, “Um, I’m gonna need you to go ahead and come in tomorrow. So if you could be here around nine, that would be great. Oh, oh, yea… I forgot. I’m gonna also need you to come in Sunday too.”
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 251 reviews
February 1, 2022
2.5 stars 🗝
“I am a vile man.” He gave her a feral smile, letting the darkness rise. “The absolute worst you will ever meet.”
“That is absurd, Mr. Merrick. How do you know what kind of men I might meet in the future?”
🎩 the heroine is amazing
🎩 not the fade to black sex scene 😞
🎩 liked the characters, couldn't get into the plot
June 29, 2021
UPDATE: December 2016
Reread this book and what a wonderful book it is! So quote-worthy, made me regret that I owned a paper copy and note also an eBook version, which makes them so much easier to highlight and share. Am very tempted to buy the eBook version in another year or so just so I can reread and finally keep track of all the wonderful lines and passages. Andreas is just SO dreamy! The epitome of the rough, tortured, haunted hero. Delicious to the nth extreme!
The POV being only from Andreas's view for the first 1/4-1/3 of the book didn't bother me as much as the first time; I have also recently reread the first book in the series, Seven Secrets of Seduction , and turns out that although I didn't remark on it at the time, that book does the same thing, though it's from the heroine's POV and not the hero's.
_________________________________
Such a quote-worthy book all around, but for the ultimate excerpt, check out my Tempting Teaser on the Fiction Vixen website.
_________________________________
So often in romances, the story is essentially about the woman surrendering to the man. He’s the one who chases, seduces, gets her to succumb to his wiles, and in the end, she pushes to get what she wants as well: a declaration of love and his singular devotion. In Total Surrender was interesting because here that standard equation is reversed. There is no need for Phoebe to ask for Andreas’s devotion or adoration, because she already has it, yet he resists surrendering to her. He wants to—oh, how he wants to!—but he fears that such a surrender would reveal secrets and horrors that would make Phoebe turn away from him forever.
In Phoebe, we’re given a heroine who is both “innocent,” but also in pretty dogged pursuit of the hero. She is sweet and likable—smart, caring, and trusting—but she’s also burdened by her responsibilities to her family. She has only herself to rely on and while she’s clever, most people see her as a little silly or foolish. Phoebe is intrigued by Andreas (can you blame her?!) and is very persistent in trying to reach him, to get under his skin and have him open up to her. It never reads as overly aggressive—far from it actually, she’s rather … timidly aggressive. Subtly so.
One of my biggest complaints is that for the first third of the book we are only given Andreas’s POV. Andreas is fantastic and I loved having that access to him: due to the fact that he is so undemonstrative, reserved, and completely unreadable to others, this allowed us to really get to know him. Nonetheless, not hearing anything from one of two main characters for 1/3 of the book—and at the beginning of the story, no less? It didn’t work for me. Phoebe went from being odd to annoying and I feared she was going to be like those heroines who give the impression they’ve been lobotomized. We don’t know her motivations, so she seems either incomprehensible or naïvely stupid. My opinion changed completely once I started to hear her voice and get insight into who she was. I loved that she’s uncertain, feels vulnerable and exposed to him, yet doesn’t back down and refuses to let him push her away.
Andreas is a terrific hero—definitely one of my favorites. He seems to belie John Donne’s assertion that “no man is an island, entire of itself.” He is the epitome of the lonely, mysterious, rough, tortured, bad boy hero. Honestly, if that’s the kind of hero you love, look no further—Andreas has got it all in spades. What’s so fantastic is that not only did Mallory decide to make her hero this way … but she actually did make her hero this way. So many times we’re told a heroine is supremely intelligent, yet are only shown her unbelievable stupidity and monumentally bad decisions; or we’re told that a hero is a prickly recluse who never laughs, yet within ten minutes of meeting the heroine he’s cracking a smile and confiding in her.
That’s not the case here and not only is Andreas “as advertised,” but his progression with Phoebe is not immediate—as well it shouldn’t be. There are only two people in the entire world whom Andreas truly trusts and cares about. He holds everyone he meets at a distance and never laughs or smiles. He assumes every person he encounters is a potential assassin, every meal he hasn’t prepared poisoned. He is kind of an asshole and tries to avoid as much as possible interacting with people. He’s prickly and rude and doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him. And he clearly and repeatedly tries to resist Phoebe and the literal and figurative temptation she presents. We get to enjoy this resistance much more than Phoebe does, because while he’s outwardly trying to push her away, we get to see the absolutely delicious thoughts and feelings he’s struggling with internally.
Aside from the POV problem, my other main issue was with the subplot. This is the third Anne Mallory book I’ve read so far—the others being books 1 and 2 in this series—and I know her propensity to keep plot details murky. Usually, both main characters have secrets that neither the other nor the reader knows. When done well, this can be utterly fantastic, like in Seven Secrets of Seduction , the first in the series. There’s a fine line to walk so that things are not too mysterious though, and that’s where she failed here. I felt so lost. One Night Is Never Enough is the second book in the Secrets series and much more tied to this one, since it centers around Andreas’s brother, Roman. Going in, I thought this would be a case where reading the previous book was recommended, if not necessary. Turns out, it doesn’t matter either way, because I read it three months ago and was still clueless. As with her others, the subplot ended up being an interesting one, but the reader is left in the dark far too long.
The ending was not fully satisfying, feeling rushed and anticlimactic. Also, the sex scenes left something to be desired. While Mallory’s books have never been very heavy or explicit in that aspect, they were unbelievably light here. They were also so metaphorically described and brushed over that it took me a few sentences to realize what it was I was actually reading about. Nonetheless, she is a talented writer and one of her greatest strengths is how she is able to imbue every interaction between her heroes and heroines with unbelievable sexual tension. In Total Surrender is no exception, so it basically had great foreplay, but not-so-great climaxes. ;-)
What makes this book worth reading is the relationship between Phoebe and Andreas. There were so many quote-worthy passages in this book that picking only one is going to be supremely difficult—if not impossible! There are lots of little things that add up to make the portrayal so utterly fantastic (ex: I love how they continue to “Miss Pace” and “Mr. Merrick” one another, but add such an irreverent tone). While Phoebe plays “light” to Andreas’s “dark,” they each have enough of both to make them interesting and compelling, as opposed to cliché. They are strong, complex, and engaging characters; the connection between them undeniable. Anne Mallory excels in carefully constructed dialogue and capturing the intensity of hero and heroine’s relationship. In that regard, In Total Surrender is excellent.
{ One of My Favorite Quotes }
{ Recommendations }
If you like this book, you might also like ...
* Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas
* Scandalous Desires by Elizabeth Hoyt (expected release: Oct 2011)
* McAlistair's Fortune by Alissa Johnson
*Books 1 and 2 in the Secrets Series by Anne Mallory
If You Deceive by Kresley Cole
Lord of Ice by Gaelen Foley
Lady of Desire by Gaelen Foley
After the Kiss by Suzanne Enoch
Reviewed on the Fiction Vixen website.
This review is of a galley provided by HarperCollins through NetGalley.
Reread this book and what a wonderful book it is! So quote-worthy, made me regret that I owned a paper copy and note also an eBook version, which makes them so much easier to highlight and share. Am very tempted to buy the eBook version in another year or so just so I can reread and finally keep track of all the wonderful lines and passages. Andreas is just SO dreamy! The epitome of the rough, tortured, haunted hero. Delicious to the nth extreme!
The POV being only from Andreas's view for the first 1/4-1/3 of the book didn't bother me as much as the first time; I have also recently reread the first book in the series, Seven Secrets of Seduction , and turns out that although I didn't remark on it at the time, that book does the same thing, though it's from the heroine's POV and not the hero's.
_________________________________
Such a quote-worthy book all around, but for the ultimate excerpt, check out my Tempting Teaser on the Fiction Vixen website.
_________________________________
So often in romances, the story is essentially about the woman surrendering to the man. He’s the one who chases, seduces, gets her to succumb to his wiles, and in the end, she pushes to get what she wants as well: a declaration of love and his singular devotion. In Total Surrender was interesting because here that standard equation is reversed. There is no need for Phoebe to ask for Andreas’s devotion or adoration, because she already has it, yet he resists surrendering to her. He wants to—oh, how he wants to!—but he fears that such a surrender would reveal secrets and horrors that would make Phoebe turn away from him forever.
In Phoebe, we’re given a heroine who is both “innocent,” but also in pretty dogged pursuit of the hero. She is sweet and likable—smart, caring, and trusting—but she’s also burdened by her responsibilities to her family. She has only herself to rely on and while she’s clever, most people see her as a little silly or foolish. Phoebe is intrigued by Andreas (can you blame her?!) and is very persistent in trying to reach him, to get under his skin and have him open up to her. It never reads as overly aggressive—far from it actually, she’s rather … timidly aggressive. Subtly so.
One of my biggest complaints is that for the first third of the book we are only given Andreas’s POV. Andreas is fantastic and I loved having that access to him: due to the fact that he is so undemonstrative, reserved, and completely unreadable to others, this allowed us to really get to know him. Nonetheless, not hearing anything from one of two main characters for 1/3 of the book—and at the beginning of the story, no less? It didn’t work for me. Phoebe went from being odd to annoying and I feared she was going to be like those heroines who give the impression they’ve been lobotomized. We don’t know her motivations, so she seems either incomprehensible or naïvely stupid. My opinion changed completely once I started to hear her voice and get insight into who she was. I loved that she’s uncertain, feels vulnerable and exposed to him, yet doesn’t back down and refuses to let him push her away.
Andreas is a terrific hero—definitely one of my favorites. He seems to belie John Donne’s assertion that “no man is an island, entire of itself.” He is the epitome of the lonely, mysterious, rough, tortured, bad boy hero. Honestly, if that’s the kind of hero you love, look no further—Andreas has got it all in spades. What’s so fantastic is that not only did Mallory decide to make her hero this way … but she actually did make her hero this way. So many times we’re told a heroine is supremely intelligent, yet are only shown her unbelievable stupidity and monumentally bad decisions; or we’re told that a hero is a prickly recluse who never laughs, yet within ten minutes of meeting the heroine he’s cracking a smile and confiding in her.
That’s not the case here and not only is Andreas “as advertised,” but his progression with Phoebe is not immediate—as well it shouldn’t be. There are only two people in the entire world whom Andreas truly trusts and cares about. He holds everyone he meets at a distance and never laughs or smiles. He assumes every person he encounters is a potential assassin, every meal he hasn’t prepared poisoned. He is kind of an asshole and tries to avoid as much as possible interacting with people. He’s prickly and rude and doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him. And he clearly and repeatedly tries to resist Phoebe and the literal and figurative temptation she presents. We get to enjoy this resistance much more than Phoebe does, because while he’s outwardly trying to push her away, we get to see the absolutely delicious thoughts and feelings he’s struggling with internally.
Aside from the POV problem, my other main issue was with the subplot. This is the third Anne Mallory book I’ve read so far—the others being books 1 and 2 in this series—and I know her propensity to keep plot details murky. Usually, both main characters have secrets that neither the other nor the reader knows. When done well, this can be utterly fantastic, like in Seven Secrets of Seduction , the first in the series. There’s a fine line to walk so that things are not too mysterious though, and that’s where she failed here. I felt so lost. One Night Is Never Enough is the second book in the Secrets series and much more tied to this one, since it centers around Andreas’s brother, Roman. Going in, I thought this would be a case where reading the previous book was recommended, if not necessary. Turns out, it doesn’t matter either way, because I read it three months ago and was still clueless. As with her others, the subplot ended up being an interesting one, but the reader is left in the dark far too long.
The ending was not fully satisfying, feeling rushed and anticlimactic. Also, the sex scenes left something to be desired. While Mallory’s books have never been very heavy or explicit in that aspect, they were unbelievably light here. They were also so metaphorically described and brushed over that it took me a few sentences to realize what it was I was actually reading about. Nonetheless, she is a talented writer and one of her greatest strengths is how she is able to imbue every interaction between her heroes and heroines with unbelievable sexual tension. In Total Surrender is no exception, so it basically had great foreplay, but not-so-great climaxes. ;-)
What makes this book worth reading is the relationship between Phoebe and Andreas. There were so many quote-worthy passages in this book that picking only one is going to be supremely difficult—if not impossible! There are lots of little things that add up to make the portrayal so utterly fantastic (ex: I love how they continue to “Miss Pace” and “Mr. Merrick” one another, but add such an irreverent tone). While Phoebe plays “light” to Andreas’s “dark,” they each have enough of both to make them interesting and compelling, as opposed to cliché. They are strong, complex, and engaging characters; the connection between them undeniable. Anne Mallory excels in carefully constructed dialogue and capturing the intensity of hero and heroine’s relationship. In that regard, In Total Surrender is excellent.
{ One of My Favorite Quotes }
“Soon.”
“That is quite vague. Soon might be tomorrow or a month from now. How do you define soon?”
“I define it as a period of time in the near future.”
She smiled. “How do you define difficult?”
“By your presence.”
She grinned fully, delighted to feel the tension dissipate. “Now you are just flattering me for no reason.”
He grunted.
“On the contrary,” she said, as if his grunt had been a worded response. “It was most flattering.”
He stared at her.
“What? Did you think I wouldn’t figure out how to interpret your grunts? It is like listening to a conversational gambit with a thousand different meanings.”
He recovered quickly, as always, scowling. “Why would you think it flattery?”
“You have defined something by my presence. Which means you have noticed me quite keenly. I take that as flattering.”
His eyes narrowed. But then she knew he wouldn’t like that particular explanation. It left him too wide open.
“I find you difficult. Not adorable.”
“I think I am quite shocked to find you using the word ‘adorable’ in a sentence.” She waved a hand. “Next thing I know, you will be petting puppies in the street.”
“You are the one with the odd canine fetish.”
{ Recommendations }
If you like this book, you might also like ...
* Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas
* Scandalous Desires by Elizabeth Hoyt (expected release: Oct 2011)
* McAlistair's Fortune by Alissa Johnson
*Books 1 and 2 in the Secrets Series by Anne Mallory
If You Deceive by Kresley Cole
Lord of Ice by Gaelen Foley
Lady of Desire by Gaelen Foley
After the Kiss by Suzanne Enoch
Reviewed on the Fiction Vixen website.
This review is of a galley provided by HarperCollins through NetGalley.
May 29, 2017
“It builds character to be told no.”
“You must have a lot of character then.”
“That is kind of you.” Warm smile.
“I was being rude.”
“Well, then at least I can say you are an honest man.”
I absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book!!!!!!
“I am a vile man.” He gave her a feral smile, letting the darkness rise. “The absolute worst you will ever meet.”
“That is absurd, Mr. Merrick.” The darkness froze, then began undulating, snapping at an unseen threat. “How do you know what kind of men I might meet in the future?”
Andreas Merrick is darkness personified. Together with his brother Roman, they have worked years to gain the wealth and power they currently have as kings of London’s dark underworld. And for twenty years he has lived and breathed for revenge against those who harmed him. He’s ruthless and brutal and everyone knows to fear him. Everyone except Miss Phoebe Pace, who refuses to leave him in peace.
Phoebe Pace is a mixture of innocence, sweetness and stubbornness. Nothing will stop her from finding her missing brother and saving her family from ruin. And although she knows she should be afraid of the dangerous Andreas, he intrigues her like no other, and staying away from him is not an option.
He didn’t have any new scowls left. He had used up all of his fiercest ones with her, ones he hadn’t even had to use on his bitterest enemies, and to no avail. He was becoming a little concerned actually that he was . . . stuck with her. There was something about the set of her body that said she might be . . . permanent.
An intense desire that neither expected, and a passion that threatens to consume them. Can they have a future if the need for revenge is all Andreas knows, and danger surrounds him from all sides?
He wanted her love in a way that he hadn’t wanted much else in his life. More than revenge. More than anything in his memory. For a man used to taking what he wanted, it was a sharp double-edged sword to find the one thing he wanted most was the one thing he wanted to protect most keenly.
I adore Andreas!! A grumpier hero I have not met ;-) I loved the intense and unwanted attraction Andreas felt for Phoebe right from the first moment he saw her. How confused he was by the feelings he felt for her. And that even though he was so set on getting his revenge, thoughts of Phoebe made him hesitate on taking certain steps. I also loved how protective he was over her. ! It was awesome that for the first 100+ pages we only got Andreas’ POV, because he’s such a fascinating character, and it kept me guessing on Phoebe’s actions and character. Everything about this sexy and grouchy man made me swoon.
How did people think this man was made of ice? How did he believe it of himself? He all but seethed with heat. Every time that gaze touched upon her, she felt the need to divest herself of any outer garments. To strip bare under the flames.
I loved Phoebe, she’s a fantastic heroine. She was so sweet and funny, but also had a spine of steel. It was hilarious and so sweet how she teased and flustered Andreas. I loved that no matter how snarly and bad-tempered he got, it never deterred her from seeking out his company. She saw more than just the darkness everyone else sees in him, she saw the vulnerability and the hurt. And I loved how she just wanted to save him, to love him.
Andreas didn't know why he opened his mouth, but the words emerged without permission. “Something hurts in my chest whenever she looks my way. Whenever she touches me.”
Roman’s stare went blank for long seconds before a grin slipped across his lips. “She makes your chest hurt?”
“Yes. As if I’ve been felled by a blow.” He rubbed his chest absently.
The romance was FANTASTIC. I loved the banter between the snarly Andreas and the sunny Phoebe. How confused, irritated and flustered he was by her attention, about the way she made him feel, was so very endearing and romantic. I loved the slow burn of their romance, how Phoebe slowly broke down the walls around Andreas’ heart. Watching them fall in love was absolutely wonderful.
The plot was perfectly done. The mystery surrounding Andreas’ childhood and his reason for revenge were so very intriguing.
This is my first Anne Mallory book, and I was amazed. How have I not read this author before? I love the writing and inhaled this book from start to finish. This is definitely one of my favorite HR’s ever. I loved everything about it, the amazing characters, beautiful romance and gripping plot. A definitely must read for all HR fans.
December 19, 2014
Well, it's been a while since I enjoyed a romance as much as I did this one. Mostly the honors go to Andreas, one of my favorite heroes ever, but Phoebe was a lovely, feisty heroine who matched him perfectly while the banter between them was amazing. Though the tone was dark and sentimental mostly, there were many scenes that made me laugh out loud, lightening the mood and making me read them again and again, as if I couldn't get enough of them.
Our story starts when Miss Phoebe Pace visits Mr Merrick in his office and asks for his help in order to save her family's business. Andreas is basically a recluse and along with his brother Roman, runs some seedy business in the underworld of London. He is a power to be reckoned with and feared by everyone, from his own employees to his enemies, but somehow he finds he cannot intimidate the innocent Miss Pace. Since it soon becomes apparent that Miss Pace is a very clever woman, her insistence to continue nagging him despite his obvious reluctance leads him to understand that she has plans for him. Much as he'd like to send her away once and for all, Andreas finds it very difficult to do so, mainly because he's been besotted by her from the first moment she caught his eye, even before she came into his office.
I can't say enough things for Andreas; he was strong, determined, protective and hiding behind a cold, rude facade that would terrorize a lesser woman than Phoebe. For the first half he mostly grunts than talks and it's a good thing the reader sees mainly his point of view, else we wouldn't be able to understand him at all. Anyway, if you like taciturn, tortured, lonely heroes, you'll just adore Andreas.
Phoebe was also a great heroine, kind, caring and innocent but far from stupid. I really loved the way she realized she wanted Andreas and went for him determined to disrupt his shields no matter what. She also was loyal to her family and took over the task of saving the family's name not as a burden, but because she actually enjoyed plans and finances. In that way, they had much in common with Andreas; she was not a silly miss interested only in her dresses and dances but had a head for business as well.
I also enjoyed the way their relationship progressed: though Andreas wanted her from the beginning, it took a while for him to trust her and for Phoebe to get to know him and become attracted to him. Considering Andreas' character and behavior, this was very natural and realistic for both of them.
It is not to say that the book is with no flows. The most apparent one is that the story starts kind of abruptly, without any background info on Andreas or his and Phoebe's businesses, assuming obviously that the reader has read the previous book. Well, I didn't read the previous book or any other from Anne Mallory to be honest and it took me a little while to get used to the writing style as well as the background facts. The plus of course is that the plot gets immediately started, and if you get past the awkward beginning, you are sucked into the story; at least that's what happened to me.
Another minus for most readers is the almost complete lack of sex scenes. It is safe to say that readers who are fond of steamy, hot romances will NOT find it here. Andreas and Phoebe's love scenes, few that they are, are also vague and barely there. Even I, who usually skip through the love scenes in most romances, missed them here. Still, I prefer reading a strong, well writen, emotional romance, where I can feel the love and connection between the heroes, to a series of hot sex scenes that try to pass for an expression of undying love between the heroes, as it happens in many modern romances.
All in all, this was one of the best romances I read this year and with an amazing hero, that I'll remember for a long time. I loved Anne Mallory's writing style, her subtle humor and I'm definitely going back to Seven Secrets of Seduction to read this series from start, hoping I've found a new favorite author:)
ARC provided by NetGalley
Our story starts when Miss Phoebe Pace visits Mr Merrick in his office and asks for his help in order to save her family's business. Andreas is basically a recluse and along with his brother Roman, runs some seedy business in the underworld of London. He is a power to be reckoned with and feared by everyone, from his own employees to his enemies, but somehow he finds he cannot intimidate the innocent Miss Pace. Since it soon becomes apparent that Miss Pace is a very clever woman, her insistence to continue nagging him despite his obvious reluctance leads him to understand that she has plans for him. Much as he'd like to send her away once and for all, Andreas finds it very difficult to do so, mainly because he's been besotted by her from the first moment she caught his eye, even before she came into his office.
I can't say enough things for Andreas; he was strong, determined, protective and hiding behind a cold, rude facade that would terrorize a lesser woman than Phoebe. For the first half he mostly grunts than talks and it's a good thing the reader sees mainly his point of view, else we wouldn't be able to understand him at all. Anyway, if you like taciturn, tortured, lonely heroes, you'll just adore Andreas.
Phoebe was also a great heroine, kind, caring and innocent but far from stupid. I really loved the way she realized she wanted Andreas and went for him determined to disrupt his shields no matter what. She also was loyal to her family and took over the task of saving the family's name not as a burden, but because she actually enjoyed plans and finances. In that way, they had much in common with Andreas; she was not a silly miss interested only in her dresses and dances but had a head for business as well.
I also enjoyed the way their relationship progressed: though Andreas wanted her from the beginning, it took a while for him to trust her and for Phoebe to get to know him and become attracted to him. Considering Andreas' character and behavior, this was very natural and realistic for both of them.
It is not to say that the book is with no flows. The most apparent one is that the story starts kind of abruptly, without any background info on Andreas or his and Phoebe's businesses, assuming obviously that the reader has read the previous book. Well, I didn't read the previous book or any other from Anne Mallory to be honest and it took me a little while to get used to the writing style as well as the background facts. The plus of course is that the plot gets immediately started, and if you get past the awkward beginning, you are sucked into the story; at least that's what happened to me.
Another minus for most readers is the almost complete lack of sex scenes. It is safe to say that readers who are fond of steamy, hot romances will NOT find it here. Andreas and Phoebe's love scenes, few that they are, are also vague and barely there. Even I, who usually skip through the love scenes in most romances, missed them here. Still, I prefer reading a strong, well writen, emotional romance, where I can feel the love and connection between the heroes, to a series of hot sex scenes that try to pass for an expression of undying love between the heroes, as it happens in many modern romances.
All in all, this was one of the best romances I read this year and with an amazing hero, that I'll remember for a long time. I loved Anne Mallory's writing style, her subtle humor and I'm definitely going back to Seven Secrets of Seduction to read this series from start, hoping I've found a new favorite author:)
ARC provided by NetGalley
April 27, 2020
Loved it. A keeper. A joy. (Not perfect -- see end bit -- but perfect for me.) This is a subtle love story, not a bodice ripper, despite the cover art. Gradually the sexual anticipation simmers, ending in sweet and sizzling fade-to-black love scenes. Its greatest strength is relationship development and characterization. Not a lot of action / adventure, but enough. Part of a series, yet it stands alone just fine.
Andreas is a BAD MAN who trusts no one but his brother and his old nanny. He is the ultimate overcomer, for he rose from the gutter -- where his father literally tossed his bleeding, broken, adolescent body -- to become a wealthy, powerful casino owner and one of London's underworld kings. Feared by all, he mainly goes after slime. Because he has zillions of enemies, he will only eat food prepared by one or two trusted staff members, or by himself.
For two decades, Andreas has been driven by a need for revenge. He plots to bring down daddy dearest. Along comes Phoebe, with that damn smile. That compelling, repelling smile! She needs him to help solve several problems involving her father and brother, but she grows quickly to adore him, seeing through his cold facade to a deeply loyal, passionate, and vulnerable loner.
Phoebe sets his world on his ear, driving him nuts. (chuckling) He tries to stay aloof, to scare her off, to ignore her, but every day he yields another inch, falls a bit further. Just delightful! First, she strategically wins desk space in Andrea's study. Once there, she sets out to win a smile from Andreas, then a chuckle, his trust, a kiss.
The most revealing moment occurs when he eats her food. He will eat only her food, now. Talk about show not tell!! Mallory is brilliant! I was grinning from ear to ear through much of the book.
Phoebe also helps him find perspective and balance on the vengeance plot. She is wise in the ways of relationship. She may seem silly, but actually she is a shrewd businesswoman, a strategic planner ( as with moving the family) and quite observant, noticing when she is being followed.
Towards the end, a tender fade-to-black love scene on the rug by the fire. Sigh. Loverly. Then another similar love scene, just as appealing. Nothing explicit here, but enough detail to fuel my dreams. Yummy, just yummy. But I wouldn't skip over an explicit scene with Andreas, if offered ;-)
I heart Andreas. He was so afraid to believe that Phoebe could really love him, especially after what he did to .... Nope. That would be telling.
I loved the ending too, describing their life 20 years later, but it was too short. I didn't want it to end.
Flaws: Sometimes the pacing got a bit slow. Also, I would have liked Phoebe's POV sooner. Much as I loved hearing Andreas's thoughts, a sole focus on him for so long made the story a bit difficult to follow. I was not sure about Phoebe's goals and motivations until about 1/3 or even 1/2 of the way into the story. But suspense ain't a bad thing, and too many romance authors reveal everything, including too much skin, much too soon.
Andreas is a BAD MAN who trusts no one but his brother and his old nanny. He is the ultimate overcomer, for he rose from the gutter -- where his father literally tossed his bleeding, broken, adolescent body -- to become a wealthy, powerful casino owner and one of London's underworld kings. Feared by all, he mainly goes after slime. Because he has zillions of enemies, he will only eat food prepared by one or two trusted staff members, or by himself.
For two decades, Andreas has been driven by a need for revenge. He plots to bring down daddy dearest. Along comes Phoebe, with that damn smile. That compelling, repelling smile! She needs him to help solve several problems involving her father and brother, but she grows quickly to adore him, seeing through his cold facade to a deeply loyal, passionate, and vulnerable loner.
Phoebe sets his world on his ear, driving him nuts. (chuckling) He tries to stay aloof, to scare her off, to ignore her, but every day he yields another inch, falls a bit further. Just delightful! First, she strategically wins desk space in Andrea's study. Once there, she sets out to win a smile from Andreas, then a chuckle, his trust, a kiss.
The most revealing moment occurs when he eats her food. He will eat only her food, now. Talk about show not tell!! Mallory is brilliant! I was grinning from ear to ear through much of the book.
Phoebe also helps him find perspective and balance on the vengeance plot. She is wise in the ways of relationship. She may seem silly, but actually she is a shrewd businesswoman, a strategic planner ( as with moving the family) and quite observant, noticing when she is being followed.
Towards the end, a tender fade-to-black love scene on the rug by the fire. Sigh. Loverly. Then another similar love scene, just as appealing. Nothing explicit here, but enough detail to fuel my dreams. Yummy, just yummy. But I wouldn't skip over an explicit scene with Andreas, if offered ;-)
I heart Andreas. He was so afraid to believe that Phoebe could really love him, especially after what he did to .... Nope. That would be telling.
I loved the ending too, describing their life 20 years later, but it was too short. I didn't want it to end.
Flaws: Sometimes the pacing got a bit slow. Also, I would have liked Phoebe's POV sooner. Much as I loved hearing Andreas's thoughts, a sole focus on him for so long made the story a bit difficult to follow. I was not sure about Phoebe's goals and motivations until about 1/3 or even 1/2 of the way into the story. But suspense ain't a bad thing, and too many romance authors reveal everything, including too much skin, much too soon.
February 24, 2019
4.25/5. Cantakerous hell-owner gets bested by heiress to a carriage business empire. Andreas Merrick is feared by most of London and has made quite a few enemies over the 20 odd years it has taken him to transform from a frightened, abandoned young boy to the undisputed ruler of the London Underworld. Always on guard against constant assassination attempts, he has gotten to where he is through ruthlessness, intimidation and never yielding an inch. His trust is sparingly given to a select few, and he is even more stingy with niceties and generosities. So how does this man who instills pants-wetting fear in many around him become undone by a mere slip of a girl? Armoured with veritable arsenal of weapons strapped to his person and yet these offer no protection against the potency of Phoebe Pace's smiles - that first an instant hit to the heart, a redundant organ he thought long petrified.
...her smile...was like the plague, creeping in on little rat feet, reaching to infect him.
Of course, being the tough underworld boss that he is, he wasn't going to take her infestation of his home and heart without a fight. But how does one fight an enemy, who is completely unpredictable and like no one else?
He didn’t think she was acting. She was innocent and naïve, and sharp and clever. It was irritating. Repulsive. Captivating.
He couldn't decide if she was brilliant or daft - displaying astute business acumen while repelling his scowls and words of intimidation with sweet smiles and humorous repartees and baking, constantly baking up sweet treats. Who does that? Unless she is trying to poison him, because Lord knows many enemies have tried that avenue before. So mistrustful lout that he is, he resists her sweet offerings (in all their guises) for as long as possible. But even as he takes his last stubborn stand, his sees his loyal men succumb all around him to the unstoppable dynamism of Phoebe. A growing pandemic, her charm and biscuits are virulent and penetrate the hardiest of defences.
Phoebe is very likeable. She might seem cute, guileless and hyperactive like an Energizer bunny but in reality, she is highly intelligent and constantly thinking on her feet, forced to fight for her family and their business after her father's incapacity and her brother's disappearance. I love that she is able to retain her femininity and use it as a subtle vanilla-scented weapon rather than resenting its restrictions. She needs Andreas on her side for the survival of her family, but she also develops an almost morbid fascination for this man who kills with his bare hands, who growls at her from the first and tries to scare her off, but who time and time again has protected her against harm at the risk to his own safety.
Darkness was a part of him. And she would be lying if she didn’t admit to finding it a bit attractive. Because the focus on her, though intent and dangerous, never felt malicious. He was simply an intense man in all matters.
“I think that is the difference between us. I wish to trust but must exercise caution. You object to the notion of trust.”
Their interactions are witty and lively - he barks at her, she fends him off with smiles and gentle barely there touches. He didn't have stand chance, poor man, although it took him most of the book to finally surrender to her greater power.
He remembered saying no. He remembered cursing. Threatening her unborn children. Then there was a sort of hazy period of smiles and calm words. Then she had touched the back of his hand with her naked fingers...
“I find you to be quite likable.”
There was that tightening in his chest again. Like steel bands constricting. He had watched a man clutch his chest once, suddenly, before falling over dead on the street. The expression on that man’s face—the fingers digging into his sternum to stop the pain—this must be how that man had felt. “You are quite an amusing man usually. Always yelling things”—she raised her elbows up as far as her dress allowed with her fingers spread and her limbs vibrating—“like ‘Leave’ and ‘I want you gone.’ ” Her voice had taken on a theatrical, low timbre. She put her elbow back on the table, her chin resting back on her hand. “It’s charming as long as one doesn’t take you seriously.”
“Sane people take me seriously.”
“I’m sane, and I do not.”
“You are the least sane person I’ve had the misfortune to meet.”
The corners of her eyes pinched a little, just for the barest second, then cleared. “Well, there are plenty more people for you to meet, Mr. Merrick, so do not give up hope yet.”
“Indeed, I follow direction poorly. And sometimes you are a rude, brutish man.” She moved forward, in direct opposition to the expression on his face, which was growing darker with each of her steps. The shadows drawing in with the creases of his narrowed eyes, the tightened line of his mouth. She gave a determined smile. “But I like you. And I’m going to help you.” “Well, how about I don’t like you.” His voice was tight and stressed, that vulnerability harshly buried beneath. “Now will you leave?” “No,” she said, tone going gentle. “I like you well enough for the both of us.”
And now the negatives:
That plot is damn obscure and it took me till the end of the book to put the pieces of who was who together, making it really hard to handle the many name droppings along the way and not know where the names fitted in.
Also while i love cantankerous heroes, his fearsome superpowers were too exaggerated such that one look from him could trigger incontinence in a random person on the street not to mention his ability to annihilate an army of assassins single-handedly, only pausing for the merest of second to reset a dislocated bone.
Could it be called a kiss, this meeting of skin where one person pulled the soul from another?
...her smile...was like the plague, creeping in on little rat feet, reaching to infect him.
Of course, being the tough underworld boss that he is, he wasn't going to take her infestation of his home and heart without a fight. But how does one fight an enemy, who is completely unpredictable and like no one else?
He didn’t think she was acting. She was innocent and naïve, and sharp and clever. It was irritating. Repulsive. Captivating.
He couldn't decide if she was brilliant or daft - displaying astute business acumen while repelling his scowls and words of intimidation with sweet smiles and humorous repartees and baking, constantly baking up sweet treats. Who does that? Unless she is trying to poison him, because Lord knows many enemies have tried that avenue before. So mistrustful lout that he is, he resists her sweet offerings (in all their guises) for as long as possible. But even as he takes his last stubborn stand, his sees his loyal men succumb all around him to the unstoppable dynamism of Phoebe. A growing pandemic, her charm and biscuits are virulent and penetrate the hardiest of defences.
Phoebe is very likeable. She might seem cute, guileless and hyperactive like an Energizer bunny but in reality, she is highly intelligent and constantly thinking on her feet, forced to fight for her family and their business after her father's incapacity and her brother's disappearance. I love that she is able to retain her femininity and use it as a subtle vanilla-scented weapon rather than resenting its restrictions. She needs Andreas on her side for the survival of her family, but she also develops an almost morbid fascination for this man who kills with his bare hands, who growls at her from the first and tries to scare her off, but who time and time again has protected her against harm at the risk to his own safety.
Darkness was a part of him. And she would be lying if she didn’t admit to finding it a bit attractive. Because the focus on her, though intent and dangerous, never felt malicious. He was simply an intense man in all matters.
“I think that is the difference between us. I wish to trust but must exercise caution. You object to the notion of trust.”
Their interactions are witty and lively - he barks at her, she fends him off with smiles and gentle barely there touches. He didn't have stand chance, poor man, although it took him most of the book to finally surrender to her greater power.
He remembered saying no. He remembered cursing. Threatening her unborn children. Then there was a sort of hazy period of smiles and calm words. Then she had touched the back of his hand with her naked fingers...
“I find you to be quite likable.”
There was that tightening in his chest again. Like steel bands constricting. He had watched a man clutch his chest once, suddenly, before falling over dead on the street. The expression on that man’s face—the fingers digging into his sternum to stop the pain—this must be how that man had felt. “You are quite an amusing man usually. Always yelling things”—she raised her elbows up as far as her dress allowed with her fingers spread and her limbs vibrating—“like ‘Leave’ and ‘I want you gone.’ ” Her voice had taken on a theatrical, low timbre. She put her elbow back on the table, her chin resting back on her hand. “It’s charming as long as one doesn’t take you seriously.”
“Sane people take me seriously.”
“I’m sane, and I do not.”
“You are the least sane person I’ve had the misfortune to meet.”
The corners of her eyes pinched a little, just for the barest second, then cleared. “Well, there are plenty more people for you to meet, Mr. Merrick, so do not give up hope yet.”
“Indeed, I follow direction poorly. And sometimes you are a rude, brutish man.” She moved forward, in direct opposition to the expression on his face, which was growing darker with each of her steps. The shadows drawing in with the creases of his narrowed eyes, the tightened line of his mouth. She gave a determined smile. “But I like you. And I’m going to help you.” “Well, how about I don’t like you.” His voice was tight and stressed, that vulnerability harshly buried beneath. “Now will you leave?” “No,” she said, tone going gentle. “I like you well enough for the both of us.”
And now the negatives:
That plot is damn obscure and it took me till the end of the book to put the pieces of who was who together, making it really hard to handle the many name droppings along the way and not know where the names fitted in.
Also while i love cantankerous heroes, his fearsome superpowers were too exaggerated such that one look from him could trigger incontinence in a random person on the street not to mention his ability to annihilate an army of assassins single-handedly, only pausing for the merest of second to reset a dislocated bone.
Could it be called a kiss, this meeting of skin where one person pulled the soul from another?
August 29, 2015
What an absorbing book! This is why I love Anne Mallory.
I’m the kind of reader who finishes a book and immediately moves on the next one. I’m having trouble maintaining that pattern after this one – I don’t want to let it go. I can totally understand why sometimes readers will finish the last page of a book and head straight back to page one to read it again. This is that kind of book.
It’s also the kind of book that I find impossible to review. There’s so much I want to say, but I don’t have the gift of words to express it. In Total Surrender is not a book with a huge amount of external influence or changing locations. There is a plot, and it’s relevant, but that’s not the point of the book. This is a character driven story of two complicated people finding each other and struggling to understand what this means to themselves, each other, and their lives.
It was a completely delicious experience to witness the cold, dark and powerful Andreas Merrick slowly unravel and succumb to the force that is Phoebe Pace. Seeing his reaction to Phoebe, and his reaction to his reaction, was just so much fun.
Mallory has written the perfect tortured hero in Andreas. I loved his character and his inner dialogue was genuinely funny – such a contrast to the man he would have everyone believe him to be – the man he believes himself to be. I lost count of the ways this book made me smile, and it was not a light story. Mallory’s balance was perfect.
Phoebe was a fantastic character:
She was able to match Andreas’s cunning, intelligence and machinations at every turn, but her modus operandi was so different. Sunny and warm to his menace and ice. The perfect counterweight.
I loved the way Mallory depicted the effects of Phoebe’s efforts to breach Andreas’s defenses, and the little ways in which the cracks were starting to show. I loved watching them circle each other, both of them maneuvering circumstances within and without, both keeping their secrets but exposing themselves nonetheless.
I was desperate to see these two finally get together, but I didn’t want to stop watching her deftly finesse this unreadable, untouchable, unreachable man. And she did it in such a way that you couldn’t help but love her for it. He knew what she was doing, and he knew she knew he knew what she was doing, but she was so damn good at it that she left him no way out. And even if he wouldn’t – couldn’t – admit it, Andreas wanted to be right where he was.
My only complaint? I wanted more from the ending. And I wanted much more from the epilogue.
There are so many quotable passages in this book, and I can’t help but include them here because they will speak for the book far better then I am able. That, and I’ll also be able to come back and read them and relive the magic of this book.
I’m the kind of reader who finishes a book and immediately moves on the next one. I’m having trouble maintaining that pattern after this one – I don’t want to let it go. I can totally understand why sometimes readers will finish the last page of a book and head straight back to page one to read it again. This is that kind of book.
It’s also the kind of book that I find impossible to review. There’s so much I want to say, but I don’t have the gift of words to express it. In Total Surrender is not a book with a huge amount of external influence or changing locations. There is a plot, and it’s relevant, but that’s not the point of the book. This is a character driven story of two complicated people finding each other and struggling to understand what this means to themselves, each other, and their lives.
It was a completely delicious experience to witness the cold, dark and powerful Andreas Merrick slowly unravel and succumb to the force that is Phoebe Pace. Seeing his reaction to Phoebe, and his reaction to his reaction, was just so much fun.
Mallory has written the perfect tortured hero in Andreas. I loved his character and his inner dialogue was genuinely funny – such a contrast to the man he would have everyone believe him to be – the man he believes himself to be. I lost count of the ways this book made me smile, and it was not a light story. Mallory’s balance was perfect.
Phoebe was a fantastic character:
“She couldn’t be upset that circumstances had brought her into contact with Andreas Merrick, just that the circumstances themselves couldn’t resolve quickly and happily so that she could pursue him with abandon. That thought brought a smile to her lips. Poor man.”
She was able to match Andreas’s cunning, intelligence and machinations at every turn, but her modus operandi was so different. Sunny and warm to his menace and ice. The perfect counterweight.
I loved the way Mallory depicted the effects of Phoebe’s efforts to breach Andreas’s defenses, and the little ways in which the cracks were starting to show. I loved watching them circle each other, both of them maneuvering circumstances within and without, both keeping their secrets but exposing themselves nonetheless.
I was desperate to see these two finally get together, but I didn’t want to stop watching her deftly finesse this unreadable, untouchable, unreachable man. And she did it in such a way that you couldn’t help but love her for it. He knew what she was doing, and he knew she knew he knew what she was doing, but she was so damn good at it that she left him no way out. And even if he wouldn’t – couldn’t – admit it, Andreas wanted to be right where he was.
My only complaint? I wanted more from the ending. And I wanted much more from the epilogue.
There are so many quotable passages in this book, and I can’t help but include them here because they will speak for the book far better then I am able. That, and I’ll also be able to come back and read them and relive the magic of this book.
March 31, 2012
EXCELLENT!! Almost as good as Seven Secrets of Seduction. :)
Are there going to be more books in this series? Me wants!
Note: I received this eARC from HarperCollins via NetGalley. That had no influence on my rating.
Are there going to be more books in this series? Me wants!
Note: I received this eARC from HarperCollins via NetGalley. That had no influence on my rating.
May 22, 2021
There were many bright spots for this book, and this series overall. Mallory's pacing,however, always feels a little off to me. That, combined with the fact it takes me a while to get into her writing it seems leave me with the conclusion that it wasn't fully satisfying, had so much potential, and I probably don't need to read much more by her. It was good, but it wasn't remarkable.
April 22, 2021
Note to self: Probably should check out if a book can be read as a standalone. Because romance-wise, it was okay. But I have a feeling, plot-wise, it was not.
2.25 stars (slightly above meh)
I was left confused the whole time. I think I shouldn't pick this one up before reading the previous two books. It's all my fault.
However, characters-wise, I do like the grumpy-sunshine thing we got there. Their banter is excellent (hence, the 0.25 stars). Plot-wise, very boring. Some things, maybe because I haven't read the previous books, seemed needlessly mysterious.
Again, I should read those first. (And again, it's fade to black, which is not really my thing in romance.) Maybe this author just not for me.
2.25 stars (slightly above meh)
I was left confused the whole time. I think I shouldn't pick this one up before reading the previous two books. It's all my fault.
However, characters-wise, I do like the grumpy-sunshine thing we got there. Their banter is excellent (hence, the 0.25 stars). Plot-wise, very boring. Some things, maybe because I haven't read the previous books, seemed needlessly mysterious.
Again, I should read those first. (And again, it's fade to black, which is not really my thing in romance.) Maybe this author just not for me.
March 26, 2019
My Reaction To This Book
It Had Some Of The Things I Usually Loathe In A Romance
The Hero Andreas Was Tortured Grumpy And Aloof But I Liked Him
Our Heroine Phoebe Seems Naive And Chipper But I Loved Her
Heroine Chases
No Steam (It Eludes To Sex But This Book Was PG-13)
Internal Conflict/Angst
Pushing Away By The Hero
How Did This Book Change My Mind?
Turns Out The Phoebe Is Cunning And Intelligent
Our Hero Reminds Me Of A Feral Animal That Is Only Affectionate To One Person And This Yanked At My Heart Strings
Phoebe Is Stoic And Takes Charge Of Her Life She Will Stop At Nothing To Help Her Family
Even Though Andreas Is Sarcastic, Snarky, And Dry He Is Hilarious
These Two Have Chemistry, Sexual Tension, And Banter
It Is Action Packed As People Are Trying To Assassinate Andreas And Phoebe
Surprise Appearance By the Previous Character From The Series
I Could Not Put It Down
I Read Every Word Sometimes Rereading As I Sighed
Highly Recommend
Beauty And Beast Meets Mary Poppins
Can Be Read As A Stand Alone
September 13, 2011
I haven’t met a more anti-hero hero than Andreas. But I love him for it. He might, in fact, be my favorite Anne Mallory hero yet. Andreas is unfeeling; not incapable of emotion, just unwilling to feel. And he uses this to his advantage in his business dealings. He doesn’t have pleasure dealings because that means having to deal with people. But then he meets the unstoppable Phoebe. It was a great narrative choice to write the book mainly from his perspective. He is so baffled and befuddled and she mows him over, and as a reader you are just as curious about her reasoning (and feelings) as he is. She is determined to not only find her brother, but to save Andreas from himself. Phoebe was such a strong character – intelligent, capable, a plotter – and I think Mallory did a great job in crafting her character. Andreas is an equally strong character – feared, loyal, and merciless – and yet cowed by a little lady. I found myself laughing out loud at his “fear” of her and her machinations. He couldn’t outthink her, and I loved it. My only complaint is that I would have loved to see more of their sexual chemistry. Sometimes it felt a bit too flowery, but that isn’t enough to make me love it any less. Highly recommend this title.
October 13, 2011
Andreas Merrick is the king of London's dark underworld, having amassed unimaginable wealth and power...and a fierce reputation that leaves even the bravest men quaking in their boots. Yet one person is maddeningly unintimidated by his fearsome presence: the persistent Miss Phoebe Pace.
Equal parts honey and steel, Phoebe will stop at nothing to find her missing brother and save her family. Though associating with Andreas means peril and scandal, she never expects to experience a passion so intense that it threatens to consume her. But enigmatic Andreas is no ordinary man to love. He brings dangers from all sides -- without and within -- while tempting her beyond her wildest dreams...
I love Andreas! He's such a great hero: tortured, aloof, curt, intimidating man, and yet he's scared to death of Phoebe - a woman that represents happiness, sunshine, everything good. His childhood was horrific, and it influenced him deeply. Now that his brother Roman is happily married, he feels the loneliness even more. But above all things his belief that he is a bad man is the thing that draws most attention. He simply won't let himself believe that he is redeemable. Luckily for him Phoebe doesn't give up.
Phoebe is a marvelous heroine who totally deserves Andreas. She's a good person whose life has been spiraling out of control lately. And yet she still doesn't give in. And she's incredibly stubborn. I like the way she didn't take no for an answer, she simply did everything she could to make Andreas notice her and fall for her.
I like the whole theme of a criminal mastermind falling for a lady. Seeing how this is pure fiction, stuff like that can happen, in RL of course nothing would be as easy. But in here it worked.
We get to see more of Roman - I liked him in his book One Night Is Never Enough. What I find interesting is the relationship between Roman and Andreas. They're complete opposites, but they still get along splendidly and call themselves brothers.
Some of the quotes I liked are included below.
Rating:
5 stars
July 27, 2021
And he just kept watching her, unable to stop.
Suddenly, her eyes caught his. He froze, unable to pretend he had been doing anything other than staring.
She tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear. “What are you thinking about, Mr. Merrick?”
You. Demon-spawned you. “Nothing.”
She tried to peer over the span of their desks to see what he was doing. He pulled the papers into the space of his arms, hunching over them.
She put her chin on her palm, examining him with an absurd overabundance of humor, eyes bright, an almost lazy fondness in their depths. “Are you working on secret designs for new lady’s undergarments?”
“No.”
“I’m sure they would be very thorough and well thought out.”
Suddenly, her eyes caught his. He froze, unable to pretend he had been doing anything other than staring.
She tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear. “What are you thinking about, Mr. Merrick?”
You. Demon-spawned you. “Nothing.”
She tried to peer over the span of their desks to see what he was doing. He pulled the papers into the space of his arms, hunching over them.
She put her chin on her palm, examining him with an absurd overabundance of humor, eyes bright, an almost lazy fondness in their depths. “Are you working on secret designs for new lady’s undergarments?”
“No.”
“I’m sure they would be very thorough and well thought out.”
Want to read
December 22, 2024Just an FYI.
Some, if not all, of Anne Mallory's HR books got make-overs on 12/17/2024! A few look like contemporary book covers but I think this one is pretty historical. Plus, it's cute!
Some, if not all, of Anne Mallory's HR books got make-overs on 12/17/2024! A few look like contemporary book covers but I think this one is pretty historical. Plus, it's cute!
April 9, 2019
Dear Anne Mallory,
It has come to my attention that you are currently taking a hiatus from Regency England. I applaud you for your vacation away from home. It is truly commendable of you to frolic and play in a new land, and the yarns you are spinning in the land of young adult fantasy are surely standing out for the creative, clever and utterly binge-worthy stories they must be if your work with Avon is any standard to measure your talent by.
That being said, I must politely inquire as to the time and date of your return to the dark side.
Sincerely,
Someone who knocked back the Secrets Series over the course of three nights, and is now very sad at the headwinds that they have made on your dwindling backlist.
Jokes but not really jokes aside, what a perfect ending to the Secrets Series. Great trilogy. Not a dud in the series. One chapter in and I knew Phoebe Pace would give Andreas Merrick hell. My favourite heroine type has to be Phoebe Pace - smart, not afraid at all of the hero's threats and takes frequent liberties.
Phoebe is a variation on the "odd" heroine and the "mercantile" heroine - she has a head for business and is straightforward by nature. She laughs off most of Andreas' threats and bluffs, and his insults fairly bounce off her. You will honestly cackle to yourself when reading this. Andreas, despite his schemes and knowledge, doesn't know what the heck is going on. And it is so refreshing for this series that the woman is not the one being blindly experimented on like a lab subject to be tested out on a hypothesis on how humans open themselves up to life. Phoebe and Andreas are so good together and the ending is so sweet, like all of Mallory's stories are, short but so damn sweet, they make you catch your breath. Ergo, five stars.
It has come to my attention that you are currently taking a hiatus from Regency England. I applaud you for your vacation away from home. It is truly commendable of you to frolic and play in a new land, and the yarns you are spinning in the land of young adult fantasy are surely standing out for the creative, clever and utterly binge-worthy stories they must be if your work with Avon is any standard to measure your talent by.
That being said, I must politely inquire as to the time and date of your return to the dark side.
Sincerely,
Someone who knocked back the Secrets Series over the course of three nights, and is now very sad at the headwinds that they have made on your dwindling backlist.
Jokes but not really jokes aside, what a perfect ending to the Secrets Series. Great trilogy. Not a dud in the series. One chapter in and I knew Phoebe Pace would give Andreas Merrick hell. My favourite heroine type has to be Phoebe Pace - smart, not afraid at all of the hero's threats and takes frequent liberties.
Phoebe is a variation on the "odd" heroine and the "mercantile" heroine - she has a head for business and is straightforward by nature. She laughs off most of Andreas' threats and bluffs, and his insults fairly bounce off her. You will honestly cackle to yourself when reading this. Andreas, despite his schemes and knowledge, doesn't know what the heck is going on. And it is so refreshing for this series that the woman is not the one being blindly experimented on like a lab subject to be tested out on a hypothesis on how humans open themselves up to life. Phoebe and Andreas are so good together and the ending is so sweet, like all of Mallory's stories are, short but so damn sweet, they make you catch your breath. Ergo, five stars.
July 11, 2023
》Short Review《
I loved this book.
Loved it.
The entire story was wonderfully written, fantastically paced, and gorgeously led by two beautiful leads, Andreas and Phoebe.
I admit, I did lean a bit away from the non-romance plot, it didn’t quite capture me. But the romance more than enough made up for that. The romance sold the entire book to me.
The romance was sublime, it was a perfect slow burn. The tension is present from the start and increases page by page, line by line, word by word, until it explodes in a flurry of beautiful romance. I was so enamored by our leads.
I was especially taken by Andreas POV. I love dual povs, but I always tend to favor female ones. This is the first time I massively favored the male’s. Don’t get me wrong: I 100% loved Phoebe’s POV. But she was so delightfully open and expressive, that I could read her well even before we entered her thoughts. But Andreas is the most exquisite enigma and being in his tortured, angst-riddled thoughts was delicious He was as hard as a stone but we knew from his POV he was going through it. Boy, was he going through it. He owned this book entirely, and he and Phoebe owned my heart with this perfect slow burn romance. 4.5✨
I loved this book.
Loved it.
The entire story was wonderfully written, fantastically paced, and gorgeously led by two beautiful leads, Andreas and Phoebe.
I admit, I did lean a bit away from the non-romance plot, it didn’t quite capture me. But the romance more than enough made up for that. The romance sold the entire book to me.
The romance was sublime, it was a perfect slow burn. The tension is present from the start and increases page by page, line by line, word by word, until it explodes in a flurry of beautiful romance. I was so enamored by our leads.
I was especially taken by Andreas POV. I love dual povs, but I always tend to favor female ones. This is the first time I massively favored the male’s. Don’t get me wrong: I 100% loved Phoebe’s POV. But she was so delightfully open and expressive, that I could read her well even before we entered her thoughts. But Andreas is the most exquisite enigma and being in his tortured, angst-riddled thoughts was delicious He was as hard as a stone but we knew from his POV he was going through it. Boy, was he going through it. He owned this book entirely, and he and Phoebe owned my heart with this perfect slow burn romance. 4.5✨
February 8, 2020
Phoebe Pace is insufferable and horrifying. You see, she makes Andreas feel things; it’s revolting, but somehow, he can’t quite ever manage to deny her anything. So when she knocks on his door and neatly parks herself into his life, he has no choice but to let her... in spite of the secrets he hides from her, and those she hides from him.
Pretty good. Romance was there, but it’s a definite slow burn. More than half way through and there’s no real physical action between them. But that’s okay. It works. The characters are nice to read about as well.
Recommended and would keep on my shelf.
Pretty good. Romance was there, but it’s a definite slow burn. More than half way through and there’s no real physical action between them. But that’s okay. It works. The characters are nice to read about as well.
Recommended and would keep on my shelf.
December 31, 2019
3.5. This one suffered a little in comparison the second book of the series, which was just magnificent. I never truly got a good sense of what drove our heroine, primarily because the book was mainly from the hero's POV. Nonetheless, it was really charming and made me laugh many times!
February 21, 2012
I adore everything that Anne Mallory has ever written. This book included!
July 27, 2022
little plot summary, because my thoughts go big and non-contextual quickly here
Phoebe Pace's father's business is not doing great. Her brother has gone missing, her father is ill and her family's debts have been consolidated on the collateral exchange run by the Merrick brothers, charming Roman and reclusive Andreas. But Roman is on his honeymoon and Andreas is left to do the talking.
Andreas has been corresponding with Phoebe for a while (she under the guise of her father) (all of this happens off page) and has seen her at the opera house and is fairly charmed by her. She intends to pay back the debts in kind and in service at first to buy time for the company to turn profitable. This plan requires so much talking that Andreas gets overwhelmed and releases her from all the debts that he currently owns.
Phoebe, having her own reasons for wanting to stay close with him, refuses the token forgiveness and instead immediately ingratiates herself in his home, and Andreas ostrich like attitude when it comes to nonviolent confrontations allows her to driver her tenterhooks deeper and deeper into his household.
Andreas similarly has his own secret motivations for keeping Phoebe both close and at a distance.
(ultimately the plot is incredibly secondary to his crankiness in the face of her joyfully flitting around his apartments.)
macro thoughts about Mallory
I just need to say this: I can't believe this is the last historical romance that Mallory wrote.
I mean I can, I guess. Lots of my favorite authors no longer publish in this genre. Based on nothing other than anecdotal evidence and talking with friends who know a lot more than me about this, the tides of tastes have turned against many of my new-to-me favorites from this year, who all seem have stopped publishing around 2012.
But Mallory might be the one that hurts that most--I really just adore her!
I didn't read her books in order (and I still have a few left), but if I put them in order in mind, the metaphor of teaching yourself how to swim comes up.
When you're first learning how to swim (and I mean like laps, like for distance and form, not the survival aspect of it), the first stage is endurance. Is it possible for me to get across the pool for one length? And then, is it possible for me to get around for one lap? This seems like a trudge, and impossible hurdle. But you can't really work on form, until you can reasonable get from one side to the other because it would be goofy (and dangerous) to stop in the middle of the lane.
But then you can do it and then the magic happens. The next part of learning to swim is realizing all the things your body is doing in resisting the efficiency of forward motion. So on the next length you say "okay, I won't let my arms cross my center line this time," or "I'll focus on floppy ankles" or "this time I'll try bilateral breathing, coming up every three breathes so I don't float to one side" or the most magical: pushing your chest + lungs down into the water so you don't tip backwards, despite every impulse being to keep your head as close to the surface of the water as possible. And what's crazy is that these little things like nothing, but can totally change your efficiency.
And then sometimes you do something and you realize you've overcorrected. Tucking your chin too much, reaching too far, breathing too panicky, pointing your toes so hard that your legs cramp.
But it's all data about your own body's best place to be in the water and you get to try again, maybe with a different method, on the next 50.
I feel like if I lined up Mallory's books in a chronological row, I could point to the little bits of structural form that's she committing to for each novel. I feel like when I am reading her books, I am reading an author in process for exploring the form. Maybe that's true of any novelist, especially one who aims to deliver a somewhat standardized product over and over again to such an exacting audience of readers. The genre of historical romance is so narrow (even narrower when it is Regency!), the movements can feel like minutia, even though the impact is great. But that's how it feels when you are swimming too--how can this tiny extension of my wrist make me feel like I am suddenly flying through the water?
Mallory's little changes between books really feel like form edits in the pool. Like I use Kleypas to chart evolving tastes in the genre about bad male behavior, on her journey from bodice rippers to Tom Severin, slum lord. But the only other author that I have noticed who has this similar interest in the form at the forefront is Sherry Thomas. I think Thomas' great interest is in timelines and all that is wrapped up with telling a story in a non-linear fashion (I think anything dual POV is inherently nonlinear!) and exploring what that means (talked about most coherently here: Ravishing the Heiress).
I think Mallory's is in conversation and POV, though now that I think about it, the way she does conversations dovetails nicely when a larger POV discussion (I talk, at length, about what how I see Mallory's conservations working in my review of One Night Is Never Enough).
I'm always harping about structure in romance novels, I think it is what fascinates me most about a good book and frustrates me the most with a bad book. There's an argument for characterization being the most important, but the how of who these people are and how the reader learns that I feel still reigns supreme for whether I am interested in a book. After all, as much as I love when I find a new type of character that I've never met more, I will still be excited when I meet a new rake when dark secret and daddy issues and heart of gold, even though he is afraid to be loved, if the how I get to know him is done well, despite being territory that is tread and retreaded.
micro thoughts about the book
So what are the little moves that Mallory makes here?
pushing the dual POV's limits
First off, I think the trilogy of the Secrets series a good set to see the POV stuff because the first book Seven Secrets of Seduction is told almost entirely through the FMC's POV, the second book, One Night Is Never Enough, is more equitable but does one of my favorite POV choices ever (discussed in the review, but the first sex scene is entirely from the MMC's POV, with no flip), and this book is primarily told from the MMC's POV.
I think this must be intentional, maybe not even necessarily for the readers, but for Mallory pushing her self to tell these stories differently. And it is interesting how different my experience as a reader was! I am obsessed with tracking knowledge bases in dual POVs and this was the one of the three where I felt the most untethered to the plot. (I've said for nearly all of Mallory's books that she writes a lot of plot! I quickly had to sort of let understanding exactly what was happening with the background go).
I have read a few reviews saying "oh maybe if I had read the other ones, this one would make more sense." I really don't think it does! I read it today and pretty closely and I still don't totally understand Nana's role in the whole thing or why she called Phoebe "Jane" or why that was meaningful, for example.
sunshine/grump
But what a fun time to read the inner thoughts of the grump to end up all grumps, Andreas Merrick, especially as he also had no idea what is going on. And that's what this story is really about: the grumpiest gaming hell owner and the sunshiniest down-on-her-luck heroine perhaps in any romance novel ever. Mallory pushes those character tropes to an extreme, past pastiche and back to something fresh again. I'm maybe skeptical of sunshine-y heroines, partially because they actually generally work on me really well and then I read other people's thoughts and realize that, oh, she was actually really flat.
I think the sunshine/grump here works because of the work Mallory does around the First Moment, which is not the first moment we see the couple together, but a memory that Andreas recalls. He is partially startled by Phoebe's presence in his gaming hall because he has already been fascinated by her, enough to start frequenting the theater, despite hating going outside and hating the theater.
This insta-attraction and fascination reads very similarly to how Roman initially sees Charlotte in the previous book--but! Phoebe has a matching awareness of the moment and her own attached meaning.
This insta-attraction makes so much sense to me! And I love that every time either character references it is sort of in this frame of "well which is the beginning. the beginning when I knew of you or when we Knew, capital-k, of each other?"
There is a lot of support referencing this moment that explains why Phoebe would be interested in Andreas and vice versa. So the tropeiness of insta-connection and grump/sunshine works. Like why is she is insistent at being helpful at him? It is something beyond just her dire straits.
journalist questions
When Andreas asked "How?" in the second chapter, I thought again maybe Mallory was rehashing a bit of One Night Is Never Enough, but I thought about it again once I had read the whole book and realized that Roman's question that takes him back is "Why?" and I thought the accompanying commentary was a clearly distinction in this book to distinguish the two brothers.
Andreas finds himself "unaccountably interested in the thoughts of someone else for once" when wondering How Phoebe plans to repay her debts, and Roman takes on Charlotte's penchant for asking "Why?" instead of his usual repartee when he wonders why she leaves her window open for him to sneak into when he sneaks into her bedroom for the first time they spend the night together.
Both of these brothers have this insta-attraction connection, but the journey to get to love differs based on these different question words. Roman possess Charlotte early in the book, but he has to get to the reasons for her actions and she has to get to his. The why of him cheating at the poker game, the why of her agreeing to be a bet.
Andreas' question is in Phoebe's means of action. How she exists in the world, how she enters his own, how she charms his men. Her "why" is not the question--it's to protect her family and he knows that from the beginning. But she will do things he has previously harshly forbidden and he is left wondering how he did he get from point A to point B. Similarly Phoebe wonders at how Andreas runs his world, how he loves those he does chose to let in. For a plot with a mystery identity, it is actually a pretty small discovery scene and Phoebe acts somewhat nonplussed by the whole thing. But "who?" isn't their question word.
miscellaneous form things I'm not sure what to do with, but might need for reference later
I think the only Mallory book with anything close to a babylogue! Just interesting. Especially because it was a babylogue just for the Merricks? Sorry to the Downings from Book 1!
I do think this was also one of the first Mallory books that I read where I knew the size differential between the couple--there's one sort of throwaway line about whether she is so short or he is so tall. I think one of Mallory's strengths is writing really charged scenes with no specific descriptions of body types!
Fade to black? This was the strangest thing me--I would not characterize any other Mallory book as fade to black and when I saw the phrase in reviews on here, I honestly thought people were using it wrong because I thought "Mallory doesn't do fade to black!" And if this isn't exactly totally fade to black, it is fade to very very dim lighting. Which is really wild because the previous book I thought when they first had sex that we had already gotten a sex scene because the couple was SO charged in their dialogue. But this one is less explicit! Just something I noted, I don't know where that fits in to my grand Mallory theory.
Phoebe Pace's father's business is not doing great. Her brother has gone missing, her father is ill and her family's debts have been consolidated on the collateral exchange run by the Merrick brothers, charming Roman and reclusive Andreas. But Roman is on his honeymoon and Andreas is left to do the talking.
Andreas has been corresponding with Phoebe for a while (she under the guise of her father) (all of this happens off page) and has seen her at the opera house and is fairly charmed by her. She intends to pay back the debts in kind and in service at first to buy time for the company to turn profitable. This plan requires so much talking that Andreas gets overwhelmed and releases her from all the debts that he currently owns.
Phoebe, having her own reasons for wanting to stay close with him, refuses the token forgiveness and instead immediately ingratiates herself in his home, and Andreas ostrich like attitude when it comes to nonviolent confrontations allows her to driver her tenterhooks deeper and deeper into his household.
Andreas similarly has his own secret motivations for keeping Phoebe both close and at a distance.
(ultimately the plot is incredibly secondary to his crankiness in the face of her joyfully flitting around his apartments.)
macro thoughts about Mallory
I just need to say this: I can't believe this is the last historical romance that Mallory wrote.
I mean I can, I guess. Lots of my favorite authors no longer publish in this genre. Based on nothing other than anecdotal evidence and talking with friends who know a lot more than me about this, the tides of tastes have turned against many of my new-to-me favorites from this year, who all seem have stopped publishing around 2012.
But Mallory might be the one that hurts that most--I really just adore her!
I didn't read her books in order (and I still have a few left), but if I put them in order in mind, the metaphor of teaching yourself how to swim comes up.
When you're first learning how to swim (and I mean like laps, like for distance and form, not the survival aspect of it), the first stage is endurance. Is it possible for me to get across the pool for one length? And then, is it possible for me to get around for one lap? This seems like a trudge, and impossible hurdle. But you can't really work on form, until you can reasonable get from one side to the other because it would be goofy (and dangerous) to stop in the middle of the lane.
But then you can do it and then the magic happens. The next part of learning to swim is realizing all the things your body is doing in resisting the efficiency of forward motion. So on the next length you say "okay, I won't let my arms cross my center line this time," or "I'll focus on floppy ankles" or "this time I'll try bilateral breathing, coming up every three breathes so I don't float to one side" or the most magical: pushing your chest + lungs down into the water so you don't tip backwards, despite every impulse being to keep your head as close to the surface of the water as possible. And what's crazy is that these little things like nothing, but can totally change your efficiency.
And then sometimes you do something and you realize you've overcorrected. Tucking your chin too much, reaching too far, breathing too panicky, pointing your toes so hard that your legs cramp.
But it's all data about your own body's best place to be in the water and you get to try again, maybe with a different method, on the next 50.
I feel like if I lined up Mallory's books in a chronological row, I could point to the little bits of structural form that's she committing to for each novel. I feel like when I am reading her books, I am reading an author in process for exploring the form. Maybe that's true of any novelist, especially one who aims to deliver a somewhat standardized product over and over again to such an exacting audience of readers. The genre of historical romance is so narrow (even narrower when it is Regency!), the movements can feel like minutia, even though the impact is great. But that's how it feels when you are swimming too--how can this tiny extension of my wrist make me feel like I am suddenly flying through the water?
Mallory's little changes between books really feel like form edits in the pool. Like I use Kleypas to chart evolving tastes in the genre about bad male behavior, on her journey from bodice rippers to Tom Severin, slum lord. But the only other author that I have noticed who has this similar interest in the form at the forefront is Sherry Thomas. I think Thomas' great interest is in timelines and all that is wrapped up with telling a story in a non-linear fashion (I think anything dual POV is inherently nonlinear!) and exploring what that means (talked about most coherently here: Ravishing the Heiress).
I think Mallory's is in conversation and POV, though now that I think about it, the way she does conversations dovetails nicely when a larger POV discussion (I talk, at length, about what how I see Mallory's conservations working in my review of One Night Is Never Enough).
I'm always harping about structure in romance novels, I think it is what fascinates me most about a good book and frustrates me the most with a bad book. There's an argument for characterization being the most important, but the how of who these people are and how the reader learns that I feel still reigns supreme for whether I am interested in a book. After all, as much as I love when I find a new type of character that I've never met more, I will still be excited when I meet a new rake when dark secret and daddy issues and heart of gold, even though he is afraid to be loved, if the how I get to know him is done well, despite being territory that is tread and retreaded.
micro thoughts about the book
So what are the little moves that Mallory makes here?
pushing the dual POV's limits
First off, I think the trilogy of the Secrets series a good set to see the POV stuff because the first book Seven Secrets of Seduction is told almost entirely through the FMC's POV, the second book, One Night Is Never Enough, is more equitable but does one of my favorite POV choices ever (discussed in the review, but the first sex scene is entirely from the MMC's POV, with no flip), and this book is primarily told from the MMC's POV.
I think this must be intentional, maybe not even necessarily for the readers, but for Mallory pushing her self to tell these stories differently. And it is interesting how different my experience as a reader was! I am obsessed with tracking knowledge bases in dual POVs and this was the one of the three where I felt the most untethered to the plot. (I've said for nearly all of Mallory's books that she writes a lot of plot! I quickly had to sort of let understanding exactly what was happening with the background go).
I have read a few reviews saying "oh maybe if I had read the other ones, this one would make more sense." I really don't think it does! I read it today and pretty closely and I still don't totally understand Nana's role in the whole thing or why she called Phoebe "Jane" or why that was meaningful, for example.
sunshine/grump
But what a fun time to read the inner thoughts of the grump to end up all grumps, Andreas Merrick, especially as he also had no idea what is going on. And that's what this story is really about: the grumpiest gaming hell owner and the sunshiniest down-on-her-luck heroine perhaps in any romance novel ever. Mallory pushes those character tropes to an extreme, past pastiche and back to something fresh again. I'm maybe skeptical of sunshine-y heroines, partially because they actually generally work on me really well and then I read other people's thoughts and realize that, oh, she was actually really flat.
I think the sunshine/grump here works because of the work Mallory does around the First Moment, which is not the first moment we see the couple together, but a memory that Andreas recalls. He is partially startled by Phoebe's presence in his gaming hall because he has already been fascinated by her, enough to start frequenting the theater, despite hating going outside and hating the theater.
It had been immediate. How the hell could that be, he didn't know. But her eyes had connected with his, somehow, as she'd entered the box on the opposite side of the theater--connected with his even through the dark shadows he surrounded himself with. And her mouth had bestowed a warm smile on a random stranger in a crowd.
This insta-attraction and fascination reads very similarly to how Roman initially sees Charlotte in the previous book--but! Phoebe has a matching awareness of the moment and her own attached meaning.
There is something quite familiar about you, Mr. Merrick. Apart from seeing you at the theater, of course.
And instinct and emotion said to follow the end of the thread that had been between them since the first time she had seen him catch his breath in a darkened theater.
...though there was something about you across the theater that made me want to get you to smile in return.
This insta-attraction makes so much sense to me! And I love that every time either character references it is sort of in this frame of "well which is the beginning. the beginning when I knew of you or when we Knew, capital-k, of each other?"
There is a lot of support referencing this moment that explains why Phoebe would be interested in Andreas and vice versa. So the tropeiness of insta-connection and grump/sunshine works. Like why is she is insistent at being helpful at him? It is something beyond just her dire straits.
journalist questions
When Andreas asked "How?" in the second chapter, I thought again maybe Mallory was rehashing a bit of One Night Is Never Enough, but I thought about it again once I had read the whole book and realized that Roman's question that takes him back is "Why?" and I thought the accompanying commentary was a clearly distinction in this book to distinguish the two brothers.
Andreas finds himself "unaccountably interested in the thoughts of someone else for once" when wondering How Phoebe plans to repay her debts, and Roman takes on Charlotte's penchant for asking "Why?" instead of his usual repartee when he wonders why she leaves her window open for him to sneak into when he sneaks into her bedroom for the first time they spend the night together.
Both of these brothers have this insta-attraction connection, but the journey to get to love differs based on these different question words. Roman possess Charlotte early in the book, but he has to get to the reasons for her actions and she has to get to his. The why of him cheating at the poker game, the why of her agreeing to be a bet.
Andreas' question is in Phoebe's means of action. How she exists in the world, how she enters his own, how she charms his men. Her "why" is not the question--it's to protect her family and he knows that from the beginning. But she will do things he has previously harshly forbidden and he is left wondering how he did he get from point A to point B. Similarly Phoebe wonders at how Andreas runs his world, how he loves those he does chose to let in. For a plot with a mystery identity, it is actually a pretty small discovery scene and Phoebe acts somewhat nonplussed by the whole thing. But "who?" isn't their question word.
miscellaneous form things I'm not sure what to do with, but might need for reference later
I think the only Mallory book with anything close to a babylogue! Just interesting. Especially because it was a babylogue just for the Merricks? Sorry to the Downings from Book 1!
I do think this was also one of the first Mallory books that I read where I knew the size differential between the couple--there's one sort of throwaway line about whether she is so short or he is so tall. I think one of Mallory's strengths is writing really charged scenes with no specific descriptions of body types!
Fade to black? This was the strangest thing me--I would not characterize any other Mallory book as fade to black and when I saw the phrase in reviews on here, I honestly thought people were using it wrong because I thought "Mallory doesn't do fade to black!" And if this isn't exactly totally fade to black, it is fade to very very dim lighting. Which is really wild because the previous book I thought when they first had sex that we had already gotten a sex scene because the couple was SO charged in their dialogue. But this one is less explicit! Just something I noted, I don't know where that fits in to my grand Mallory theory.
September 13, 2022
Anne Mallory's hallmarks continue to be, uneven POV where 80% is from one character’s perspective, this time from Andreas. Strong dialogue. Strong characterization. Ambitious plot held together by a hope and a prayer. The world is constructed well it’s her explanation of it is she’s assuming I know more than I know. She doesn’t rely much on her narrator's voice telling us things, so that might be why.
I think you should read this book if you want to read a story where the woman is driving the romance and the seduction. Sometimes I’ll read a romance and a man will be moving heaven and earth and the woman will barely reciprocate and I’m like, what is motivating this man? Truly? Like outside of the fantasy of it all? So yes, read for the romance and I honestly would want to read the uncut version of this book because maybe the plot had more to it.
I think you should read this book if you want to read a story where the woman is driving the romance and the seduction. Sometimes I’ll read a romance and a man will be moving heaven and earth and the woman will barely reciprocate and I’m like, what is motivating this man? Truly? Like outside of the fantasy of it all? So yes, read for the romance and I honestly would want to read the uncut version of this book because maybe the plot had more to it.
July 4, 2016
The Good and the Bad..... I am so torn on this book.
The Good: This book had the all-time best written characters. The witty banter, basically all conversations between the hero and heroine were so so well written. I couldn't put the book down because their interactions sucked me in like no book has done for awhile. The hero's stoic, uninterested, intimidating behavior was such a perfect match to the heroine's sunny, take charge, unintimidated personality.
The Bad: This book had the all-time worst, non-existent steamy scenes. After all the banter and sexual tension that was building up thru the book, when they finally kissed... it was like the author shut the door on us as readers to give them privacy. I was like WHAT? I went back and reread the page. Sure enough in one paragraph it was insinuated that they just made out. The scene was described as he started to unbutton her shirt. Next it starts describing him twirling her long hair around his fingers as they lay relaxing half an hour later. THAT WAS IT. If Anne Mallory doesn't like to write steamy love scenes, she needs to call up Julia London or Tessa Dare to help her out. Then it would have been a 5-star for sure. The other bad... I pretty much had no idea what was going on around them in the story. So much evil drama was described as happening, but no background info as to why, who, what, etc. I had this same problem with book#2 in this series. I see in other reviews that many others were lost as well, so that made me feel less of a dummy. But the characters were so great, I stopped caring about the background drama and just followed their conversations to watch them fall in love.
The Good: This book had the all-time best written characters. The witty banter, basically all conversations between the hero and heroine were so so well written. I couldn't put the book down because their interactions sucked me in like no book has done for awhile. The hero's stoic, uninterested, intimidating behavior was such a perfect match to the heroine's sunny, take charge, unintimidated personality.
The Bad: This book had the all-time worst, non-existent steamy scenes. After all the banter and sexual tension that was building up thru the book, when they finally kissed... it was like the author shut the door on us as readers to give them privacy. I was like WHAT? I went back and reread the page. Sure enough in one paragraph it was insinuated that they just made out. The scene was described as he started to unbutton her shirt. Next it starts describing him twirling her long hair around his fingers as they lay relaxing half an hour later. THAT WAS IT. If Anne Mallory doesn't like to write steamy love scenes, she needs to call up Julia London or Tessa Dare to help her out. Then it would have been a 5-star for sure. The other bad... I pretty much had no idea what was going on around them in the story. So much evil drama was described as happening, but no background info as to why, who, what, etc. I had this same problem with book#2 in this series. I see in other reviews that many others were lost as well, so that made me feel less of a dummy. But the characters were so great, I stopped caring about the background drama and just followed their conversations to watch them fall in love.
December 20, 2013
This is a book about a lady who's part of her family's carriage-making business mini-empire. She becomes involved with a stern businessman for vague reasons relating to, maybe, conspiracy, financial collapse, and (possibly) murder. She finds Stern Businessman super hot, but alas, Stern Businessman is grumpy and alarmed by his response to her.
I don't understand this book and will probably not finish it. The sexual tension between the two main characters is fine, but it just goes on and on and on and on and I never really understand what the STORY is about. Why can't they just have a conversation? Why is everything so cloak and dagger? What is the plot? WHAT IS GOING ON?
This book strikes as having the type of problem where there's enough story for a novella, and it has been stretched out to fill up an entire book. Not a fan. The writing itself is quite good, but there's not enough story to around, and so it's just a constant reset button - she comes into his office and brings him biscuits, and he is stoically tense about her, and she kisses his cheek, and that's another chapter.
I don't understand this book and will probably not finish it. The sexual tension between the two main characters is fine, but it just goes on and on and on and on and I never really understand what the STORY is about. Why can't they just have a conversation? Why is everything so cloak and dagger? What is the plot? WHAT IS GOING ON?
This book strikes as having the type of problem where there's enough story for a novella, and it has been stretched out to fill up an entire book. Not a fan. The writing itself is quite good, but there's not enough story to around, and so it's just a constant reset button - she comes into his office and brings him biscuits, and he is stoically tense about her, and she kisses his cheek, and that's another chapter.
July 16, 2020
5 STARS!
This book had me thoroughly entertained. There were so many quotable dialogues and scenes, so I'm gonna pepper some of them in this review because I'm not feeling particularly lazy today.
The heroine, Phoebe, is not only endearing but is also amusing. I adored her. She was rather relentless in her pursuit to repay Andreas, our hero, for his generosity to salvage her family's business (although the said generosity was proffered simply because he wanted to get rid of her due to his developing attraction towards her, though he is quite adamant in refusing to acknowledge that the said attraction even exists).
How can one not love her? I mean:
"I am a vile man.” He gave her a feral smile, letting the darkness rise. “The absolute worst you will ever meet.”
“That is absurd, Mr. Merrick.” The darkness froze, then began undulating, snapping at an unseen threat. “How do you know what kind of men I might meet in the future?”
No wonder our dear Andreas was a goner.
He didn’t have any new scowls left. He had used up all of his fiercest ones with her, ones he hadn’t even had to use on his bitterest enemies, and to no avail.
Also, the methods of how she wanted to repay Andreas and how much it tested Andreas patience? Hilarious. His frustrations are my entertainment.
Their banters were so much fun. Here's one:
"How do you define difficult?”
“By your presence.”
She grinned fully, delighted to feel the tension
dissipate. “Now you are just flattering me for no
reason.”
He grunted.
“On the contrary,” she said, as if his grunt had
been a worded response. “It was most flattering.”
He stared at her.
“What? Did you think I wouldn’t figure out how to
interpret your grunts?”
And yet another just because:
He flicked a finger at the man by the door without looking away from her. “Leave.”
She raised a brow as she turned to watch the man flee, his large frame not hindering his flight, the door slamming behind him. “I say, you are most abusive with that word, Mr. Merrick. Poor Bertrand. Do most people hop to do your bidding?”
“Yes.”
“Well, that is not good. It builds character to be told no.”
“You must have a lot of character then.”
“That is kind of you.” Warm smile.
“I was being rude.”
“Well, then at least I can say you are an honest man.”
The first several chapters were told in the hero's POV and I was down for it. Andreas is your typical dark, dangerous, and broody protagonist, so imagine his reaction when his world was infiltrated by the bubbly, cheerful, and bright Phoebe. They are total opposites. He was certainly annoyed with how persistent she is and how attracted he is to her when he thinks that he shouldn't be. He even described her as his "living nightmare" at one point. He was attracted to her, but he most certainly does not want to be.
However, due to Phoebe's tenacity, his walls started crumbling down, and it was delicious. No one, including him, especially him, can resist her smile.
Exhibit A:
She gifted him with that soft smile. And it did that
strange thing to his insides. He would probably lead
a revolt against the king if she asked him to do it
while wearing that smile.
Exhibit B:
She smiled, a warm smile that held no trace of
aberrant humor.
It bothered him on a level he couldn’t comprehend.
He experienced an overwhelming urge to grab that
smile and hide it solely for himself to gaze upon. A
Da Vinci masterpiece he intended to jealously
guard.”
And he was left no choice but to surrender.
“Something hurts in my chest whenever she looks my way. Whenever she touches me.”
Roman’s stare went blank for long seconds before a grin slipped across his lips. “She makes your chest hurt?”
“Yes. As if I’ve been felled by a blow.” He rubbed his chest absently.
“Felled by something.” Roman looked amused. “Odd for someone to want to keep a person near who makes him hurt.”
“The pressure decreases when she smiles.” His damn lips wouldn’t stop moving. As if he had needed a confessional and a priest had finally, finally appeared. “And she smiles often.”
In conclusion, this is my first Ann Mallory book and it certainly wouldn't be my last. Recommended!
This book had me thoroughly entertained. There were so many quotable dialogues and scenes, so I'm gonna pepper some of them in this review because I'm not feeling particularly lazy today.
The heroine, Phoebe, is not only endearing but is also amusing. I adored her. She was rather relentless in her pursuit to repay Andreas, our hero, for his generosity to salvage her family's business (although the said generosity was proffered simply because he wanted to get rid of her due to his developing attraction towards her, though he is quite adamant in refusing to acknowledge that the said attraction even exists).
How can one not love her? I mean:
"I am a vile man.” He gave her a feral smile, letting the darkness rise. “The absolute worst you will ever meet.”
“That is absurd, Mr. Merrick.” The darkness froze, then began undulating, snapping at an unseen threat. “How do you know what kind of men I might meet in the future?”
No wonder our dear Andreas was a goner.
He didn’t have any new scowls left. He had used up all of his fiercest ones with her, ones he hadn’t even had to use on his bitterest enemies, and to no avail.
Also, the methods of how she wanted to repay Andreas and how much it tested Andreas patience? Hilarious. His frustrations are my entertainment.
Their banters were so much fun. Here's one:
"How do you define difficult?”
“By your presence.”
She grinned fully, delighted to feel the tension
dissipate. “Now you are just flattering me for no
reason.”
He grunted.
“On the contrary,” she said, as if his grunt had
been a worded response. “It was most flattering.”
He stared at her.
“What? Did you think I wouldn’t figure out how to
interpret your grunts?”
And yet another just because:
He flicked a finger at the man by the door without looking away from her. “Leave.”
She raised a brow as she turned to watch the man flee, his large frame not hindering his flight, the door slamming behind him. “I say, you are most abusive with that word, Mr. Merrick. Poor Bertrand. Do most people hop to do your bidding?”
“Yes.”
“Well, that is not good. It builds character to be told no.”
“You must have a lot of character then.”
“That is kind of you.” Warm smile.
“I was being rude.”
“Well, then at least I can say you are an honest man.”
The first several chapters were told in the hero's POV and I was down for it. Andreas is your typical dark, dangerous, and broody protagonist, so imagine his reaction when his world was infiltrated by the bubbly, cheerful, and bright Phoebe. They are total opposites. He was certainly annoyed with how persistent she is and how attracted he is to her when he thinks that he shouldn't be. He even described her as his "living nightmare" at one point. He was attracted to her, but he most certainly does not want to be.
However, due to Phoebe's tenacity, his walls started crumbling down, and it was delicious. No one, including him, especially him, can resist her smile.
Exhibit A:
She gifted him with that soft smile. And it did that
strange thing to his insides. He would probably lead
a revolt against the king if she asked him to do it
while wearing that smile.
Exhibit B:
She smiled, a warm smile that held no trace of
aberrant humor.
It bothered him on a level he couldn’t comprehend.
He experienced an overwhelming urge to grab that
smile and hide it solely for himself to gaze upon. A
Da Vinci masterpiece he intended to jealously
guard.”
And he was left no choice but to surrender.
“Something hurts in my chest whenever she looks my way. Whenever she touches me.”
Roman’s stare went blank for long seconds before a grin slipped across his lips. “She makes your chest hurt?”
“Yes. As if I’ve been felled by a blow.” He rubbed his chest absently.
“Felled by something.” Roman looked amused. “Odd for someone to want to keep a person near who makes him hurt.”
“The pressure decreases when she smiles.” His damn lips wouldn’t stop moving. As if he had needed a confessional and a priest had finally, finally appeared. “And she smiles often.”
In conclusion, this is my first Ann Mallory book and it certainly wouldn't be my last. Recommended!
January 31, 2015
¡Lo amé!
Realmente maravilloso. Me ha encantado de principio a fin, si no fuera porque tengo poco tiempo lo volvería a leer porque es muy lindo!
Me encanta, me encanta, me encanta.
Es como totalmente diferente a la hora de desarrollar el romance, Phoebe es maravillosa, es una luz, es enérgica, es divina, es perfecta para Andreas. Ella realmente, realmente es buenísima. Me encanta como se desenvuelve todo, es una conquista de los sentidos, quiero destacar que ellos no sienten una atracción animal-sexual desde el principio, ni se creen totalmente enamorados con un solo roce, que no están locos el uno por el otro al tercer capítulo. Es como baile de seducción, cada uno se mete en la piel del otro. Van quitándose las capas.. dejando vislumbrar su interior. Andreas es un personaje oscuro, casi sin redención, con un objetivo muy pero muy claro en mente, no pretende ser quien no es, y lo sabe, y Phoebe entra en su vida a poner de cabeza todo, todo. TODO.
Me encanta como de lentas se dan estas cosas. Como de a poquito se va construyendo esta relación. Como los pequeños gestos de cada uno, abren un panorama hermoso. Y realmente cuando uno hace un avance se siente con más expectación, porque realmente lo esperas. Realmente quieres verlos fuera de control. Y es genial.
Me encanta me encanta me encanta, ¿por qué nadie se animó a sacarlo en español? es genial!
Es como una forma distinta de contar las historias sin utilizar recursos gastados para hacer creíble el romance. Valoro muchísimo la forma en que va formando la intriga alrededor de cada personaje. No sabes realmente nada, y aprecias cada retazo de información que hasta el último momento sabes que es importante.
Este libro creo que más me ha gustado de los tres. El contraste en la personalidad de esta pareja es muy notable. El interés que sienten el uno por el otro es palpable, creo que he suspirado un montón. Me ha sorprendido y me ha enganchado de una forma que hace rato no me pasaba. Debo decir que esta serie es una de las mejores que he leído. Mejora con respecto del anterior. Me encanta, ¿ya lo dije?
Realmente maravilloso. Me ha encantado de principio a fin, si no fuera porque tengo poco tiempo lo volvería a leer porque es muy lindo!
Me encanta, me encanta, me encanta.
Es como totalmente diferente a la hora de desarrollar el romance, Phoebe es maravillosa, es una luz, es enérgica, es divina, es perfecta para Andreas. Ella realmente, realmente es buenísima. Me encanta como se desenvuelve todo, es una conquista de los sentidos, quiero destacar que ellos no sienten una atracción animal-sexual desde el principio, ni se creen totalmente enamorados con un solo roce, que no están locos el uno por el otro al tercer capítulo. Es como baile de seducción, cada uno se mete en la piel del otro. Van quitándose las capas.. dejando vislumbrar su interior. Andreas es un personaje oscuro, casi sin redención, con un objetivo muy pero muy claro en mente, no pretende ser quien no es, y lo sabe, y Phoebe entra en su vida a poner de cabeza todo, todo. TODO.
Me encanta como de lentas se dan estas cosas. Como de a poquito se va construyendo esta relación. Como los pequeños gestos de cada uno, abren un panorama hermoso. Y realmente cuando uno hace un avance se siente con más expectación, porque realmente lo esperas. Realmente quieres verlos fuera de control. Y es genial.
Me encanta me encanta me encanta, ¿por qué nadie se animó a sacarlo en español? es genial!
Es como una forma distinta de contar las historias sin utilizar recursos gastados para hacer creíble el romance. Valoro muchísimo la forma en que va formando la intriga alrededor de cada personaje. No sabes realmente nada, y aprecias cada retazo de información que hasta el último momento sabes que es importante.
Este libro creo que más me ha gustado de los tres. El contraste en la personalidad de esta pareja es muy notable. El interés que sienten el uno por el otro es palpable, creo que he suspirado un montón. Me ha sorprendido y me ha enganchado de una forma que hace rato no me pasaba. Debo decir que esta serie es una de las mejores que he leído. Mejora con respecto del anterior. Me encanta, ¿ya lo dije?
Ella era inocente e ingenua. Aguda e inteligente. Era irritante. Repulsiva. Cautivante.
October 2, 2011
I loved this book!
It was a heck of a lot of fun to read a book where the heroine is the aggressive one, relentlessly pursuing the hero. And Phoebe is just brilliant - even knowing she was smart, that she was setting things up the way she wanted them to play out, I was surprised several times by her absolute brilliance as things fell into place and the extent of her "handling" of the situation became apparent. Phoebe is also remarkably fair. Usually when you are dealing with an anti-hero (which Andreas definitely is - a first-rate bad boy), you have some bit of melodramatic angst with the heroine as she comes to terms with the bad things he does. I loved that that whole emo drama was non-existent in this book; Phoebe had no illusions about Andreas, but she respected the fact that she knew nothing about the world he lived in nor did she understand the rules of survival there. She trusted Andreas, and trusted that he was simply doing what was necessary for his family and people to survive in that world. It was naivete mixed with faith, and it was refreshing.
Andreas was also great. We spent the vast majority of the book in his head (Mallory doesn't let us into Phoebe's head until about 115 pages into the book, because she doesn't want to give away the game too soon), and it was wonderfully entertaining to watch his baffled reaction as Phoebe relentlessly reshuffled his life to make room for herself in it. He was everything a good alpha-male / anti-hero should be: possessive, fiercely protective, ruthless, demanding. Also, tremendously protective of his privacy, something that no one dares disturb, until Pheobe comes trampling through his gates like a bull in a china shop.
This book alternates between heartbreakingly sweet and poignant, and gut-bustingly hilarious (I laughed out loud like a crazy person through many passages, earning me raised eyebrows from Boyfriend). It is a great read, and I definitely, whole-heartedly recommend it to all fans of HR.
It was a heck of a lot of fun to read a book where the heroine is the aggressive one, relentlessly pursuing the hero. And Phoebe is just brilliant - even knowing she was smart, that she was setting things up the way she wanted them to play out, I was surprised several times by her absolute brilliance as things fell into place and the extent of her "handling" of the situation became apparent. Phoebe is also remarkably fair. Usually when you are dealing with an anti-hero (which Andreas definitely is - a first-rate bad boy), you have some bit of melodramatic angst with the heroine as she comes to terms with the bad things he does. I loved that that whole emo drama was non-existent in this book; Phoebe had no illusions about Andreas, but she respected the fact that she knew nothing about the world he lived in nor did she understand the rules of survival there. She trusted Andreas, and trusted that he was simply doing what was necessary for his family and people to survive in that world. It was naivete mixed with faith, and it was refreshing.
Andreas was also great. We spent the vast majority of the book in his head (Mallory doesn't let us into Phoebe's head until about 115 pages into the book, because she doesn't want to give away the game too soon), and it was wonderfully entertaining to watch his baffled reaction as Phoebe relentlessly reshuffled his life to make room for herself in it. He was everything a good alpha-male / anti-hero should be: possessive, fiercely protective, ruthless, demanding. Also, tremendously protective of his privacy, something that no one dares disturb, until Pheobe comes trampling through his gates like a bull in a china shop.
This book alternates between heartbreakingly sweet and poignant, and gut-bustingly hilarious (I laughed out loud like a crazy person through many passages, earning me raised eyebrows from Boyfriend). It is a great read, and I definitely, whole-heartedly recommend it to all fans of HR.
October 6, 2012
Oh!” This was said brightly, as if she was happy he had noticed. “I decided I needed my own workspace, instead of constantly infringing upon yours.So I had a few of the boys move a desk in here.”
He stared at the petite,feminine, desk that was pushed against his. And wondered how the bloody hell she had managed to convince men who were terrified of him to move the desk inside his domain.
“Absolutely not.”
***
Two hours later, he was still scowling as she happily worked on... whatever the hell it was she was working on.Across from him.At her desk.How the hell . . .
He remembered saying no.He remembered cursing.Threatening her unborn children.Then there was a sort of hazy period of smiles and calm words. Then she had touched the back of his hand with her naked fingers.
And now, here he was with... her desk... pressed to his—surreptitiously watching her scratch her paper,the tip of her tongue poking from the side of her mouth as she worked.
The 3rd and final book in the Secrets trilogy is slightly different from the other two.But still it is amazing.
It's Andreas time to find his one and forever love.Yeah the mafia guy who looks like he is going to kill you because you are breathing will find his woman and settle down.I liked Andres from the first time I saw him.Phoebe bakes,controls the boys at Andrea and Romans place and is smarter than she looks.
I wanted to see more of the previous characters because I missed them and if I had started from this book I would think it was a stand-up alone book.
...Go somewhere else.Somewhere safer.”
Anywhere else.God,please.Or he was likely to do something horribly awful,like surrender his sanity and kiss her.
He stared at the petite,feminine, desk that was pushed against his. And wondered how the bloody hell she had managed to convince men who were terrified of him to move the desk inside his domain.
“Absolutely not.”
***
Two hours later, he was still scowling as she happily worked on... whatever the hell it was she was working on.Across from him.At her desk.How the hell . . .
He remembered saying no.He remembered cursing.Threatening her unborn children.Then there was a sort of hazy period of smiles and calm words. Then she had touched the back of his hand with her naked fingers.
And now, here he was with... her desk... pressed to his—surreptitiously watching her scratch her paper,the tip of her tongue poking from the side of her mouth as she worked.
The 3rd and final book in the Secrets trilogy is slightly different from the other two.But still it is amazing.
It's Andreas time to find his one and forever love.Yeah the mafia guy who looks like he is going to kill you because you are breathing will find his woman and settle down.I liked Andres from the first time I saw him.Phoebe bakes,controls the boys at Andrea and Romans place and is smarter than she looks.
I wanted to see more of the previous characters because I missed them and if I had started from this book I would think it was a stand-up alone book.
...Go somewhere else.Somewhere safer.”
Anywhere else.God,please.Or he was likely to do something horribly awful,like surrender his sanity and kiss her.
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