Surrender [Large Print] (Hardcover)

This has to be her best work yet.(...) when you read this book you will find it is rather different from her usual books.(...) there is just a little something that the other of her books lack.(...)

Well the story goes downhill from here. As soon as they get married, the hero, Lucas turns into a tyrant. He dictates the money that was once hers, puts a stop to her intellectual exploration activities she loves doing, and forbids her to wear the flamboyant clothes that are her own personal style.

I hate stories like this where the hero likes the heroine because she is unconventional, marries her then tries to change her into a typical woman of society and forbids the activities that the heroine loves. In the beginning of the story, Victoria is afraid of marriage because she is afraid of ending up with a fortune hunter, and that is exactly what she gets. I saw no love between these two, only attraction and isn't the whole point of reading a romance novel to read about romance?

I also have to admit that a fortune-hunting hero is quite unusual for Quick. Usually, her heroes are all very rich, mysterious, and rather intimidating. This hero, Lucas, can be intimidating - because of his status as a war hero. The mystery about him is not so much in in his past (he is a distant relative who has succeeded unexpectedly to the title), but in his financial position at least as far as the ton (society) is concerned.

The story begins with Lucas pursuing a not-so-young (in her mid-twenties) heiress named Victoria, with the aid of his former love Jessica. Unlike previous old flames in other Quick novels, Jessica is not the villain(ess). In fact, she is decidedly a prude, and rather pleased with her status as a martyr to family duty. But I digress...

Victoria is the usual Quick heroine in that she is bright, unconventional and she positively thirsts for adventure. She is unusual in that she is richer than the hero. As in most Quick plots, the heroine's desire for adventure leads her into some compromising situations and also considerable danger. Thanks to one such episode, Lucas and Victoria must get married - which suits Lucas just fine.

Well, Lucas is a fortune-hunter, but he is a bit more than that. He is fortune-hunting because he owes the people on his estates and the land the best that he can manage. [A rather nice reason to chase an heiress, compared to the usual spendthrift feckless gamble who goes fortune-hunting]. And Lucas also respects Victoria's intelligence, her unusual qualities, and even her appetite for rather unorthodox adventures. Although he is not displeased by his forced marriage, he would have preferred a more conventional courtship. Best of all, although it would have been easy for him to engineer the forced marriage, it is clear fairly soon that he was not the one who betrayed the couple.

Victoria and Lucas have their usual tiffs, including a remarkable tiff about money and her spending, in which he manages to alienate Victoria for a while. But he is always good at retrieving the situation, partly by appealing to her sense of adventure. And into this mix is thrown an old family legend about an Amber Knight and his Lady, into which Victoria plays beautifully with her penchant for amber-colored and yellow-colored outfits. The people on the estate are as thrilled by Victoria's wardrobe as her actions, and everything seems to be going nicely.

Or is it? From the outset, it is clear that Victoria is being stalked by someone regarding a Big Secret in her past. And here I have to say that Victoria exhibits remarkable stupidity (as does Lucas at one point). Does she take someone into her confidence early? No. Does she take certain precautions such as hiring a Bow Street Runner or finding out the mole among the staff? No. Do she and Lucas act rashly at a certain point? Yes. Unfortunately, this part of the story was a decided letdown as was the author's lack of knowledge about inheritance law.

For the record, if Victoria's mother had control of her own fortune at her first husband's death and she then remarried without any safeguards, her fortune would go immediately to her new husband. If she and her friends had safeguards built (basically a trust being set up), then her new husband could not inherit her fortune. The point being that the reason for a certain death in the back history of the novel made little sense - almost as little sense as the villain's desire for revenge (this person is supposed to be smart). I cannot say more without giving away secrets, but at the beginning of the book, either Victoria inherits her mother's fortune outright after her mother's death (usually in the form of a trust) or that fortune has passed into another family in the absence of such a trust. [For further enlightenment, I recommend Emily Bronte's WUTHERING HEIGHTS].

If this problem (with the disposition of Victoria's mother's fortune) had not existed, and if the hero and heroine had not acted rashly (and even stupidly at several points), I would have given this book a 5 or something close to it. As it stands, it gets a 3.9 (rounded up to a 4). Why do I penalize it so much? Because Quick makes mystery and revenge key motives in her plots - and it is disappointing when that part comes undone, especially near the end.