4.50 Stars Regency/Historical Romance!This book is a RITA Award Nominee for Best Regency Historical Romance (2010) and it is well deserved. It narrates a story of a beautiful historical romance with blissfully realistic depictions of a sea voyage full of crews and workings of a ship during the regency period.Benedict 'Gray' Grayson, a former privateer is one handsome scoundrel of the first order with a wicked tongue, who wishes to live for honorability after living a life of a disreputable rake. He owns the ship called Aphrodite, whose Captain is his half-brother Joss, an enchanting secondary character.Sophia is a runaway heiress, who wishes for romance and adventure, and sets off to sail for Tortola, with a set of lies good enough to be a passenger to Aphrodite. Though the Captain of the ship is reluctant to have a young Miss without a chaperone in the journey full of crews and his rakish brother most of all, he relents later owing to her persuasive pretext.Grey pledges not to seduce the miss and struggles really hard not to. But sparks fly as the handsome rogue of first order interacts with the innocent unworldly virgin with a poorly designed chain of lies, making him question his vow to be respectable.Though the story sounds very clichéd, Dare has a beautiful power of storytelling which tells us about the hidden depth of a rakish Grayson, who, for all his lies, had an unfathomable determination for life and loved his family with a fervent intensity underneath.The beautiful steamy episodes and the charming rogue that Grey was are the elements that make the book truly a keeper. Reading Grey was a decadent delight. His devastating charm and passion guaranteed him to be one of the likable historical heroes of these times. Moreover, Tessa Dare’s amazing account of the sea, the crew and the illustration of the various cruise aspects were priceless to read about. It will put you back to the regency times amidst of all the bickering, the bantering of the crews, the wickedly devilish Grey and the adventure which this book warrants as soon as the first page commences! When I first read this book, I was enticed by the Kindle edition, free from my local library. I was intrigued by the Regency setting and the cover looked rather tame compared to most romance paperbacks on the market. I guess it's fair to say that its innocence drew me in. What kept me was the story of Sophia Hathaway, a painter and heiress, and I cheered along as she asserts her independence and fights her attraction to "Gray" Grayson. I was a little disappointed (but not surprised) by the multitude of love scenes found in this book, but as I've discovered from reading the rest of this series... for Tessa Dare, it's par for the course.
What do You think about Surrender Of A Siren (2009)?
This book just moved Tessa Dare to auto-buy status for me.
—Jenny
Cute, with some interesting points, but not outstanding.
—keyla
Fun flirty romance that made a long flight go quickly!
—bloodyroseB3
Trapped on a boat, mixed up in lies. Eh.
—omgnoonafan
