Comments on: REVIEW: Surrender of a Siren by Tessa Dare

By: DM

DM — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:37:20 +0000

Bought it, read it, found it deeply disappointing. Goddess of the Hunt was nicely done. Nothing terribly original but everything well executed and in prose that never went near any shad of purple. And the conflict in Goddess arose naturally from the characters and their situations. I thought I had happened on a new favorite author. Dare went to such pains to make all the motivations work in Goddess, to give her characters real stakes, that I thought for sure this book would be if not as good, then at least as well executed.

Unfortunately, for me, this read like a very silly pirate romance with the slenderest of motivations for every character action in the book. In Goddess, we wanted to know if the tomboy heroine would be able to put aside her childish infatuations and grow up, and we were afraid that her naive attempts at seduction would result in crushing humiliation. Classic hope versus fear. In Surrender, I could never figure out what the worst thing that could happen to the heroine was. I had no hopes for her and no fears. It was almost a DNF but I persevered.

By: JulieLeto

JulieLeto — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:47:31 +0000

Don’t know if anyone will see this as it’s been a while since the review was posted, but I’m 3/4 of the way through the book myself and I don’t think the review does the book justice, honestly. Sophia doesn’t merely run away because she doesn’t love Toby. That’s not it at all. She runs away because she is tired of everyone’s expectations of her, of Toby’s inability to see her for a real woman instead of some angel on a pedestal, on being nothing more to society than a meal ticket for some family because of her dowry. When she learns that she will get her money not when she marries, but that it is in a trust that she will get whether she is married or not when she turns of age, she decides to take her life for her own. She regrets leaving Toby as she did, but she has no other choice in her mind. And she does have those romantic notions of hers to deal with–they are both dashed and verified at the same time. It’s brilliant.

I loved Sophia very much. And Gray is an amazingly conflicted hero with a strong sense of honor, even if he doesn’t realize it right away. He’s by no means perfect–neither of them are, but they find perfection together. I haven’t finished the book and I can see conflicts to come, but I see no way at this point how these two people can’t win over any circumstance…and to me, that is the most romantic notion of all.

And the writing itself is magical.

By: DM

DM — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:58:14 +0000

I was amazed by the crystal clear, brisk prose in Goddess of the Hunt and will buy Surrender of a Siren despite the plot summary, which sadly does not appeal to me. I’m not certain I’ll engage with a heroine whose adventure is kicked off by such slight motivation.

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:14:43 +0000

I’m halfway through Goddess of the Hunt right now and not being a fan of historicals, I’m gobsmacked at how I was drawn in so immediately and how infactuated I am with the writing.

I’ll follow up with this book (although I’m sad that Sophia wasn’t as entranced by Toby’s kiss as this reader was.)

By: may

may — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:02:54 +0000

I purchased this today (having read Goddess of the hunt based on review on this site) and I hope to fall in love with it much as I did the first.