Customer Reviews

Golden Surrender

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Well, I have nobody to blame but myself for reading this drivel. I wanted to rekindle my teenage love for Viking bodice-rippers and "Golden Surrender" seemed like an excellent book to fit the requirements. Too bad at some point I wanted to throw this book across the room or even worse - burn it.

Let me make it clear, my expectations for such literature are not very high, I know how this kind of stories are done: hero and heroine hate each from the get-go, for one reason or another they are forced to get married, swiftly they fall in love mainly via lots of flirting, fighting and foreplay, a virgin heroine's maidenhead is ravished (in a most glorious and satisfying manner, naturally), followed by numerous instances of passionate copulating, then some misunderstanding occurs that draws our love birds apart, but everything culminates in HEA after the difficulties are resolved and a child is born. What I do not expect from historical bodice-rippers, however, is for heroine to be madly in love with her husband after she is physically assaulted by him and the main character does just that in "Golden Surrender." But let me start from the beginning.

Olaf of Norway is a golden-haired Viking Lord whose ambition is to conquer Ireland and to become its wise and noble ruler. Erin is a beautiful, proud and strong green-eyed Irish princess who, after witnessing Olaf's army ravage an Irish village, cause the deaths of her aunt and uncle and viciously rape her friend, vows to kill the Norwegian Lord. To her horror, about 100 pages into the story, Erin's father pledges her hand in marriage to Olaf, her mortal enemy. The Irish princess is drugged to get through the wedding ceremony and finally comes back to her senses in their bedroom. Erin plans to kill her new husband with a pair of scissors, but is stopped by Olaf, who punishes her not by savagely taking her virginal body (as Erin fears), but by tying her hands to the bed at night. The bride is full of fear and hate for her new husband, but it doesn't stop her from admiring his body and quivering from desire for it as he dangles his family jewels in front of her face while tying her up. And that manly smell! Erin can hardly control her passion after getting a whiff of his scent, a sight of his chest hair and being repeatedly called a bitch!

As the time goes by, Erin is getting used to her role as a Viking Lord's wife, her husband comes to like her, but doesn't attempt to earn her love, rather, he taunts her by making her scrub his back or massage his body, always remembering to give her a good view of his... shaft. Of course, Erin is very close to the ecstasy at the sight of it. The things start to finally move along when one fateful morning, during an argument, Olaf slaps Erin's face for mentioning his dead lover's name. Erin is furious, but not for too long, this very night their marriage is finally consummated, as Olaf is so darn irresistible and has such a great skill with working bath soap and massage oil (page 200). The union is passionate and satisfactory to both, but Erin ends the night by crying and giving her husband a cold shoulder. But fear not, next morning things are different. The Irish princess finds herself almost in love with her enemy/spouse. She is now a toe-sucking vixen as well. Oh, what a difference can one night of Viking loving can make!

Their marital bliss is very short-lived however. The same day Olaf is called upon to protect his lands and is forced to leave his wife alone for almost 3 months. THE misunderstanding occurs when Olaf is on the way from the campaign. Not to go into much detail, Erin is accused of attempting to kill her husband, when in fact her intention is to protect him. Olaf doesn't care to hear her explanations and punishes her immediately by putting shackles on her and dragging her behind his horse. And this is where "Golden Surrender" takes a nose dive IMO. Erin is not only seriously hurt, she is pregnant, as well as innocent in the crime. But Olaf doesn't care, he is never apologetic, and Erin, in spite of her vow never to forget this assault, quivers in desire for her husband the next morning.

I say, give me a break! I sure don't expect a masterpiece reading a book named "Golden Surrender," but is it too much to ask for characters in a bodice-ripper to be marginally likable and make sense? Erin in this book is weak and almost a doormat, she never shows any strength of character, and even more, she seems to have a borderline personality disorder, she hates Olaf one minute and loves him the next. (The only other character I've encountered who acts in the same way is Nora from a widely popular YA novel "Hush, Hush.") And Olaf, well, he is good with massage oil, but otherwise is a jerk.

I personally prefer my historical bodice-rippers with a little more sense, chemistry between the hero and heroine and some humor. "Golden Surrender" is just a sad, dull story which relies heavily on forced (is that the right term?) seduction. 2 stars for smut.

This was the first viking romance I have read. I thought they would be boring, I was dead wrong! I love how he was always telling her that she belonged to him. He was so forceful about it. How could she resist him. I loved this book. The first of a three part series. I read all three and they were all fantastic. This one was my favorite. It just seemed to me that there love was a little bit deeper. I love viking romance and I love Heather Graham aka Shannon Drake.

I loved this magical viking romance. This book is the first to a trilogy, all three probably the best viking romances I have ever read. A must read and a must for your collection!!!

This mixture of romance, history, and war turned out to be a very good historical romance. The two main characters, Erin and Olaf, are both strong-willed, proud and stubborn which made for some interesting feuding from the very beginning. The author fleshed them out enough to make you care about them, and like them both.

Aside from the romance, which was very good, there were also some pretty interesting battle scenes as war raged on between the Vikings and the Irish. (Don't worry, these scenes aren't overlong.) The author did a good job of conveying the pride and dignity of both sides in the warring.

I must admit I was slightly irritated by a few things Erin did, but I quickly overcame my irritation because of the interesting way that the situations were resolved. This irritation was also overshadowed by some of the admirable actions that Olaf took.

In sum, if you like historical romances, this is a book worth reading.

I read with alarm that this book is being re-issued next month. I hope that the author is doing some serious rewrites because this book as it stands now embodies all that was worst about 80's romance novels: the abusive hero, the TSTL heroine, the purple prose.

Let's talk about abuse first. We get the physical: Olaf strikes the heroine Erin twice (the second time hard enough to leave red welts on her face), ties her up, pulls her hair violently several times, spanks her, tethers her to his horse and forces her to run after him until she collapses, orders her to be confined to his dungeon in chains ... Did I miss anything? We get the verbal: I lost count of the number of times he called her bitch or better yet, Irish bitch. We get the emotional: he refuses to allow her to visit her parents unless she offers him sex, he threatens to beat her "black and blue" in 5 months (as soon as their child is born). Needless to say, Olaf never apologizes for any of this. This is a hero? Add to which he spends most of the book brooding about his lost love Grenilde. We even get a gratuitous scene of Olaf and Grenilde having sex. This is a romance?

The heroine is typically 80's: impossibly beautiful, "spirited", supposedly intelligent but apt to do stupid things. She goes off alone to where a vicious battle was fought recently, disregarding the risk of being caught by desperate stragglers. She boasts of her prowess with a sword but I saw no evidence of it. She can't even escape the hero when she's holding a red-hot sword and he's rolling around in agony from his cauterized wound. She has some unpleasant cruel moments too. And she reminds herself so often that she's a princess of Tara that I started picturing her flipping her hair and stamping her foot every time she said it again.

The secondary characters are no better. Her supposedly affectionate father orders her confined and drugged to make her marry the hero. The drugging is carried out by her hypocrite of a sister - a nun! The secondary romance between the Irish Moira and 1 of the Vikings who had gang-raped her is positively sick.

The plot and the research behind it seem okay. But the writing is unsophisticated, with much repetition. The prose in the sex scenes is a virulent shade of purple. Olaf and Erin scream at each other, then get the hots for each other and have sex, then back to screaming, sexing, screaming ... Lather, rinse and repeat. In the final 5 pages of a 400 page book Olaf and Erin finally say "I love you" to each other. I didn't believe in their "romance" at all. [...]

This is the best book I have ever read. The main characters were beautifully written! Erin the beautiful strong-willed princess had me rooting for her throughout the entire novel and Olaf, stole my heart with his tough exterior but a true softy at heart. This is a story of suspense and love that is meant to be. It will keep you glued to each page, and make you cry at the wonderful ending. I loved it, and have read it again 4 times!!

This is the first in Graham's Viking trilogy (Golden Surrender, The Viking's Woman and Lord of the Wolves). Set in 9th century Ireland (Eire), England and the north coast of France, these are the stories of Prince Olaf of Norway, the first Lord of the Wolves, his bride, Princess Erin, daughter of the Irish High King, the Ard-Righ of Tara, and their descendants. I'll warn you, the men are strong willed, arrogant and domineering Vikings, even if the last two are half Irish. But they are Vikings, right? Who wants a gentleman Viking? Their loves are independent, stubborn and courageous women who can fight with the best of the men and have no intention of allowing a Viking male to dominate them. But then wolves and the cubs of wolves mate for life or so says the druid who is advisor to the Irish king's family.

Each of the marriages is arranged over the objection of the female who fights the husband who has laid claim to their lands and to them. This first story of Olaf and Erin is a good one and tells us much of what the Norsemen contributed to Ireland's history. For in conquering they also came to give to the land and to give of themselves. Olaf came in his dragon ship not only to conquer but to build a kingdom and to stay. He welcomes the Irish king's truce sealed by his daughter's hand, even if he has no desire for the Irish wench. Erin, who has met the Wolf before and hates him, feels betrayed by the father she loves. Though the marriage begins on very bad terms, love does change things in the end.

Graham's writing is, as always, very well done with superb historical references woven into a love story that befits the cultures of the hero and heroine. The sexual tension is high and the love between Olaf and Erin believable. I highly recommend this trilogy. For you Irish romance lovers, it's a story of the early days in a great country.

I liked the story, but it didn't flow right. It also lacked humor and humility. I didn't get Erin at all.

It was strange to see how much the male character grieved for and adored his first love. That's rare, and I'm telling ya, it ruined the story early on. More in this series? if I see the next at a sale, maybe.

I did enjoy this book. I have read the three books in this trilogy & I would have to say it is my favourite.
The conflict between the hero & heroine does start to wear a bit thin. They are both stubborn and arrogant.
There are some good characters in the book. A believable story for the times it was set.

If you do not mind a cruel hero, you will love this book. Of course, the heroine is not much better. However, the story was well-written and I can understand some of the conflict. But the hero can be downright nasty sometimes, and I found myself wondering how Erin could ever have fallen in love with him, with all his nastiness. Not to mention that he is physically violent also. But he is a Viking, and that was their way. The ending was wonderful, and the book, itself, enjoyable. A little less marital violence and bickering would have made this book a 5 star in my view.