Review: Kiss of Surrender by Sandra Hill

Kiss Of Surrender
(Deadly Angels, #2)
By: Sandra Hill
Publisher: Avon Books
Published: Nov. 27, 2012
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating:


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It's not easy being a Vampire Angel.

No one knows that better than Trond Sigurdsson. In the centuries since he last went out drinking and wenching with his Viking buds, Trond has been a gladiator, a cowboy, a ditch digger . . . even a sheik. But now he's the baddest of them all: a kick-ass Navy SEAL kicking butts of terrorist immortals with the help of his hotter-than-Hades female partner, police officer-turned-Special Forces operative Nicole Tasso--whom Trond dearly hopes to "partner" with very shortly in a whole different way.

The "cop" part of Nicole tells her there's something bizarre about her gorgeous godlike teammate. But her "all-woman" side can't help wondering how great it would be to have a virile Viking in her bed. Trond has secrets galore, but Nicole feels certain she can dig them out--and really get to the heart of this powerful, unnerving stranger whom she may be risking her soul to love.

My thoughts...
I must admit that I didn't read the first book in the series but the author fills you in at the beginning. Each book seems to deal with a different Vangel, so you could technically read this as a stand alone.

It starts off with Trond in his viking days and the moment that St. Michael shows up and offers him a deal, become a Vangel (viking vampire angel) and help save humanity from Satan's Lucipires or die and burn in hell. With Trond being a man who is selfish, he decides to save his hide and sign up to be a Vangel. Fast forward a thousand years and he is now at a SEALs base. Where not only has he not changed one bit from his viking days but he's found himself under the microscopic eye of Lt. Nicole Tasso.

When I read the synopsis I thought it sounded like a fun new paranormal read. I've made it no secret that I am not a fan of angel books. They get to Almighty Heavenly Father on me and I end up calling it a day. However, even though Trond is a Vangel, he still acts like his old self. He swears and even though having sex is a major no-no, he has what he calls "near-sex". So considering that Trond doesn't walk around spreading the word of his God, I was cool with the story.

Nicole is one of those characters who overcame a rough past. She married young and fell in love with an abusive and controlling man. Bad part is, he was a cop, so not many people believed her when she reported him. She was able to escape him, left town and joined the SEALs. She's now a stronger character because of the obstacles she overcame. However, towards the middle of the book, it is brought to our attention that Nicole's 18yr old sister is engaged to her ex-husband. Nicole talks about going home to try and save her sister from the same marriage that she had. There is even talk about Trond accompanying her to her hometown. However, nothing comes of it and the issue is resolved at the end. I felt like this was something that could've been left out of the story. It had no real story development to it. Nicole could've just talked about her past and left it at that. Instead we are giving this extra story that our characters stress over that resolves itself. It just seemed pointless to add it to the story.

We only get to experience one mission that the SEALs go on and that was by far probably the best part of the story for me. I actually wish the mission lasted a bit longer seeing as the characters are in the SEALs. I thought there would be more missions and suspense. Instead a lot of the book takes place at the base in Coronado, CA.

Since I was given an ARC for review I am hoping that they fix the errors that are in the story. There were a few cases of the author using the wrong name. She would write "Vikar" instead of "Trond". Which confused me since Vikar wasn't even in the story. There is also talk at the end of Donita and Sly getting married. When during the middle of the story Sly dumped Donita, went crazy due to being infected by the Lucifiers and didn't look like he'd be recovering anytime soon. But at the end we are told that the SEALs disapproved of their marriage. I feel like I missed something with that.

Regardless of the problems that I faced while reading this. I still felt that it was a good story. I love that we started out with a "hero" who was less than worthy of the title and by the time you finish the story he has redeemed himself tenfold. This is a great paranormal romance for those who love a naughty hero.

Favorite quote...
"Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out." -Trond

Although I am a livelong writer--I'm the oddball who liked writing essays in school--it wasn't until the early 1990s that my writing interest turned to novels.  It was a new beginning for me...a totally different career path from the journalism I had been practicing.  More than twenty novels later, I am still in love with writing...and with new beginnings.

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 I'd like to thank TLC tours for allowing me to be part of the 

Kiss of Surrender's blog tour.