Book Review
Title: Surrender to Them
Author: Kelli Callahan
Genre: Romance
Rating: *****
Review: So, this is an anthology collection of four novellas all surrounding an M/F/M romance. Smoke & Fire follows Kayla, Trent, and Chase, Temptation & Trouble follows Kacey, Harlan, and Gabe, Secrets & Sin follows Brianna, Dante, and Shane, Heat & Desire follows Wendy, Brody, and Micah and I was excited to read each and every one of them.
Smoke & Fire
Smoke and Fire opens with Kayla on a night out with her best friend Anna, after returning home Kayla has a few more drinks and decides to have a smoke although she quit 6 years before. Drinking and smoking are definitely a bad idea as Kayla proves when she sets fire to her apartment and is rescued by a very hunky firefighter. We are then introduced to Trent and Chase, who are among two of the many firefighters who rescue Kayla from her burning apartment. Trent and Chase like to share women but when they lay eyes on Kayla, they know she is the exact type of woman they want, and when Trent wants to check up on her in the hospital, we know what this trio is going to get together.
When Kayla’s luck only gets worse when Anna is evicted and has to move back home, she ends up staying on Trent and Chase’s couch for a few nights. When the boys learn that Kayla accidentally set the fire and then lied about it, they aren’t that angry with her as she isn’t the first or last person to lie about setting a fire. While she seems to have more chemistry with Chase, I have a feeling that she will come to love both men equally. Kayla quickly comes to realise that it is hard to hide her attraction to the two handsome firefighters. After being with the two men for the first time Kayla realises what she has been depriving herself of for years. However, we also learn that Kayla has been in an abusive relationship before and struggled to move on from that and that she may be hiding something far darker in her past.
Seeing Kayla’s past and how Trent and Chase deal with that and help Kayla heal from it was beautiful and made this novella some much more than a standard romance story. The epilogue and the extended epilogue were beautiful, but I would have liked some more backstory on Kayla’s relationship with Adam and the resolution of their “relationship” and some more depth into the real mental and emotional scars it left on Kayla throughout her life.
Temptation & Trouble
Book 2 in this bind-up Temptation and Trouble follows Kacey, Harlan, and Gabe. We are introduced to Kacey whose life is on a downward spiral after breaking off her engagement with Chad who was cheating on her. While Kacey is still a virgin she turns to drink for help and even has to leave home but one night she bumps into Harlan, an old friend of her fathers and there is some immediate attraction between the pair, but he ends up going home before anything can happen between them, but it stays in Kacey’s mind.
When we switch to Harlan’s perspective, we get a lot of backstory and insight into his life. His wife, Maria cheated on him several times, so he ended up moving in with his lifelong friend and best man, Gabe. When Kacey walks back into his life Harlan feels the desire to make her his but resists because of how they know each other and the fact that she is so much younger than him but when he learns that her friend is asking her to leave after getting engaged herself and her boyfriend is moving in with her, Harlan is quick to offer up Gabe’s spare room with his approval. While I think this is partly because he wants to help her, I felt that a large part of this was his desire towards her coupled with the fact that Harlan and Gabe aren’t shy about sharing women, this is set up to be a great romance since Harlan and Kacey’s experiences are so similar.
Gabe’s backstory has to be the best by far as he grew up in a house where love was conditional, and that has prevented him was ever getting close to anyone especially women. However, when he meets Kacey something is switched on inside him and with Harlan’s support, they make their move. When Kacey experiences true pleasure for the first time between Harlan and Gabe she realises that there is nowhere else that she’d rather be in that moment. After being together for over a month, the trio is approaching Thanksgiving, and everyone is invited.
Seeing the trio progress in their relationship and despite their not being much resolution at the end compared to Smoke & Fire I really enjoyed the slow burn romance and romantic development between Kacey, Harlan, and Gabe. I highly recommend this novella and M/F/M romances are really growing on me.
Secrets & Sin
Secrets & Sin follows Brianna, Dante, and Shane, who all meet in a costume shop before Halloween, while Brianna is a virgin, Shane and Dante definitely aren’t, but these pair are polar opposites. However, it is gruff and dominating Dante that first spots Brianna as a natural submissive even if she doesn’t know it yet, so they invite Brianna and her friend Jackie to a Halloween party at the mansion they recently bought. While the girls decline their invitation, I have a feeling that Brianna is going to end up spending more time with this sexy pair sooner or later. After spending some time alone with boys they awaken something within Brianna that intrigues and terrifies her at the same time but when Halloween night rolls around I have a feeling she is going to find herself back at the Overlook Mansion.
Halloween night sees Brianna return to the Overlook Mansion and the two men that have caught her attention. Seeing Brianna fully accept her submissive side was nice, but the best thing was Dante coaxing Shane back into his dominant side which had been almost completely destroyed by his previous partner and it was beautiful. While this novella had more BDSM themes than the previous two it did have a distinguished plot and the character motivations are constantly driving this plot and everything else just falls into place.
Heat & Desire
Heat & Desire follows Wendy, Brody, and Micah, and is the first novella to start five years in the past. This novella opens on Wendy’s 18th birthday and she wishes for the attention of her best friend’s father; Brody. Wendy doesn’t come from a good home as her father become an alcoholic after her mother abandoned them when she was young. While he isn’t abusive, Wendy doesn’t like staying there until one day she arrives at Beth’s house to find Brody and his best friend Micah sharing a woman. We then jump 5 years forward to when Wendy is 23, and she returns to her home town to take care of her father. After an accident at work she ends up bumping into Brody and Micah again, however, when Wendy confesses her feelings to Brody, he shuts her down and she eventually ends up accepting a date with Micah and realises that she wants both men and she has a plan.
I really enjoyed the fact that when Brody and Micah talk about having a relationship with Wendy, they do it in an adult way but sitting down and talking. The relationship between this trio was my favourite out of the whole collection because of the stakes of their relationship and the way it works out in the end. I really liked how neither of the men are perfect and both have damaged pasts but Wendy gives them the love they need to heal the wounds of the past and move forward into a brighter future together.
Buy it here:
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: Dear Mr. Firefighter by Kelli Callahan
I received this review copy from Booksprout.
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