The hero is more than worthy of her in this case. You will rarely find a more loyal, strong, and dazzling heroine than the outwardly shy and frail Eliza. The hero is consumed by guilt and he wants to punish himself, which is why he drags out the secret for so long, much to the detriment of himself and the only woman he loves and has loved him back. However, this is one of those rare instances where it made sense. In this case, the resolution of it comes in right at the very end of the book after the author mercilessly teased us with it and cruelly tortured her protagonists with it. Normally, the much used trope of the Great, Big, Terrible, Misunderstanding that could have been solved, literally, by two lines of dialogue, would grate. Not only does the action move at a dizzying race from America to Italy, France, England, Austria and Hungary, but the protagonists have to deal with anarchists, serf rebellion, royal intrigue, political conspiracy, opera assassinations, snowbound trysts, cross-dressing soldiers, bloodcurdling battles, bombs, personal tragedy, betrayals, the Rebecca-like specter of a dead wife and the machinations of plenty of OM-OW. There is plenty here to sink your teeth in. He and many real life historical figures such as Metternich, the Archduke Ferdinand, Czar Nicolas, and even Queen Victoria and her consort Albert make fun cameos throughout the book. The scene above depicts Hungarian icon Sándor Petőfi reciting a nationalist poem to the Hungarian rebels in 1848.

Let my desire be as ashes, my heart as a stone lost in a dark river.Ĭhristine Monson's Surrender the Night is a bodice-ripper where the author seriously researched the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 against the Austrian Empire, created an amazing, kick-ass heroine (and not a bad hero), and as bonus, inserted really poetic, lovely passages among all the purpletastic love scenes.

Let there be sleep after death.Let me not be lonely for her.

Stormfire monson