Surrender to Me by Monica James
Reviewed by Lady H.
*****5 Phenomenal, Truly Brilliant, Unbelievably Amazing, Heart-Wrenching, Edge Gripping, Emotional, Definitely Frustrating, What-The-Fuck, Nail-Biting, Explosive, Singaporelicious and Ever-So-Loving Jasper Stars!!!!!!!
“Life never turns out how you plan. Once you reach a crossroad in your life, the path you choose sends you on a spiral of the unknown.” ~ Ava
“Surrender to me.” ~ Jasper
“I surrender.” ~ Ava
It’s about god damn time, I FINALLY have the advance reader’s copy of Surrender to Me. All this waiting was killing me slowly by the minute...NO! By the second! And with all the teasers Monica posted definitely wasn’t helping with my anxiety to know what will happen to Jasper and Ava. When Monica notify me it was delivered to my inbox, I was out shopping with my daughter, Evie and yes, a total coincidence, her name was featured in this book (Page 269), how bizarre, right? Anyway, back to out shopping with Evie, I told her, honey, shopping’s done whether we like it or not because there’s a book calling mommy’s name and we have to go home, pronto. Evie said sure mom, let’s go, you bought all that I needed already anyway so home we rush back to.
Since I wasn’t able to download the book to my Kindle and read it in the comfort of my bed, I had to suck it up, sit in front of my iMac and read. Can you imagine sitting in front of a computer for 7 hrs reading and proofread at the same time? Only Jasper can make me do the unthinkable. The most amazing part is I did not sleep a wink, I was devastated I couldn’t finish it and had to stop to go to work. Came home from work, took a half hr nap and continued reading. I devoured the book in less than 24 hrs. Who’s the 1st one to finish? Damn straight, ME!!!
OH-EM-GEE!!!!!! Did I like the book? Hell NO! I fucking LOVE it!!! Though I must admit I was about to fly to Australia to kill Monica at the beginning of the book but I took lots of deep breaths and try to calm myself down and continue reading. I told her I still love her...but barely. You think I Surrender blew your mind? You’re going to fucking explode with Surrender to Me. It is simply AH-MAZ-ZING!!! Truly FA-BU-LOUS!!! A master storyteller, Monica James.
For those who read I Surrender, already knew what happened at the end. Like I said in my I Surrender review, it wasn’t a cliffhanger per se, more like an anticipation what the future holds for Jasper and Ava. Ava left Los Angeles and Jasper behind, went back to Singapore on a scholarship from the Culinary Institute of America for one year to further excel her culinary skills as a chef in the culinary industry. She wants to better herself for Jasper. Even though the HEA was bittersweet, I still consider them a couple who loves each other dearly and even with the long distance, they will try their best to make it work, nothing will come between them, not even Harper, the dipshit. They have to, I refuse to think otherwise. We all wanted to know if their love was enough to withstand the long distance relationship, right? So here we are at book 2 of the I Surrender Trilogy.
“You’ve ruined me for anyone else, so you’re stuck with me.” ~ Jasper
I like how Monica always begins her book with the flight attendant announcement over the intercom. This makes me smile because I travel enough to remember this very well.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, the Captain has turned off the Fasten Seat Belt sign, you may now move around the cabin.”
The book begin with Ava coming back to Los Angeles but it’s not for good, let me tell ya. That was my thought actually when I first read it. Wow, a year already, that went by fast, this I can deal cause finally Jasper and Ava together for good right? Oh Nooooooo!!! It’s only been six months. She came back for her best friend Veronica Donovan’s wedding. The groom is Lucas. Remember him? The drummer from Passengers of Ego? Being V’s BFF and the Maid of Honor, she jumped on the first available flight to come help her plan her Big Day even if this means interrupting school. Aww...such a good friend. I adore their friendship. So since Jasper is Lucas’ BFF, guess who’s the Best Man?
I already fell in love with Jasper in I Surrender but he made me love him even more in this book. How is that possible, you ask? Well...this is Jasper we are talking about after all and you also need to read to see exactly why. He completely melts my heart and takes my breath away with his beautiful and thoughtful soul.
“I want you, Ava. Just you. Please trust me.” ~ Jasper
“Because the few times I got to speak to you, I didn’t want to waste my time talking about her. The only thing that’s important to me is you. Everyone else can go to hell.” ~ Jasper
“What do you want me to do? If you want Indie out of my life, fine, consider it done! If you want me to talk to my mom and tell her to never see Indie ever again, fine! You want me to stop talking to harmony, fine! You want me to stop talking to every girl I have ever met, or will meet, fine! Ava fine! I will do all of that because I fucking love you!” ~ Jasper
“My heart is yours. It beats for no one but you. Do you hear me? Only you.” ~ Jasper
When I got to line 63, I went HUH? Yes, I counted the lines. I went OH-KAY...continue reading then stopped at line 68 and went O_O?!?! This makes no sense. Reading further and when I came to lines 80-82, I went “WHAT THE FUCK??????????? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! MONICAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! What did you do?!?! This can’t be happening! This can't be happening! No way in hell!” I kept rereading the lines over and over again. It’s definitely what I’m reading, no mistake cause no matter how many times I blink to refresh my eyes, the words stayed the same. I felt like someone just whack me in the head with a baseball bat, not that I had that experience but if it did, that’s exactly how I felt. Oh! I was seeing RED, CRIMSON RED! I Facebooked Monica and told her I was going to kill her. This is the whole post:
Monica: LOL lol oops!!!
Me: Yes! Monica, u r in deep shit!!!!
Monica: You still love me right? lol
Me: I will try
No point being upset with Monica, I’ll deal with her later. I’ll keep reading so she can redeem herself, hopefully. Keep reading it is, can’t stop at line 82 because of a WTF situation, silly.
“You run away from me again, and I promise you, I will find you. I will chase you down and I won’t stop until you’re mine.” ~ Jasper
As I continue reading, I understood why the plot’s the way it is. Monica is fucking BRILLIANT!! You know how some stories are very predictable? This is quite on the contrary. It will not just blow your mind. Instead, it will fucking explode in your face, KABOOM!! The whole book is the plot so I can’t tell you anymore than I should. But what I can tell you is just prepare yourself for the most amazing roller coaster ride of your entire reading existence. This is one ride with Jasper and Ava that you do not want to miss out on. There’s definitely no lack of large amount of emotional outbursts, laughters, sentimental confessions, sexual tension, mind blowing sex and all kinds of frustrations. There is a HEA and another cliffhanger off course. But...this is a good cliffhanger, not the kind you want to kill the author for. I PROMISE!!
Surrender to Me release date is October 21st, 2013. Make sure you mark your calendar, request days off, don’t make any major plans, get a babysitter, do whatever you need to do cause you will definitely want to lock yourself away from the world while you devour this book like I did.