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Surrender #2
Pagan Surrender
Tegan hadn't seen Kieran Sinclair in ten years, but the memory of his ruthless words still branded her -- his savage contempt for the way he believed she'd so heartlessly jilted his wheelchair-bound friend marked her soul.
Now their lives collide again and it's as if the intervening years had never happened. Kieran is fired by a dangerous excitement; he remains as threatening as the dark clouds of an impending storm. And Tegan still can't fight the unbridled attraction she has always felt for him. But is there any hope for a relationship where the final surrender remains shrouded by so many unanswered questions?
Now their lives collide again and it's as if the intervening years had never happened. Kieran is fired by a dangerous excitement; he remains as threatening as the dark clouds of an impending storm. And Tegan still can't fight the unbridled attraction she has always felt for him. But is there any hope for a relationship where the final surrender remains shrouded by so many unanswered questions?
Hardcover
First published May 14, 1993
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About the author
Robyn Donald
448 books148 followersRobyn Elaine Donald was born on 14 August 1940 in Northland, New Zealand. She was the oldest child in her family, and as a child, she thrilled her four sisters and one brother with bloodcurdling adventure tales, usually very like the latest book she'd borrowed from the library.
Robyn owes her writing career to two illnesses. The first was a younger sister's flu. She was living with her husband and Robyn and spent most of that winter acquiring, suffering, and recovering from various infections. One day she croaked that she had read everything on Robyn's bookshelves, so would Robyn please buy her something cheerful and sustaining. Robyn found three paperbacks- one Mills and Boon Modern Romance novel and a couple of other romances. Robyn read them, too, of course, and so enjoyed them she spent the next couple of years hunting down more Mills and Boon books. This was much more difficult then than it is today, so she decided to write her own, and for the following busy 10 years she wrote and hoped that one day she would finish a manuscript good enough that was good enough to send to a publisher.
The second illness was her husband's, and it was bad a heart attack. He was so young it terrified them all. While he was recovering, he suggested that Robyn finish the manuscript she was writing and send it off. It wasn't a perfect manuscript, but the doctor had said to humour her husband, so she finished the manuscript, edited it as best she could, and sent it off. Three months later, she was astounded to read a letter from the editor saying that if She made a few revisions they would buy her novel Bride at Whangatapu.
Published since 1977, Robyn sees her readers as intelligent women who insist on accurate backgrounds, so she spends time researching as well as writing.Robyn Donald sometimes thinks that writing is much like gardening. It's a similar process creating landscapes for the mind and emotions from the seeds of ideas and dreams and images. Both activities can also lead to moments of extreme delight, moments of total despair, and backache.Now Robyn lives in the Bay Islands. She continues writing, and also finds time for a very supportive husband, two adult children and their partners, a granddaughter and her mother, not to mention the member of the family that keeps her fit - a loud, cheerful, and ruthlessly determined "almost" Labradordog.
Robyn owes her writing career to two illnesses. The first was a younger sister's flu. She was living with her husband and Robyn and spent most of that winter acquiring, suffering, and recovering from various infections. One day she croaked that she had read everything on Robyn's bookshelves, so would Robyn please buy her something cheerful and sustaining. Robyn found three paperbacks- one Mills and Boon Modern Romance novel and a couple of other romances. Robyn read them, too, of course, and so enjoyed them she spent the next couple of years hunting down more Mills and Boon books. This was much more difficult then than it is today, so she decided to write her own, and for the following busy 10 years she wrote and hoped that one day she would finish a manuscript good enough that was good enough to send to a publisher.
The second illness was her husband's, and it was bad a heart attack. He was so young it terrified them all. While he was recovering, he suggested that Robyn finish the manuscript she was writing and send it off. It wasn't a perfect manuscript, but the doctor had said to humour her husband, so she finished the manuscript, edited it as best she could, and sent it off. Three months later, she was astounded to read a letter from the editor saying that if She made a few revisions they would buy her novel Bride at Whangatapu.
Published since 1977, Robyn sees her readers as intelligent women who insist on accurate backgrounds, so she spends time researching as well as writing.Robyn Donald sometimes thinks that writing is much like gardening. It's a similar process creating landscapes for the mind and emotions from the seeds of ideas and dreams and images. Both activities can also lead to moments of extreme delight, moments of total despair, and backache.Now Robyn lives in the Bay Islands. She continues writing, and also finds time for a very supportive husband, two adult children and their partners, a granddaughter and her mother, not to mention the member of the family that keeps her fit - a loud, cheerful, and ruthlessly determined "almost" Labradordog.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 1, 2022
2.5 stars
OH POOR HEROINE, OH THE ANGST 🤌🏻 *gleefully rejoicing in her misery*
Kieran (H) assumes the worst about Tegan's (h) moral character when his disabled friend tells him that she has supposedly led him on only to break their engagement (that he pressured her into like a creep💀) and his heart in the end. Kieran is quick to judge and spews a colorful string of derogatory terms at the teenage at that time heroine (💀!) before she can even think of a proper reaction and merrily runs off into the sunset. When they accidentally come across each other 10 years later, Kieran still (💀💀) harbors deep resentment towards Tegan. He refuses to have her trampy ass as a designer for his brand new house while she's determined not to lose a lucrative commission for her firm.
❥Kieran was your typical harlequin asshole hero, cynical, cold, cruel and pretending the best he could to be hating the heroine's guts when in fact he was just helplessly smitten. Silly little goose.<3
My favorite thing about RD's books is that her heroes always take the initiative and chase after heroines even if they're the ones who insist adamantly till almost the very end on not admitting the tender nature of their feelings. Kieran was the definition of an alpha man, I loved him.
❥Kieran had such a cute way of showing how much he did NOT care about Tegan. He went to El Amir right in the middle of the fucking COUP to save and kidnap Tegan's best friend and business partner all in one from the armed rebels' captivity with a band of his scary ruffian friends just because Tegan was worried sick about her friend. The man owned and dominated each and every situation. <3
❥The angst wasn't as strong in this book as I'd prefer (it relied mostly on a big terrible misunderstanding), the hero's cruelty was only medium raw and Tegan's body betraying syndrome eventually got on my nerves (she had a backbone, though, I can give her that). Plus, his reason for despising her was way too superficial even for a vintage book.
The evolution from ape to man. 🤌🏻
Gold glittered balefully for a second in her eyes, until her sense of humour came to her rescue. ‘You can return the privilege one day. I’d like to see you banking.’
‘You won’t see me prostitute myself,’ he said savagely. ‘I suppose I should be thankful that you didn’t use me as your pimp. Don’t ever show anyone around my house. I do not want it used as a teaser to persuade someone to use your services.’
Tegan’s breath stopped in her throat, clogged into a lump in her chest. For a moment she stared at his inexorable face, then she turned and started blindly across the room.
OH POOR HEROINE, OH THE ANGST 🤌🏻 *gleefully rejoicing in her misery*
Kieran (H) assumes the worst about Tegan's (h) moral character when his disabled friend tells him that she has supposedly led him on only to break their engagement (that he pressured her into like a creep💀) and his heart in the end. Kieran is quick to judge and spews a colorful string of derogatory terms at the teenage at that time heroine (💀!) before she can even think of a proper reaction and merrily runs off into the sunset. When they accidentally come across each other 10 years later, Kieran still (💀💀) harbors deep resentment towards Tegan. He refuses to have her trampy ass as a designer for his brand new house while she's determined not to lose a lucrative commission for her firm.
❥Kieran was your typical harlequin asshole hero, cynical, cold, cruel and pretending the best he could to be hating the heroine's guts when in fact he was just helplessly smitten. Silly little goose.<3
My favorite thing about RD's books is that her heroes always take the initiative and chase after heroines even if they're the ones who insist adamantly till almost the very end on not admitting the tender nature of their feelings. Kieran was the definition of an alpha man, I loved him.
❥Kieran had such a cute way of showing how much he did NOT care about Tegan. He went to El Amir right in the middle of the fucking COUP to save and kidnap Tegan's best friend and business partner all in one from the armed rebels' captivity with a band of his scary ruffian friends just because Tegan was worried sick about her friend. The man owned and dominated each and every situation. <3
❥The angst wasn't as strong in this book as I'd prefer (it relied mostly on a big terrible misunderstanding), the hero's cruelty was only medium raw and Tegan's body betraying syndrome eventually got on my nerves (she had a backbone, though, I can give her that). Plus, his reason for despising her was way too superficial even for a vintage book.
'You are my life, the light at the heart of my being, the only hope I have for paradise.’
The evolution from ape to man. 🤌🏻
October 23, 2025
Hero gets the wrong idea about the heroine and can't let it go - even after ten years. Heroine is his interior decorator for the showplace the merchant banker hero just bought. To add to the story line, the hero has a drug-addicted sister and the heroine's business partner has been kidnapped while trying to land an interior design commission in a Middle Eastern country.
RD skillfully weaves all of these plot threads into one misunderstanding after another as the H/h fight and then succumb to their mutual attraction.
Hero is a standard RD character - a bit cruel and bit larger than life. Virgin heroine has a backbone and it serves her well through 2/3 of the story.
RD skillfully weaves all of these plot threads into one misunderstanding after another as the H/h fight and then succumb to their mutual attraction.
Hero is a standard RD character - a bit cruel and bit larger than life. Virgin heroine has a backbone and it serves her well through 2/3 of the story.
April 5, 2018
RE Pagan Surrender - Robyn Donald goes HP Plus size in her second book of the Surrender series . This one features the half brother of the H in The Golden Mask, along with more crazy drama from the sister who claimed her illegitimate half brother seduced her and was paid off by her father in the first book.
In fact RD packs three different plots into this one and manages to smoothly thread them all together for one really epic HP outing and she does it in 187 pages. Grab your cozy blankie and your Tim Tams folks, we are in for a really great ride.
The h in this one is Tegan and the H is Kieran, RD loudly touts their proud Celtic heritage and both have tempers to match. In fact, T and K have a history. When Tegan was a neophyte 18 yr old in the big city for the first time after years living in the isolation of the Coromandel, she met an up and coming computer guy who was in a wheelchair.
The computer guru was kinda weird, he pressured Tegan into an engagement through outright emotional blackmail and manipulation. He kept telling her that her beauty enslaved him, he couldn't live without her and it was all her fault, so she had to marry him and be locked in manacles next to him for the rest of her life and couldn't go to the bathroom even without him.
Now 18 yr old Tegan just wanted to have some fun. She liked the computer guru, he took her to interesting places too. But really she wasn't in love and never agreed to marry him and somehow it got all muddled up and there was a big engagement notice in the paper and Tegan is shocked that an kinda old guy in a wheelchair could fall in love with her.
So Tegan called in reinforcements, and for once in a RD book, an h has strong, supportive parents. Tegan's mum came and totally sorted Sam the computer weirdo right out. "NO ENGAGEMENT!" Tegan's mum said, "this is not right and it is not appropriate." Sam the weirdo did not like hearing that and tried to argue, but Tegan's mum said "Talk to the MUM HAND".
So Sam the weirdo had to call in reinforcements too, he called the only person he knew who always walks around like he owns the universe and the rest of us are here on his sufferance. Yep, Sam the weirdo called Kieran, his childhood BFF.
Kieran listened to Sam's wailing and moans and saw how low a lady had brought his BFF and he went and yelled at Tegan. He told her she was a Pagan Circe Trampy Tart Harlot Enchantress and even worse, she was a dishonest one cause she did not even sleep with Weirdo Sam and that makes her pond scum.
Tegan was only 18 to Kieran's 27 or so, and Tegan's mum had gone home, so Tegan listened and got scared and then ran away and became an interior designer with HER BFF Blair - who is the h of the next book Paradise Lost.
Tegan and Blair have a nice little interior design business going, but there has been a recession and they kinda need some commissions badly. There is the two of them to support and another designer with two kids and single mumhood and they all have rent to pay. Fortunately Blair won them a contract to redo a historic old house. The only problem is that it is Kieran's house and Kieran isn't the kinda guy to forgive or forget - not even ten years later.
That is okay tho, cause they send their new single mum designer to do the house. Unfortunately her ideas and Kieran's idears are NOT compatible and the muck hits the fan big time. Tegan is going to have to redo the house on the sly.
Blair will present the acceptable changes but then she has to do a palace somewhere in the Middle East and the ladies need that palace commission too, hopefully it will get them some big international customers and they can all keep paying their rent.
So Blair leaves on her business trip, Tegan goes and does Kieran's house because he is supposed to be out of the country for the next several weeks and things are moving along. Until Kieran shows up early and has a nasty freak out over Tegan doing his house.
Tegan has a temper, but Kieran is the client and they need the job, so she sucks it up and gets on with things, managing to parry Kieran's insults and Pagan Circe comments. Things get more complicated with the arrival of Kieran's crazy sister Andrea's boyfriend. Who seems to be a bit of a flirt and Tegan has heard lots of rumors about Andrea too - like she is drug user and a nympho. (The drug addiction rumor is true, it was why she was so freaky in the last book.)
So then Kieran decides that bygones can be bygones and he and Tegan should hang out, Tegan is very attracted to Kieran - she had the Lurve Force Mojo Ping of Destiny and she has to work hard to hide her drooling. That drool problem is made a bit easier when word comes that Blair's Middle Eastern Palace project has been taken over by rebels and Blair is a hostage.
Kieran claims it isn't anything to worry about really, he has a band of merry rebels himself in the neighboring sheikdom and they are all BFF's from past escapades and really no one wants to hurt the foreigners, it wouldn't be good for international relations. So Tegan reassures Blair's kinda wimpy husband, Gerald, that an unspecified source has been assuring her that things will be okay and Kieran and Tegan have a bit of getting to know each other time.
Tho when Tegan has to go a party for one of the houses she redesigned and in Blair's absence has to troll for customers, (cause she wants to keep the business going as a way of honoring Blair,) Kieran makes nasty Tart Harlot Pagan Circe comments again and Tegan is NOT amused.
But there isn't a whole she can say cause Kieran Just Doesn't Listen. Kirran decides things and knows what everyone else is thinking and there is nothing anyone can do to change that.
It is just how Kieran rolls.
Plus Kieran keeps distracting Tegan with roofie kisses and those kisses are really, really srsly messing with Tegan's will and her brain. Tegan fears the messing with the will lurve mojo tho. Her mum had to give up a potentially brilliant acting career to stay home and be the doctor's wife to Tegan's dad and then there was the whole Sam the weirdo incident.
So Tegan has been avoiding serious involvement with men for ten years. Tho she dates and earlier in the book she had to tell off yet Another Weird Guy who claimed he only wanted to be friends and then claimed he fell in love with her and it was all her fault. That time tho, Tegan told his sad hiney off and Kieran dropped her off at home that night.
Eventually, with no news from Blair and as the weeks go by, Kieran's roofie kissings start to win the day. Tegan wants Kieran badly and when he suggests they really get it on, Tegan agrees when she is caught up in the Roofie Kiss Lurve Mojo Force.
Things are getting exciting in the passion stakes when Andrea, the whacktastic sister, shows up at Kieran's and is utterly hysterical. She is making all kinds of accusations about Tegan taking her man and keeps trying to claw Tegan with her Jungle Red nails, cause Andrea's live in lover who is also Kieran's employee, has finally dumped her hysterical, nematode slime pustule hiney.
Tegan takes charge and slaps the snot right out of Andrea - she is clearly gone round the bend and is very emotionally disturbed. Kieran sighs, but takes over the of sorting out his sister and sends Tegan home in a taxi.
Tegan and Kieran finally get together to consummate their big lurve club moment, after Kieran explains about his mother not being able to stand living on his dad's cattle station in isolation after they married. So mum moved back to town and visited with the kids and Kieran's dad decided to set his housekeeper up as his live in lover and then Kieran's half brother - the H from The Golden Mask - was born and Kieran's mum had an utter freak out herself.
She divorced Kieran's dad and they were really poor and the mum told Andrea that her father did not love her anymore and it messed Andrea up. So Andrea is pathologically possessive of Kieran, cause he is the only stability she has. Kieran also made his mother's brother's give control of the family merchant bank to him and he got really rich while expanding his empire.
All this family background moves the h to empathy with Kieran, so he has no problems seducing her in his newly decorated study. The lurve club passion is epic and angels wept as unicorns danced away forever. Then Kieran tells the h he is leaving the country in a few hours and he has no clue when he will be back.
The h goes home and tries really, really hard not think badly of Kieran or think about things like pumping and dumping. But then the doorbell rings in the middle of the night and it is Andrea - whacked out again on Tegan's doorstep.
Andrea, in an eerily calm voice, explains that Kieran seduced Tegan to make Andrea's boyfriend stay away from Tegan. Andrea claims that Kieran is fiercely protective of Andrea, (and we have seen that is true,) when Andrea saw that her lover was into Tegan, Kieran jumped into full seduction mode to forestall that attempt, cause Kieran's employee would never dare to chase after his boss's sloppy seconds.
Tegan tries hard not to believe Andrea, but then she gets her daily engagement diary out and the timing is suspicious. Just when Andrea's boyfriend first met Tegan and got flirty, Kieran claimed he wanted let the past go. Up until that time, Kieran had been an utter donkey butt to Tegan and upon further research, every time Tegan accidentally ran into Andrea's boyfriend, Kieran stepped up the passion mojo until they finally had their big bang.
Tegan resolves to ask Kieran about things, if he ever gets back from wherever he is and sure enough, Kieran pops back up a few days later. He had been to the Middle East to rouse his band of merry bandits and rescue Blair by throwing her over the pommel of his horse, just like in the The Sheik.
(It seems one potentate in the Middle East area where Blair was being held took a big liking to her blonde and arty beauty, so he kidnapped her after the other hostages had been released. Blair was going to get chained up in his harem, but Kieran had buddies in the kingdom next door, so they went and kidnapped her back.)
Kieran shows up at Tegan's after she invited him over for dinner to celebrate his return. Before they can even sample the feast that Tegan spent all day in a hot kitchen cooking, Tegan tells Kieran about Andrea's middle of the night visit and Kieran adamantly states that seducing her to save Andrea's boyfriend from her Harloty Pagan Enchantress Wiles was exactly what he was doing.
Tegan is hurt and offended and still responds to Kieran's roofie kissing when he claims that now she "owes" him for going to rescue Blair. But Kieran stops mid roofie kissing moment and runs away, cause he doesn't want to sleep with a woman who thinks he is little better than a rapist, he will resist any demands Pagan Circe Tegan makes for a Pagan Surrender!
Tegan has a mopey moment or seventeen, but she gets on with life cause her redo of Kieran's house has brought in a ton of commissions. She runs into Andrea's boyfriend again and he says that Kieran knew that he had left Andrea while she sorted her whacktastic self out with the aid of a therapist, but he really loves her and is waiting for Andrea to get well enough to take him back.
Andrea's boyfriend claims that Kieran made Andrea stop using him as a crutch and is well aware of all the aspects of the situation and that it is all under the supervision of a proper mental health physician. Andrea's bf also adds that Kieran was engaged once, but when his fiancee wouldn't give up her stockbroker career, he dumped her and that Kieran will never settle down with a woman who has a career other being his wife and mother of his children.
Tegan figures out that Andrea was seriously whacked and that she probably really irked Kieran and now has no hope of anything with him, cause she did not trust Kieran. Also, cause tho Tegan may not be a merchant banking genius and her job may not be vital, but people (even the poor ones she donates her time to in redesigning their living spaces,) deserve to live in beauty, darn it! So Tegan really likes her career and she isn't dumping that bit of independence for anyone.
However, Tegan's heart is hurting, so she calls her mum and then goes home. There is a weepy moment or two and Tegan's mum explains that yes, she could have been a great actress - maybe if she had more inner ruthless drive to get to the top- but she loved Tegan's dad more and the area needed a doctor, so he couldn't leave.
So Tegan's mum made her choice to seduce Tegan's dad and get preggers with Tegan, cause if she hadn't, she would have always had huge, big regrets and life is not meant to be lived with mourning the road not taken. Tegan feels a little better that at least she took the lurve club shot with Kieran and Tegan's dad comes home with a fish for dinner and explains how that was an epic battle fought out on the high seas in a row boat.
Everyone is settling down for a nice fish dinner when Kieran drives up. Tegan has a freaky moment and Tegan's mum and Tegan's dad are ready to kick some Kieran hiney. But Tegan says no, let him in and Tegan's mum makes Kieran sit down for dinner and admire Tegan's dad's fish.
Tegan is amazed that everybody is having fish like it is a normal dinner and everybody likes each other, but things get dicey again when Kieran asks Tegan's mum if Tegan can walk on the beach with him. Tegan gets huffy, but she also gets her jacket and we all go to the beach to listen to Kieran admit he was an donkey butt.
Kieran asks about Sam the Weirdo first tho and Tegan explains her side of the story. Kieran never actually apologizes for being a donkey butt. But his big, mucho grande declaration of love is really pretty good - tho Tegan doesn't call him on his Utter Lack of Prior Explanations about ANYTHING, nor does she remark that his sister is UTTERLY WHACKED.
Instead Tegan blames her fear of losing her independence, admits that she loves Kieran madly back and then informs him she isn't giving up her job and he can lump it. Kieran explains that it wasn't his fiancee's job, it was that he did not love the woman. Cause he has only loved Tegan, ever and he was horrified when he was overwhelmingly attracted to her while he was yelling at her for hurting Sam the weirdo ten years earlier.
Now Kieran feels bad for Sam, but happy for himself, cause he and Tegan are getting married and walking together for the rest of their lives, making each other as happy as they can for the very nice and pink sparkly rainbow RD HPlandia HEA.
In fact RD packs three different plots into this one and manages to smoothly thread them all together for one really epic HP outing and she does it in 187 pages. Grab your cozy blankie and your Tim Tams folks, we are in for a really great ride.
The h in this one is Tegan and the H is Kieran, RD loudly touts their proud Celtic heritage and both have tempers to match. In fact, T and K have a history. When Tegan was a neophyte 18 yr old in the big city for the first time after years living in the isolation of the Coromandel, she met an up and coming computer guy who was in a wheelchair.
The computer guru was kinda weird, he pressured Tegan into an engagement through outright emotional blackmail and manipulation. He kept telling her that her beauty enslaved him, he couldn't live without her and it was all her fault, so she had to marry him and be locked in manacles next to him for the rest of her life and couldn't go to the bathroom even without him.
Now 18 yr old Tegan just wanted to have some fun. She liked the computer guru, he took her to interesting places too. But really she wasn't in love and never agreed to marry him and somehow it got all muddled up and there was a big engagement notice in the paper and Tegan is shocked that an kinda old guy in a wheelchair could fall in love with her.
So Tegan called in reinforcements, and for once in a RD book, an h has strong, supportive parents. Tegan's mum came and totally sorted Sam the computer weirdo right out. "NO ENGAGEMENT!" Tegan's mum said, "this is not right and it is not appropriate." Sam the weirdo did not like hearing that and tried to argue, but Tegan's mum said "Talk to the MUM HAND".
So Sam the weirdo had to call in reinforcements too, he called the only person he knew who always walks around like he owns the universe and the rest of us are here on his sufferance. Yep, Sam the weirdo called Kieran, his childhood BFF.
Kieran listened to Sam's wailing and moans and saw how low a lady had brought his BFF and he went and yelled at Tegan. He told her she was a Pagan Circe Trampy Tart Harlot Enchantress and even worse, she was a dishonest one cause she did not even sleep with Weirdo Sam and that makes her pond scum.
Tegan was only 18 to Kieran's 27 or so, and Tegan's mum had gone home, so Tegan listened and got scared and then ran away and became an interior designer with HER BFF Blair - who is the h of the next book Paradise Lost.
Tegan and Blair have a nice little interior design business going, but there has been a recession and they kinda need some commissions badly. There is the two of them to support and another designer with two kids and single mumhood and they all have rent to pay. Fortunately Blair won them a contract to redo a historic old house. The only problem is that it is Kieran's house and Kieran isn't the kinda guy to forgive or forget - not even ten years later.
That is okay tho, cause they send their new single mum designer to do the house. Unfortunately her ideas and Kieran's idears are NOT compatible and the muck hits the fan big time. Tegan is going to have to redo the house on the sly.
Blair will present the acceptable changes but then she has to do a palace somewhere in the Middle East and the ladies need that palace commission too, hopefully it will get them some big international customers and they can all keep paying their rent.
So Blair leaves on her business trip, Tegan goes and does Kieran's house because he is supposed to be out of the country for the next several weeks and things are moving along. Until Kieran shows up early and has a nasty freak out over Tegan doing his house.
Tegan has a temper, but Kieran is the client and they need the job, so she sucks it up and gets on with things, managing to parry Kieran's insults and Pagan Circe comments. Things get more complicated with the arrival of Kieran's crazy sister Andrea's boyfriend. Who seems to be a bit of a flirt and Tegan has heard lots of rumors about Andrea too - like she is drug user and a nympho. (The drug addiction rumor is true, it was why she was so freaky in the last book.)
So then Kieran decides that bygones can be bygones and he and Tegan should hang out, Tegan is very attracted to Kieran - she had the Lurve Force Mojo Ping of Destiny and she has to work hard to hide her drooling. That drool problem is made a bit easier when word comes that Blair's Middle Eastern Palace project has been taken over by rebels and Blair is a hostage.
Kieran claims it isn't anything to worry about really, he has a band of merry rebels himself in the neighboring sheikdom and they are all BFF's from past escapades and really no one wants to hurt the foreigners, it wouldn't be good for international relations. So Tegan reassures Blair's kinda wimpy husband, Gerald, that an unspecified source has been assuring her that things will be okay and Kieran and Tegan have a bit of getting to know each other time.
Tho when Tegan has to go a party for one of the houses she redesigned and in Blair's absence has to troll for customers, (cause she wants to keep the business going as a way of honoring Blair,) Kieran makes nasty Tart Harlot Pagan Circe comments again and Tegan is NOT amused.
But there isn't a whole she can say cause Kieran Just Doesn't Listen. Kirran decides things and knows what everyone else is thinking and there is nothing anyone can do to change that.
It is just how Kieran rolls.
Plus Kieran keeps distracting Tegan with roofie kisses and those kisses are really, really srsly messing with Tegan's will and her brain. Tegan fears the messing with the will lurve mojo tho. Her mum had to give up a potentially brilliant acting career to stay home and be the doctor's wife to Tegan's dad and then there was the whole Sam the weirdo incident.
So Tegan has been avoiding serious involvement with men for ten years. Tho she dates and earlier in the book she had to tell off yet Another Weird Guy who claimed he only wanted to be friends and then claimed he fell in love with her and it was all her fault. That time tho, Tegan told his sad hiney off and Kieran dropped her off at home that night.
Eventually, with no news from Blair and as the weeks go by, Kieran's roofie kissings start to win the day. Tegan wants Kieran badly and when he suggests they really get it on, Tegan agrees when she is caught up in the Roofie Kiss Lurve Mojo Force.
Things are getting exciting in the passion stakes when Andrea, the whacktastic sister, shows up at Kieran's and is utterly hysterical. She is making all kinds of accusations about Tegan taking her man and keeps trying to claw Tegan with her Jungle Red nails, cause Andrea's live in lover who is also Kieran's employee, has finally dumped her hysterical, nematode slime pustule hiney.
Tegan takes charge and slaps the snot right out of Andrea - she is clearly gone round the bend and is very emotionally disturbed. Kieran sighs, but takes over the of sorting out his sister and sends Tegan home in a taxi.
Tegan and Kieran finally get together to consummate their big lurve club moment, after Kieran explains about his mother not being able to stand living on his dad's cattle station in isolation after they married. So mum moved back to town and visited with the kids and Kieran's dad decided to set his housekeeper up as his live in lover and then Kieran's half brother - the H from The Golden Mask - was born and Kieran's mum had an utter freak out herself.
She divorced Kieran's dad and they were really poor and the mum told Andrea that her father did not love her anymore and it messed Andrea up. So Andrea is pathologically possessive of Kieran, cause he is the only stability she has. Kieran also made his mother's brother's give control of the family merchant bank to him and he got really rich while expanding his empire.
All this family background moves the h to empathy with Kieran, so he has no problems seducing her in his newly decorated study. The lurve club passion is epic and angels wept as unicorns danced away forever. Then Kieran tells the h he is leaving the country in a few hours and he has no clue when he will be back.
The h goes home and tries really, really hard not think badly of Kieran or think about things like pumping and dumping. But then the doorbell rings in the middle of the night and it is Andrea - whacked out again on Tegan's doorstep.
Andrea, in an eerily calm voice, explains that Kieran seduced Tegan to make Andrea's boyfriend stay away from Tegan. Andrea claims that Kieran is fiercely protective of Andrea, (and we have seen that is true,) when Andrea saw that her lover was into Tegan, Kieran jumped into full seduction mode to forestall that attempt, cause Kieran's employee would never dare to chase after his boss's sloppy seconds.
Tegan tries hard not to believe Andrea, but then she gets her daily engagement diary out and the timing is suspicious. Just when Andrea's boyfriend first met Tegan and got flirty, Kieran claimed he wanted let the past go. Up until that time, Kieran had been an utter donkey butt to Tegan and upon further research, every time Tegan accidentally ran into Andrea's boyfriend, Kieran stepped up the passion mojo until they finally had their big bang.
Tegan resolves to ask Kieran about things, if he ever gets back from wherever he is and sure enough, Kieran pops back up a few days later. He had been to the Middle East to rouse his band of merry bandits and rescue Blair by throwing her over the pommel of his horse, just like in the The Sheik.
(It seems one potentate in the Middle East area where Blair was being held took a big liking to her blonde and arty beauty, so he kidnapped her after the other hostages had been released. Blair was going to get chained up in his harem, but Kieran had buddies in the kingdom next door, so they went and kidnapped her back.)
Kieran shows up at Tegan's after she invited him over for dinner to celebrate his return. Before they can even sample the feast that Tegan spent all day in a hot kitchen cooking, Tegan tells Kieran about Andrea's middle of the night visit and Kieran adamantly states that seducing her to save Andrea's boyfriend from her Harloty Pagan Enchantress Wiles was exactly what he was doing.
Tegan is hurt and offended and still responds to Kieran's roofie kissing when he claims that now she "owes" him for going to rescue Blair. But Kieran stops mid roofie kissing moment and runs away, cause he doesn't want to sleep with a woman who thinks he is little better than a rapist, he will resist any demands Pagan Circe Tegan makes for a Pagan Surrender!
Tegan has a mopey moment or seventeen, but she gets on with life cause her redo of Kieran's house has brought in a ton of commissions. She runs into Andrea's boyfriend again and he says that Kieran knew that he had left Andrea while she sorted her whacktastic self out with the aid of a therapist, but he really loves her and is waiting for Andrea to get well enough to take him back.
Andrea's boyfriend claims that Kieran made Andrea stop using him as a crutch and is well aware of all the aspects of the situation and that it is all under the supervision of a proper mental health physician. Andrea's bf also adds that Kieran was engaged once, but when his fiancee wouldn't give up her stockbroker career, he dumped her and that Kieran will never settle down with a woman who has a career other being his wife and mother of his children.
Tegan figures out that Andrea was seriously whacked and that she probably really irked Kieran and now has no hope of anything with him, cause she did not trust Kieran. Also, cause tho Tegan may not be a merchant banking genius and her job may not be vital, but people (even the poor ones she donates her time to in redesigning their living spaces,) deserve to live in beauty, darn it! So Tegan really likes her career and she isn't dumping that bit of independence for anyone.
However, Tegan's heart is hurting, so she calls her mum and then goes home. There is a weepy moment or two and Tegan's mum explains that yes, she could have been a great actress - maybe if she had more inner ruthless drive to get to the top- but she loved Tegan's dad more and the area needed a doctor, so he couldn't leave.
So Tegan's mum made her choice to seduce Tegan's dad and get preggers with Tegan, cause if she hadn't, she would have always had huge, big regrets and life is not meant to be lived with mourning the road not taken. Tegan feels a little better that at least she took the lurve club shot with Kieran and Tegan's dad comes home with a fish for dinner and explains how that was an epic battle fought out on the high seas in a row boat.
Everyone is settling down for a nice fish dinner when Kieran drives up. Tegan has a freaky moment and Tegan's mum and Tegan's dad are ready to kick some Kieran hiney. But Tegan says no, let him in and Tegan's mum makes Kieran sit down for dinner and admire Tegan's dad's fish.
Tegan is amazed that everybody is having fish like it is a normal dinner and everybody likes each other, but things get dicey again when Kieran asks Tegan's mum if Tegan can walk on the beach with him. Tegan gets huffy, but she also gets her jacket and we all go to the beach to listen to Kieran admit he was an donkey butt.
Kieran asks about Sam the Weirdo first tho and Tegan explains her side of the story. Kieran never actually apologizes for being a donkey butt. But his big, mucho grande declaration of love is really pretty good - tho Tegan doesn't call him on his Utter Lack of Prior Explanations about ANYTHING, nor does she remark that his sister is UTTERLY WHACKED.
Instead Tegan blames her fear of losing her independence, admits that she loves Kieran madly back and then informs him she isn't giving up her job and he can lump it. Kieran explains that it wasn't his fiancee's job, it was that he did not love the woman. Cause he has only loved Tegan, ever and he was horrified when he was overwhelmingly attracted to her while he was yelling at her for hurting Sam the weirdo ten years earlier.
Now Kieran feels bad for Sam, but happy for himself, cause he and Tegan are getting married and walking together for the rest of their lives, making each other as happy as they can for the very nice and pink sparkly rainbow RD HPlandia HEA.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 20, 2018
When she was 18, a man in a wheelchair fell in love with Tegan and insisted they get married. Tegan went along with it for a while, but eventually said no, she didn't want to. So Sam, broken-hearted, told Kieran that Tegan was a heinous tramp, so he showed up to yell at her and make sure she knew that he thought she was a terrible person forever.
Ten years later, Tegan has an interior design firm with her best friend, and they've put in a bid to work on the fancy old house Kieran has recently bought. They decide Tegan will do the design but her friend will manage the work, but that falls apart a little bit when the friend, while on another job in the imaginary country of El Amir, is caught up in a political coup and taken away 'to safety' in the mountains.
Kieran reluctantly agrees to let Tegan continue to work on his house, but he's keeping an eye on her, because she's still clearly bad news for innocent menfolk. Neither of them can resist the rampaging biological urges that ignite every time they're within range of each other, so there's a lot of overcoming distrust and having 'I might hate you' sexy times. This is Donald's signature style, and I love it. Kieran is enjoyably hateful in his refusal to see any good qualities in Tegan, and Tegan is refreshingly not-miserable in her desire to enjoy her rampaging biological urges. Sure, she'll have to eventually admit that she's in love with Kieran and that he's a louse, but I liked her attitude. I liked that she had a job she was good at, friends, and that she was 28, and that she didn't secretly think that Kieran was right about her being a bad person. She knew her 18 year old self had been an idiot, but she wasn't beating herself up about it.
Donald writes smart, strong women and frustratingly terrible men, but she generally manages to get you to mostly like them by the end. Kieran does that by demonstrating some pretty bad-ass skills, and giving some fairly decent grovel.
Ten years later, Tegan has an interior design firm with her best friend, and they've put in a bid to work on the fancy old house Kieran has recently bought. They decide Tegan will do the design but her friend will manage the work, but that falls apart a little bit when the friend, while on another job in the imaginary country of El Amir, is caught up in a political coup and taken away 'to safety' in the mountains.
Kieran reluctantly agrees to let Tegan continue to work on his house, but he's keeping an eye on her, because she's still clearly bad news for innocent menfolk. Neither of them can resist the rampaging biological urges that ignite every time they're within range of each other, so there's a lot of overcoming distrust and having 'I might hate you' sexy times. This is Donald's signature style, and I love it. Kieran is enjoyably hateful in his refusal to see any good qualities in Tegan, and Tegan is refreshingly not-miserable in her desire to enjoy her rampaging biological urges. Sure, she'll have to eventually admit that she's in love with Kieran and that he's a louse, but I liked her attitude. I liked that she had a job she was good at, friends, and that she was 28, and that she didn't secretly think that Kieran was right about her being a bad person. She knew her 18 year old self had been an idiot, but she wasn't beating herself up about it.
Donald writes smart, strong women and frustratingly terrible men, but she generally manages to get you to mostly like them by the end. Kieran does that by demonstrating some pretty bad-ass skills, and giving some fairly decent grovel.
May 7, 2020
"Pagan Surrender" is the story of Tegan and Kieran.
A reunion romance between our main couple, whose past was filled with hatred, chastisement and misunderstandings, but things change when they meet again..
There is courting, chase, hot lovemaking, friend and sibling drama, confessions, yearning and HEA.
Though the sex scenes were well written, the plot failed to grip me and I longed for it to be an angsty romance with goooood crazy characters. Here they were just average.
SWE
2.5/5
A reunion romance between our main couple, whose past was filled with hatred, chastisement and misunderstandings, but things change when they meet again..
There is courting, chase, hot lovemaking, friend and sibling drama, confessions, yearning and HEA.
Though the sex scenes were well written, the plot failed to grip me and I longed for it to be an angsty romance with goooood crazy characters. Here they were just average.
SWE
2.5/5
December 3, 2021
I’m happy H followed h and confessed his love at the end!
May 9, 2020
Tegan is a devoted and talented interior designer, and with the help of her best friend and partner, Blair, she is straggling to make their career a success. Unfortunately, Blair had to travel abroad and leave her to deal with Kieran Sinclair, the one person who despised her and wanted utterly nothing to do with her after she rejected his crippled friend ten years ago. He left her to decorate his new house because he had no choice, but he was determined to force her to do everything his own way. Tegan was attracted to him emotionally and physically, but to surrender to his demand means she would lose herself forever in an uncertain relationship because Kieran not as much as hinted at love.
How can I say this gently?! The story concept is fine, but the characters and events give it away. I was half way though the book when I felt totally bored and disappointed. Three is not much of real intrigue and I felt the events were forced to the point of mechanism. I'm glad, though, that I read Blair's story before Tegan's because it would have certainly put me off. Blair's story (Paradise Lost) is certainly so much more interesting and plausible.
How can I say this gently?! The story concept is fine, but the characters and events give it away. I was half way though the book when I felt totally bored and disappointed. Three is not much of real intrigue and I felt the events were forced to the point of mechanism. I'm glad, though, that I read Blair's story before Tegan's because it would have certainly put me off. Blair's story (Paradise Lost) is certainly so much more interesting and plausible.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 11, 2012
Robyn Donald writes good, angsty stories with strong, brooding heroes, and this one was no exception. The only fault was that I found the book a bit long and plot-filled. It's odd, because the hero and heroine actually do interact a fair amount, but the emotional intensity only gets turned up in a few scenes so it feels like I spend a lot of time wondering when it's going to get good. Still, this was an enjoyable read and I was very happy for the HEA.
May 26, 2018
Not as good as some of the other books of Robyn Donald.
January 13, 2022
Some great reviews for this one…I picked up this book when I noticed that these 3 reviewers gave it 4 stars! (Sometimes you just want to know if something will be a sure thing!)Boogenhagen gives a great play by play of the story https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Stmargarets gives a quicker overview without any shattering spoilers. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... as does Dianna https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I have no idea what I will include, but here it goes:
Tegan 28 year old virgin who is very tall(which causes some insecurity) and very fashionable.
She is a successful interior decorator. Her parents are still alive, in love, and provided her with a happy life. So, what is her damage? Damage 1: Her mom gave up the promise of a successful acting career to be with her country doctor dad. The heroine never bothered to ask her mom about this, and just assumed there was lots of regret over it. Damage 2: When she was 18 she formed a friendship with an older man (20’s)who was sentenced to a life in a wheelchair. He would take her out to fancy restaurants and he was interesting to listen to . Our 18 year old heroine really looked at him as being sexless, and didn’t pick up on the signs that he was interested in her for other reasons. Now it did say that he actually would not be able to offer her a sexual marriage.(PSA for this review: People in wheelchairs are not asexual. Most have fulfilling sex lives and have children. Some need a little assistance in getting their end goal, but that is what is great about modern science! 😅 ok moving on…) Sam, who it was stated as very intelligent, was rather controlling, manipulative, and covetous of the h. He railroaded her into an engagement. It took her mom to put the brakes on an engagement her daughter did not want. Damage 3: The hero(of course) Kieran was Sam’s friend. When he heard Suicidal Sam’s tale of woe he confronted the 18 year old “whore” calling her names and basically indicating that her “gangly looking body” isn’t much of an attraction. 
The story opens 10 years later and the H has hired the h’s decorating business (she coowns with friend Blair) . Upon hearing his name the h knows that she needs to keep a low profile(he threatened to make her pay years ago) unfortunately he doesn’t like the designs of her protege and Blair is some fake middle Eastern country hoping to decorate a palace. So, the h has to make her presence known. Their first meeting is stressful. He is threatening to pull out, and they need the business. However, they end up coming to truce. What results, is a pretty nice story (is this RD? Writing this?) We actually see these two forming a friendship, and the sexual tension is felt by anyone in their vicinity. However, I liked the scenes where they would walk and talk together. His sister on the other hand is a drug addicted basket case because she was told her daddy never loved her. She tries to and succeeds in causing problems for this couple.
Now don’t get me wrong. Our H is still a RD H. He holds onto assumptions, is sexy as all get out, knows guerilla warfare, and says and does some cruel things. He also does some pretty heroic things. The path to love is bumpy but in the end he gives us the HEA that we look for .
I also like how RD described the h’s fashion sense. She gives some really good detail. Our h has learned how to dress for her body type, and doesn’t realize how attractive she is to the opposite sex.
Some tidbits:
There is some om and om possible, but these are not forefront in driving the angst of the story. The H was engaged before, and I guess the ex has told others about his more than capable skills as a lover. Her name was Kirsty. So it would have been Kieran and Kirsty 🤢just on that cuteness alone, the hero would have never married her 😂 The women in this book are constantly catting around him. The h and H do have sex 2/3 of the way in and there was no mention of her virginity until the end of the book.
Of course this is part of a series(although each book can be read as stand alone) so now I either need to go backwards to book 1 to The Golden Mask which is the story of the H��s 1/2 brother Blade or forward to book 3Paradise Lost…Book 3 has Blair in it, the h’s friend.
Stmargarets gives a quicker overview without any shattering spoilers. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... as does Dianna https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I have no idea what I will include, but here it goes:
Tegan 28 year old virgin who is very tall(which causes some insecurity) and very fashionable.
She is a successful interior decorator. Her parents are still alive, in love, and provided her with a happy life. So, what is her damage? Damage 1: Her mom gave up the promise of a successful acting career to be with her country doctor dad. The heroine never bothered to ask her mom about this, and just assumed there was lots of regret over it. Damage 2: When she was 18 she formed a friendship with an older man (20’s)who was sentenced to a life in a wheelchair. He would take her out to fancy restaurants and he was interesting to listen to . Our 18 year old heroine really looked at him as being sexless, and didn’t pick up on the signs that he was interested in her for other reasons. Now it did say that he actually would not be able to offer her a sexual marriage.(PSA for this review: People in wheelchairs are not asexual. Most have fulfilling sex lives and have children. Some need a little assistance in getting their end goal, but that is what is great about modern science! 😅 ok moving on…) Sam, who it was stated as very intelligent, was rather controlling, manipulative, and covetous of the h. He railroaded her into an engagement. It took her mom to put the brakes on an engagement her daughter did not want. Damage 3: The hero(of course) Kieran was Sam’s friend. When he heard Suicidal Sam’s tale of woe he confronted the 18 year old “whore” calling her names and basically indicating that her “gangly looking body” isn’t much of an attraction. The story opens 10 years later and the H has hired the h’s decorating business (she coowns with friend Blair) . Upon hearing his name the h knows that she needs to keep a low profile(he threatened to make her pay years ago) unfortunately he doesn’t like the designs of her protege and Blair is some fake middle Eastern country hoping to decorate a palace. So, the h has to make her presence known. Their first meeting is stressful. He is threatening to pull out, and they need the business. However, they end up coming to truce. What results, is a pretty nice story (is this RD? Writing this?) We actually see these two forming a friendship, and the sexual tension is felt by anyone in their vicinity. However, I liked the scenes where they would walk and talk together. His sister on the other hand is a drug addicted basket case because she was told her daddy never loved her. She tries to and succeeds in causing problems for this couple.
Now don’t get me wrong. Our H is still a RD H. He holds onto assumptions, is sexy as all get out, knows guerilla warfare, and says and does some cruel things. He also does some pretty heroic things. The path to love is bumpy but in the end he gives us the HEA that we look for .
I also like how RD described the h’s fashion sense. She gives some really good detail. Our h has learned how to dress for her body type, and doesn’t realize how attractive she is to the opposite sex.
Some tidbits:
There is some om and om possible, but these are not forefront in driving the angst of the story. The H was engaged before, and I guess the ex has told others about his more than capable skills as a lover. Her name was Kirsty. So it would have been Kieran and Kirsty 🤢just on that cuteness alone, the hero would have never married her 😂 The women in this book are constantly catting around him. The h and H do have sex 2/3 of the way in and there was no mention of her virginity until the end of the book.
Of course this is part of a series(although each book can be read as stand alone) so now I either need to go backwards to book 1 to The Golden Mask which is the story of the H��s 1/2 brother Blade or forward to book 3Paradise Lost…Book 3 has Blair in it, the h’s friend.
November 5, 2023
Why, when I have hundreds of HPs on my 'want to read' list do I persist in revisiting RDs I've read many times before just because they turn up as a 14 day borrow on the OL returns shelf 😂. It's obvious, I suppose, I just love her no messing, ruthlessly competent alpha Hs. No one does utter bastards (then utterly devoted, uxorious husbands) like RD. Plus I love her NZ settings and the way characters from her other books keep turning up. Merchant banker Keir and interior decorator Tegan from this one make appearances in at least two others. I think this may have been one of the first ones of hers I read, which is perhaps why it holds a special place in my heart. I love many HP writers but I suspect RD will always be my queen.
February 15, 2021
This is a classic Mills & Boon romance with some potential but if the H is a cruel nasty person in the beginning, there is no reason to suppose he will have a personality transplant as the story progresses. Besides being cruel and nasty this particular H lacks compassion, insight and empathy and the h should run for her life to avoid the misery H can bring her. This is not really a spoiler because this is apparent in the first few pages. So not really a HEA ending IMHO.
April 29, 2024
It was ok. Perhaps we live in faster times. The slow pace at which the stories Robyn Donald writes develop irritates me.
They kept dithering about very trite unnecessary things. Which have nothing to do with the story.
It’s very weird. If they both want each other so much why do they keep dithering so much. Sleep with each other already.
The attitude of RD heroes is so terrible. Beyond terrible.
I have been accused of misogyny myself. But these are the outside of enough.
The heroine is too submissive. The man abuses her. Calls her names. She doesn’t feel a thing. As if it is his birthright to call her names just because she is a woman.
The man keeps on going on do gooding missions like he is Clark Kent / Superman.
He is friends with Middle Eastern. “Bandits.” What!???
Bandits are bandits no matter where and no decent above board businessman is friends with them.
All in all. Very boring story.
The hero is perfection himself. Everybody wants him.
The heroine is less likeable.
I don’t know. Just didn’t like it.
They kept dithering about very trite unnecessary things. Which have nothing to do with the story.
It’s very weird. If they both want each other so much why do they keep dithering so much. Sleep with each other already.
The attitude of RD heroes is so terrible. Beyond terrible.
I have been accused of misogyny myself. But these are the outside of enough.
The heroine is too submissive. The man abuses her. Calls her names. She doesn’t feel a thing. As if it is his birthright to call her names just because she is a woman.
The man keeps on going on do gooding missions like he is Clark Kent / Superman.
He is friends with Middle Eastern. “Bandits.” What!???
Bandits are bandits no matter where and no decent above board businessman is friends with them.
All in all. Very boring story.
The hero is perfection himself. Everybody wants him.
The heroine is less likeable.
I don’t know. Just didn’t like it.
July 27, 2024
Yikes. That was a slog! So many side characters that had much more weight than the couple. Boring story, how about the friend’s overseas adventure?! That sounds interesting! Skip this boring book.
October 27, 2025
Not my liking 🥲
February 8, 2021
Tegan hadn't seen Kieran Sinclair in ten years, but the memory of his ruthless words still branded her -- his savage contempt for the way he believed she'd so heartlessly jilted his wheelchair-bound friend marked her soul.
Now their lives collide again and it's as if the intervening years had never happened. Kieran is fired by a dangerous excitement; he remains as threatening as the dark clouds of an impending storm. And Tegan still can't fight the unbridled attraction she has always felt for him. But is there any hope for a relationship where the final surrender remains shrouded by so many unanswered questions?
Now their lives collide again and it's as if the intervening years had never happened. Kieran is fired by a dangerous excitement; he remains as threatening as the dark clouds of an impending storm. And Tegan still can't fight the unbridled attraction she has always felt for him. But is there any hope for a relationship where the final surrender remains shrouded by so many unanswered questions?
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