The Gilded Cage
Surrender, Book #2
By Lauren Smith
ISBN# 9781455532773
Author’s Website: http://www.laurensmithbooks.com/
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi
Hayden was born into a life of privilege. To some it may seem a wonderful existence. But to her she feels caged, never able to make her own choices about her life, and having a mother that wants nothing more than for her to marry one of their rich friend’s sons, a life of being a piece of arm candy. That’s not what Hayden wants. She has dreams and ambitions, but her parents just don’t see it.
Now that they know the lost Lockwood brother is still alive, Hayden rushes ahead of her brother to find him and bring him home. Maybe then people will take notice of her and she can start to live the life she’s only dreamed of, one of her own choosing.
Hayden travels to Colorado and to the rodeo where Fenn is bull riding, but the unthinkable happens as he’s thrown from the meanest bull there. Hayden sees Tabasco heading for injured Fenn and does the only thing she can think of … take off her shoes, scale the gate and draw Tabasco’s attention away from Fenn, risking her own life in the process.
Fenn can’t believe that girl’s stupidity risking herself to save him. He’s the man, he should be the protector and hero, it’s enough to make him want to take her over his knee and paddle her good and well. But you don’t see girls like her around these parts and he doesn’t expect he will ever see her again, so imagine his surprise when she shows up at his trailer door! And to top it off she’s spouting nonsense about him having a twin on Long Island that’s looking for him and that they’re both in danger. But the more he is around Hayden and hearing her telling him about his supposed brother, the more flashes he gets from an alternate reality, until he realizes they’re actually forgotten memories. Is he really the lost Lockwood? And how can he protect Hayden and his family at the Broken Spur ranch from this new threat that will not give up until he and his brother breathe their last breaths?
I liked Fenn. He was a good ol’ boy, and exactly what you’d expect from a handsome cowboy, always looking out for others, always there to lend a helping hand when need be. But he’s a rough and tumble kind of guy too, never backing down from a fight (especially when want-to-be rodeo stars start talking smack!).
Hayden is no wallflower either. She gives as good as she gets and from the moment she lays her eyes on Fenn she wants him to possess her body and soul! Something he is more than willing to do. In fact I thought that first scene showing his dominant side in his truck was pretty unrealistic … that he’d take a complete stranger, a grown adult, over his lap like that… But when compared to his brother, he really wasn’t all that dominant, not nearly as much as I thought he would be based on the synopsis of this book. This book was BDSM lite, if you don’t want to read this book because of the BDSM aspect, you really shouldn’t let it stop you, as there really isn’t that much of it in this book, a little light bondage and a few spankings, but nothing all that intense.
The main focus in this story really was on the threat to Fenn’s (and anyone with him)’s life.
The secondary characters were good in this story as well. I loved the family that Fenn created with Callie and Jim and fully expect to see more of them as we approach Wes’s love story. Although the main threat to the Lockwoods seems to be over, so I’m curious what kind of storyline we can expect do see besides the sex of course.
This was a decent read and I’m curious to see what happens next in the series.
