Capture & Surrender (A Market Garden Tale)
Title : Capture & Surrender
Series : Market Garden, Book #5
Publisher : Riptide (BUY HERE)
Genre : M/M, Contemporary, BDSM, Romance
Length : 214 pages (e-book)
Published : August 19, 2013
Rating : ★★★★
Blurb:
Ever since his partner died, Frank has resigned himself to staying single. He wards off the loneliness by spending time with friends on the paintball field and running his high-end brothel, the Market Garden.
After one of his most lucrative rentboys quits, Frank is thrilled when a gorgeous replacement walks through the door. A former US soldier, Stefan is hot, bold, and perfect for the Market Garden’s clientele, especially those with a thing for camouflage and drill sergeants. He’s perfect for Frank, too, except Frank has a rule about not getting involved with his own rentboys.
During a frisky game of paintball, Stefan makes it clear that he doesn’t care about the rules. Not the rules of the game, and definitely not Frank’s refusal to get involved. He captures Frank on the field using stealth and cunning, and makes it clear that he’ll do anything to keep a hold of him off the field too.
Review:
Capture & Surrender is the fifth book in the Market Garden series, although it can be easily read as a standalone. In the opening scene, Frank, the owner of the Gentleman’s club, is accepting the resignation of one of his top earners as Nick leaves to make a new life with his partner, Spencer. Although he genuinely wishes Nick all the best, it’s what he wants for all his guys in the end, it now means there’s a spot that needs filling. It seems his bartender, Raoul, has been working on that and his solution is a tall, blonde, well-built ex-military American named Stefan! A “prime piece of American beefcake with a military fetish, a cocky attitude, and a malicious playfulness that he didn’t doubt even for a moment could turn scary in a very good way” at that. And boy did Stefan push every last one of Frank’s buttons! However, Frank has a hard and fast rule of never getting involved with his employees. In fact, he doesn’t get involved, full-stop.
When his friend, Geoff, part-owner of a paintball field, calls to let Frank know that one of their regular games is on that weekend, he can’t resist inviting Stefan along. These aren’t any ordinary games, though. Oh, no, they’re a hot, kinky sexcapade of capture and surrender where the captured agree to do whatever their captor wishes. Frank only acts as referee for these matches, so he’s safe from giving in to the flirtatious interest Stefan has been showing him. At least, that’s what he believes.
Having lost his longtime partner eighteen months previously, Frank has been lonely ever since. Starved of touch from a lover, he craves that intimacy. His only source of physical comfort has been the occasional time with his best friends, Geoff and Mike, a couple who know what Frank went through and what he continues dealing with. When Stefan makes his own rules and captures him during a game, Frank finds himself unable to continue denying himself or what he’s starting to feel for the handsome, dominant man who is increasingly making him feel things he had thought long since forgotten.
As they get to know each other, Frank learns that Stefan himself is no stranger to loss. At twenty-five, Stefan, whose real name is Brandon, is mature beyond his years thanks to a past that taught him all about both the joy and grief life can bestow. He may be fifteen odd years younger than the forty-one years Frank has, but he’s fully aware of what Frank’s situation means, wants him anyway and is determined to capture Frank’s heart.
This instalment in the Market Garden series has a lot more story in it. I loved the others. They were short and hot and still managed to flesh out characters, and I enjoyed them thoroughly. I also liked the change of pace of this one. Still incredibly hot but with more character development, more story, more emotions. Considering how much I loved the others, that’s a good thing! I liked getting to know the man behind the club and, as it turns out, Frank and Stefan/Brandon had a wonderful story to tell. The steamy sex was still very much in there, but this book was a lot more fleshed out with great characters, their background stories and an emotional storyline that was exceptionally well dealt with. I figured out quite early on what Frank’s situation was, but as I don’t want to give it away here, I’m being deliberately vague about some things here.
Although I picked up a couple of inconsistencies where the writing wasn’t quite as seamless as in previous books of the series, for the most part the writing does flow nicely. Told solely from the POV of Frank, the longer format and the greater background suited the character. Brandon was hot and cocky, but also full of depth and layers. Even with the relatively serious topics involved, the book engaged my emotions without getting overly heavy. I’d be more than happy to get another glimpse of Frank and Brandon in the future. All in all, a great addition to a thoroughly enjoyable series.
Rated 4 stars by BookSmitten
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