Review: Sacred Surrender by Ava Riley

Sacred Surrender
Author: Ava Riley
Publisher: Lazy Day Publishing
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Format: ebook
Release date: June 29, 2011
Author's website:

Ava Riley

Rowan’s life had been perfect until his fiancé decided to seduce his best friend the night before their wedding and ultimately destroyed everything he’d dreamed of.  After breaking off the wedding and the relationship, he vowed to never allow another woman to have that much control over his heart again.  That is, until one morning when a knock on his door revealed beautiful, sexy Madison.   Madison, having just moved to sunny California from a small town in Kansas, is in awe of the hunky doctor living next door, but her insecurities keep her from accepting his initial advances.

The connection Rowan and Madison experience after a night of hot sex cannot be denied, but will Madison’s insecurities be too much for their relationship to flourish?  Will the relationship that Rowan is finally willing to accept end before it even gets a chance to start or can he convince Madison that her fears are unwarranted?

Rowan has been feeling down lately due to his love life.  His heart was recently broken and after seeing how happy his little sister is being in love with his best friend, he realizes that he yearns for the same thing. Things begin to look up for him once his new neighbor moves in next door.  Madison asks for Rowan's help with something and he is more than happy to assist her.  They are instantly attracted to one another and while Rowan is ready to get things moving, Madison decides that things are moving too fast and lets Rowan know that she is not ready for a relationship.  But Madison knows a good thing when she sees it and doesn't stay away from Rowan too long.  After getting to know each other better they realize they aren't going to less this opportunity pass them by and things begin to get more serious.

We are introduced to Rowan in book 1 of the series A Lifetime To Love and I was happy to get to know his character better.  I truly felt for him after his heart was broken and it was so sad to see him unhappy and wanting love.  I also liked Madison's character and agreed with how she wanted to take things slow.  She's from a small town and feels at home after moving into her new house.  Another thing I liked about her character was her connection to her mother that passed away when she was a little girl.  Through her photography she feels connected to her mother and I felt that was very sweet.  Madison is able to see beauty in a lot of things around her and Rowan notices that.  I loved that he noticed how happy she was doing what she loved and that she was good at it.  Ava Riley did a great job writing the interaction between the two of them and had me rooting for them from page 1.

I'm giving Sacred Surrender a rating of:

Sacred Surrender was a very entertaining read and I could not have read it at a better time.  After reading a couple of books that were too heavy, I started this book and found it to be a great escape because of how entertaining it was.  There is nothing like reading 2 characters fall in love and Rowan and Madison's journey was a sweet one to read.  I found Ava Riley's writing to be much more progressed since the 1st book and feel that she is on her way to providing us with more entertaining stories in the future.  She has a way of making her characters feel as if they could be someone that you know and I'm looking forward to seeing which new characters I get to meet next!