Surrender by Rhiannon Paille

Title: Surrender

Author: Rhiannon Paille

Published: October 6, 2011

Also Known As: Flame of Surrender

Series?: The Ferryman & The Flame #1

Format Read/Pages:  eBook, 392

How/When I Acquired It: NetGally, March 2013

Date Finished: April 5, 2013

Kaliel and Krishani weren't meant to meet or fall in love but they did. Krishani’s dreams of death led him to a fate he’s terrified of--becoming the next Ferryman. His only refuge is Kaliel, the peculiar girl that swims with merfolk and talks to trees. Kaliel has a secret of her own--she’s the Amethyst Flame, one of nine apocalyptic weapons. The Valtanyana will destroy everything on Avristar to get to her. Kaliel has to choose: face them, hide or unleash the Flame.

How far would you go to save everything you ever loved?

~

I had high hopes for this book, it seemed like it could have been a pretty great read. But, I must say, I was a disappointed when I finally got to the end (and I was pushing myself to get through it). One of my major misgivings is that at times it seemed like things were being too rushed, both in the the love story and the explanation of who our main characters are supposedly becoming. This is the first book in what I assume will be a three part (or more) series, and I hate to even think what the pace of the rest of the story will be.  

The two main characters  Kaliel and Krishani, have a love like no other. Literally. They are elves and apparently these elves have no love for anything other than the land. They marry the land at some point, which I can only assume means they follow the path that has been set for them, kind of like a destiny. Of course they do not comply as all others have before them and fall in love after meeting accidentally at the forbidden waterfall. Their love, like everything else in the book, is set into hyper-drive when, after their first meeting, they are forced apart and must pine for each other for more than a year before coming back together by chance. It is all just really unbelievable and at times trite. 

Something that I really wish would have been explored in more depth, and could possibly be in the future books, is what it actually means for them to be The Flame and The Ferryman. We get very brief explanations, but nothing that really gives the reader an idea of what is to come for our two characters. It would have been great if the two stories had not intertwined from the very beginning. Perhaps each, Kaliel and Krishani, could have had their own separate stories, before it all comes full circle and their love affair begins. It just seems they were not done enough justice by forcing them together right in the beginning and not having been established as an individual being.

The best thing about this story is the writing of Avristar, the world where this story takes place. Paille did a wonderful job providing us with details which allowed for a full view of the world. I could picture the forests and the cave were their love bloomed. It was one of the few ways that I connected with the story. 

2 Stars