"Surrender" by Elana Johnson

Release Date: June 1, 2012

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Pages: 480

From Goodreads: Forbidden love, intoxicating power, and the terror of control…

Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father’s rules: He’s the Director. It’s because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent—a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi.

All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine’s got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can’t. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi’s boyfriend, Zenn. Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raine’s father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She’s even starting to suspect Vi’s secrets might involve Freedom’s newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque...."

In my review of "Possession" by Elana Johnson, the first book in her "Possession" series, I noted that on multiple occasions I was EXTREMELY confused by exactly what was going on in the novel, for a number of different reason- constantly changing relationships, lack of context/ explanation, and the likes of. However, I did not find that to be the case WHATSOEVER with this book. Everything in this book was so beautifully described, well executed and the likes of- it becomes evident that Elana has grown tremendously as an author since she penned her debut.

That being said, I must admit that when I first started reading this book I had A LOT of difficulties differentiating between the narrators of this book and of "Possession", I felt that Raine and Gunner were essentially Vi and Jag 2.0. Vi and Raine had the same sort of "I don't give a freck" attitude, had many of the same mannerisms and used a lot of similar slang (despite having lived in cities that were almost entirely removed from one another). However, as the book progressed I found myself less and less bothered by this as I felt that the characters started to come into their own.

Furthermore, I also really enjoyed Gunner and Raine's relationship. In my opinion it seemed much more natural and much less forced than Vi and Jag's relationship (as I made note in my review of "Possession" Jag's and Vi's relationship is BY FAR one of the biggest instances of insta-love I have ever encountered before)- I have realized that I prefer seeing a relationship slowly, but surely, come into being rather than feeling that it came out of left field or was to 'in my face'.

All in all, I am EXTREMELY glad that I decided to stick with this series as I believe this book to be better in every way than "Possession" was. This series is quickly becoming one of my more favourite dystopian/ post-apocalyptic series, surpassing other such series as Ally Condie's "Matched" series and Moira Young's "Blood Red Road"- I cannot wait to see what Elana has in store for us (and the gang) next!

Rating: 10/10

I received this book from the publisher to read and review. I was not compensated in any way for said review.