Vintage of Surrender can best be described as a "diamond in the rough." The alpha male, Luke Clinton borders on being a somewhat sensitive caveman to a possessive one-dimensional pain in the neck. JAK tries to redeem him through the actions and reactions of her heroine, Jennifer Ingram. But however independent Jennifer professes to be she still falls short of overcoming Luke's domineering ways. But we must remember time frame here, we're talking the late 70s into early 80s. Although it's now hard to believe we seemed to have been enthralled with that all-knowing masterful type of male. Just tune in to reruns of Dallas! This type of male fulfilled some of fantasies at that time.

This book's setting is eastern Washington in the state's vineyard area where a small winery that is owner operated provides the backdrop for the mounting tensions one expects and hopes for during a case of mistaken identity. Our hero Luke realizes that he has luckily stumbled on to the missing ingredient for success with his one-man vineyard. Of course that ingredient is Jennifer, who saves the day provides Luke with a well-received profit due to her outgoing nature and professional abilities. Luke being no dummy decides to latch on to the oh-so-independent Jennifer. She of course is not of a like mind.

The plot tries to thicken with an unrealistically manipulated wedding ceremony and an opposing force that almost puts asunder what Luke as engineered. Of course Luke's sensitive side shows a little when he does not demand immediate conjugal rights of the lovely Jennifer thus ceding some control. The stress and tension levels build to a minor degree resulting in consummation which is described briefly but none-the-less sweetly not unlike scenes in JAK's more recent novels. Could JAK's current book be a retro to those less sensual descriptions?

As with all romance novels the means justify the end, Luke and Jennifer will live happily ever after but only after Luke's confession of undying love and despite his overly controlling nature (the guy just can't help it). Ah sweet bliss!

JAK's two major characters are strong but at times lack a much-needed balance. The minor characters are rather shallow. Dialogue among the characters is stilted and less than the witty repartee we have come to expect of JAK. However, Vintage of Surrender is an interesting read from the perspective of an early work. It exhibits the foundations that those of us who enjoy JAK's writing have come to anticipate. JAK's description of a small winery business is satisfying and evidences her ability to impart information within the scope of this book.

I for one would not attempt to give this book a rating but rather enjoy it for what it is an early effort of a great storyteller. The poor editing by MacFadden publishers provided for distracted reading (typos abound). Nevertheless, Vintage of Surrender should stand as it is, providing the nostalgia and entertainment we JAK fans continue to seek of her story telling efforts.

Well, I thought I'd write this review with lots of misspellings, missed quotes and just general poor editing, so that I could give you an idea of how the incredibly bad editing got in the way of reading this story. Unfortunately, my word processor is a self-fixer so no-can-do. All I can say about it is that it was fortunate for MacFadden that a writer of Jayne's caliber was contracted to them because her stories make it worthwhile to plow through the editing errors. On to the story….

Vintage of Surrender is typical of Jayne Castle in a couple of ways. It reflects her earlier writing characters with a super dominant hero, much more than we generally like today. Her consistent character types - intelligent, values-driven, dependable, not commitment shy - were also present in this story. Since these character types are those that keep us coming back for more, I was happy (and expected) to see them here in this story as well.

The story line is a little hard to take. I don't know if it's just the time during which the book was written or if it just was improbable, but I found several of the situations the hero and heroine were in to be far-fetched and unlikely. This tends to make the story not one of my favorites; however, the character types make it likely that I'll read the book again at least once (I read all of Jayne's stories at least twice so take it for what it is).

In the story, Jennifer Ingram meets Luke Clinton unexpectedly when her car breaks down on her way to Seattle. Seeking assistance, Jennifer walks up to Luke's eastern Washington winery. Luke, who was expecting help with a last minute wine tasting session, mistakes Jennifer for his help and begins to order her assistance in getting ready for the group of bus traveling wine tasters. He doesn't find out until during the tasting session that Jennifer isn't the person who was coming to help him, but by then, it was too late for Jennifer. Unknown to her, Luke has decided that Jennifer is the wife for him.

Luke begins to court her, but during that first week, Jennifer loses her job and plans to move to Seattle to look for a job. Luke finds out and all but kidnaps her (she could have yelled for help) and forces her into marriage (she could have said no). As I said, the situations were somewhat improbable, and the hero was a little TOO macho (who cares what she thinks she wants, clearly he knows better). Over the course of the next few days, things work out and they realize that they are in love with each other. The whole story occurs over the course of about nine days so it's clear that this is ultra-quick relationship building. Jayne is able to better do that in her current writing because her characters are so well developed that you can understand the rapid build up of the relationship. In her earlier works, such as this one, this is not the case, so the reader has some trouble understanding how it all happened.

Although not one of my favorites of this author, Vintage of Surrender carries some of the trademark Jayne Ann Krentz (Jayne Castle is her maiden name and one of her original pen names) personalities and is worth a read for her fans.