Rating: 
Summary: Ugh! A truly terrible hero.
Review: Charlotte is a very interesting heroine: intelligent, strong, principled, and exceptionally proper because of past hurt. Her responses to Wynter's high-handedness and loveless "care" are heart-wrenching. Her only real flaw is that she ventually loves him for some unfathomable reason, so the book says, although there is little evidence of it. She also sometimes seems to act out of character with the children in her role as governness.Wynter, however, is an a_s. He's an arrogant, chauvinistic jerk who believes men rightly rule the world and women are little better than possessions. His end-of-book declaration of love is too little, too late, especially considering that his behavior does not change. It's as though he says the words to appease her and so get what he wants. Too much time is spent on his outrageousness and too little on his redemption. It's totally unbelieveable. I hated him. The secondary characters are caricatures or shadow-people with little substance. The "ghost" is too obvious. There are too many flaws here to even decide which to mention. The only things that makes this book at all worth reading is the intro to the series and Charlotte. Get it from the library; don't bother buying it. I'm selling my copy.
Rating: 
Summary: Love At First Read....
Review: This was one of the first Christina Dodd books that I was fortunate enough to purchase. I was immediately hooked. The governess series is my favorite series by Christina Dodd,(though I have them all), and is definately one that I recommend to all. This is one that I have read several times and will keep on my shelf for a long time.
I love the scene which takes place in the parlor that includes Charlotte, her soon to be mother in law, who we are aquainted with in the book "That Scandalous Evening" and other society matrons. The scene unfolds when Winter, (love that name), has purchased a jewelry set for Charlotte in honor of their engagement. The women then witness Winter, very seductively, yet so different than any of those "well-bred, England, society-born" women have ever seen, present Charlotte with the gift. I felt that I was in the room with them, it was described so well. It also ended with the reader sighing and laughing, and I still chuckle when I remember the passage where, when Winter left all the women in the room were silent, and in unison snapped out their fans because the room had "become so hot". I can't say enough of the series of books. Thank you Christina Dodd.
Rating:
Summary: First and best.
Review: Lady Charlotte Dalrumple is co-proprietor of the Distinguished Academy of Governesses, and a more morally upright, correct young woman would be hard to find. The first client of the Academy is Adorna, Vicountess Ruskin (remember Jane's sister in `That Scandelous Evening'?). Adorna engages `Miss Priss' as governess to her two young grandchildren, newly arrived from El Bahar, and more than a little different from the usual young English nobility. What Adorna hasn't told Lady Charlotte is that she will also be required to remind the children's widowed father, Lord Wynter Ruskin, of proper English behaviour. The problem for Lady Charlotte is her attraction to the man of the house, an attraction that could lead to a repeat ruining of her reputation, already in tatters due to the events of nine years previously, which would mean that she would have to leave England to continue to survive. Lord Ruskin, on his part, soon finds exactly the role he wants his `Lady Miss Charlotte' to occupy - that of his wife. Christina Dodd is certainly very comfortable writing in this period, and as the start of the DAoG series, this book is a treat. Lord Ruskin is a very different kind of central male character, due to his time spent abroad and his acquisition of much of the culture of the Bedouins. He has some rather strange concepts and a very straightforward approach to getting what he wants - leaving gasps, mayhem and delicious scandal in his wake. Lady Charlotte is enjoyable as a strong minded woman who is able to view the world and her place in it very clearly, and unusually too, is able to recognise that people change, and that even events that have hurt or affected her deeply may be interpreted differently from a new perspective. It's a hard lesson, and a sign of maturity. Her love of the children and her pain at Wynter's apparent inability to love her are very well expressed by Dodd, who has written another winner.
Rating:
Summary: Infuriating
Review: I have not read too many books by Christina Dodd, but the ones I had read prior to Rules of Surrender were wonderful. This book simply made me angry. Our hero has been off with the bedoins in the Sahara for 13 years or so and has adopted their annoying male chauvinism. I found nothing lovable about Wynter and could not figure out what their love or attraction was supposed to be based on. What are we supposed to see in him? Charlotte does not seem to like him and yet decides she's in love with him. He was overbearing and seemed to browbeat her into submission. He had awful opinions about women and their subservient roles and second class emotions. To top it all off, the love scenes were all coerced and read like rape fantasies . . . definitely off putting. I did not enjoy this book. I spent the whole time reading it expecting her to slap him and yell at him, which never happened.
Rating:
Summary: Surrender your heart
Review: This first of the Governess series is a romp thru Regency England with a touch of the Middle East and a glimpse backwards at some friends from previous novels. Lord Wynter Ruskin has finally come home with his two children and his mother, Lady Adorna Ruskin has hired Lady Charlotte Dalrumple to tutor her granchildren into proper English decorum. What Lady Adorna does not tell Lady Charlotte is that she has one other pupil she is to tutor in proper English manners - lord Wynter. Lord Wynter, who having lived with the Bedouins in the desert has picked up some very strange habits! The dialog is witty, and so humourous, you will find yourself with quite a few belly laughs and the addition of the children who in their innocence 'do say the darndest things' - well suffice it to say, that Ms. Dodd never fails to satisfy in the dialog department. Definitely a refreshing and enjoyable read. I look forward to the next two novels in this trilogy.
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