Hating Jameson Murphy is easy.
Wanting him is where everything gets complicated.
He’s my best friend’s older brother. My father’s star player. A charmingly infuriating football god I’ve spent a lifetime avoiding and failing to ignore.
He should be the last man tempting me into bad decisions. But when a snowstorm grounds our flight, and champagne blurs our judgment, one reckless night shatters every rule I’ve put in place . . . leaving me with two little pink lines and one very big problem. Now, thanks to an unreliable mother, a surprise baby sister, and a new living arrangement I never saw coming, my carefully crafted life is unraveling faster than the worn satin ribbon on my favorite old pointe shoes.
And Jameson? He’s everywhere. In my space. In my secrets. Looking at me like he already knows how this ends and how it doesn’t. Forcing me to face a truth I’m not ready to accept . . .
What if surrender doesn’t mean losing yourself?
What if it’s about trusting someone else?
And maybe . . . just maybe, what if it means finally finding home?
(ARC Review)
This book ruined my sleep schedule, my emotional stability, and my ability to read at a reasonable pace. I was fully obsessed from the beginning to the close of the last page.
Ashton and Jameson’s story feels unfinished. Like they were always meant to circle back to each other. Years of tension. One snowstorm. One reckless night. Two pink lines. And suddenly, every rule Ashton built her life around starts to unravel.
Ashton is one of those heroines who leaves her mark on you. A ballerina living in Chicago, she carries grief, distance, and the weight of a family shattered by addiction and loss. She survives. She controls. She endures. She doesn’t lean. Her strength, wit, sharp comebacks, and vulnerability are all intertwined in a way that make her real and relatable. She carries an enormous amount of emotional weight, and honestly? I don’t blame her. Anyone who’s been hit with the losses and responsibilities she’s faced would be unraveling.
My ducks are not in a row. Pretty sure a few ran away. One is on freaking fire. And I think one might actually be a baby chicken.—Ashton’s Secret Thoughts
Watching her return home and slowly confront her past, her trauma, and her need for control felt raw and open. Trust does not come easily to her. But through Jamie and Finn, she begins to learn that accepting help doesn’t mean weakness, it means choosing connection. Her strength and softness exist side by side, and it’s what makes her unforgettable.
And then there’s Jameson Murphy. Publicly? The cocky football god. The father’s star player. The charmingly infuriating best friend’s older brother. Privately? A man who has loved Ashton since he was seventeen and never really stopped.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you since you were fifteen years old and I realized you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.”
Jamie is that dangerous mix of golden retriever energy and protective rottweiler when pushed. He’s possessive but never controlling. Blunt but deeply thoughtful. He doesn’t swoop in to fix Ashton. Instead, he chooses her. Over and over again. He pushes when she needs courage. He steps back when she needs space. He shows up for late-night feedings, diaper changes, custody battles, and emotional fallout — not because he has to, but because Ashton needs him.
“Don’t walk away again…I can’t lose another person. I can’t…” Her eyes close for a moment, but damn when they open, it’s there. It’s all there. Everything I wanted to see. It’s staring back at me. “I can’t lose you. Not again.”
And that quiet consistency? That’s what made this romance soar.
The accidental pregnancy trope is done beautifully here. It isn’t dramatic for shock value. It becomes the emotional core of the story. You learn everything about a person by how they respond when life explodes. Jamie steps up without hesitation. Even when Ashton takes custody of baby Kyrie, a sister she never knew she had, he is right there beside her with no obligation other than love.
Their chemistry is immediate and layered. They aren’t true enemies. They are two people who have been orbiting each other for years, hiding behind irritation and unresolved tension because of family ties and timing. Every look, every argument, every almost moment crackles. And when that tension finally breaks? Off. The. Charts.
“I’d do anything for you, Ashton. Anything…because I’m so far gone for you, I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love you.”
But what truly elevated this book was the grief. The regret. The what-ifs. Ashton carries loss like a second skin — not only the devastating death of her brother that fractured her family and reshaped her entire world, but also the quieter, private heartbreak of losing Jamie the first time. Losing the boy who loved her before life complicated everything. Losing the future she might have had if timing, pride, and pain hadn’t intervened. Her brother’s death left her bracing for impact, terrified of loving too deeply in case it’s ripped away again. And when Jamie walked away back then, it reinforced every fear she already carried; that people leave, that nothing stays, that she has to survive on her own. So she learned to control. To endure. To not lean.
Bella doesn’t let love erase that pain. She lets it sit beside it. She lets Ashton grieve the life she lost, the people she lost, and the version of herself she had to abandon just to keep going. Growth here isn’t pretty or easy. It’s messy, painful, and earned.
“And I might have walked away, but I was always there. I’ve been to every show you’ve ever danced in at least once. I’ve watched from the back. I’ve cheered the loudest, and sent flowers without cards, and made sure you never saw me. Because I was selfish, and I was there for me, not you. I wanted you to be happy. I wanted you to be living your best damn life. And I knew that was without me in it.”
The Murphy family adds warmth without overshadowing the romance. Finn’s steady support, the cousins inserting themselves whether Ashton is ready or not, the unexpected book club reveal — it all balances the heavier themes with comfort and humor.
Sweet Surrender is about learning how to stay — about realizing surrender doesn’t mean losing yourself, but trusting someone enough to stand beside you. It’s emotional, tense, intimate, and deeply healing, and I devoured it in one sitting. I highlighted nonstop, got way too emotionally attached, and completely fell in love with the family they’re building together. If you love protective athletes, complicated history, found family, and heroes who fall first and never look back, Jameson Murphy is waiting for you. And trust me, you’re not ready.
Release Date: February 12th, 2026 (OUT TODAY)
Thank you to Bella Matthews and Valentine PR & Literary Management for the ARC read!