This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.
Verdict: A sun-drenched butch/femme rivals romance that turns a week-long business trip through Andalucía into a genuine argument about privilege, borders and belonging, held back by long stretches of history lesson that a vocal minority of readers could not get through.
Best for: Readers who want two grown women clashing in a gorgeous, closely observed setting, who enjoy learning something while they swoon, and who can forgive a romance that happens in days and a guide who sometimes lectures.
Heat level: ★★★★☆ (4/5 — explicit open door, estimated; romance.io lists the book but has no steam rating for it)
Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.8/5 — a 4.22 Goodreads average across 201 ratings, pulled down by a recurring “travel guide, not romance” complaint and a 3.73 on StoryGraph)
Tropes: Rivals to lovers, opposites attract, butch/femme, travel romance, workaholic learns to live, forced proximity, dual POV, secret past, whirlwind romance, HEA.
Spanish Surrender by Rachel Spangler is a standalone contemporary lesbian romance published by Brisk Press in July 2019, set across southern Spain from Málaga to the Alhambra — and the collision at its centre is Simone Price, an American publishing closer with one week to win a deal that will make her career, and Loreto Molina, the laid-back, sharp-tongued butch tour guide she hires to teach her Spain and who has no interest in helping her buy a piece of it.
It holds a 4.22 average across 201 Goodreads ratings, with 79% of them at four or five stars, and The Lesbian Review filed it among its highly recommended books. But the reviews underneath split more sharply than that average suggests: a cluster of two-star readers, several of them self-described Spangler fans, say the travelogue swallowed the romance. Both sides of that split are worth understanding before you book the trip.
What Is Spanish Surrender About?
Spanish Surrender is a rivals-to-lovers travel romance in the most literal sense: the plot is a guided tour, and every stop — Málaga’s old town, Granada, Córdoba, Sevilla, the Rock of Gibraltar, a hammam — is also a round in the argument between the two women. Spangler says on her blog that every location was drawn as accurately as she could manage after travelling there herself. This is a book as interested in history, politics and economics as it is in kissing, which is both its signature and its fault line.
Simone is ambitious, schedule-bound and privileged in ways she has never had to examine, and she believes she can absorb a culture in six days if she works hard enough. Loreto is her opposite in every visible way: unhurried, irreverent, happy to sleep with a client, and fiercely protective of a country that took her in when her birthplace did not. She is also guarding a past she refuses to discuss. The dual POV lets you see Simone’s condescension and Loreto’s contempt from the inside, which is what keeps the clash from reading as a simple lesson one woman teaches the other.
What Makes This Butch/Femme Travel Romance Work
- Andalucía itself: The setting is the most-praised element by a distance. Readers who know Málaga say Spangler captured it, and readers who have never been say the book made them want to go.
- Two adults arguing like adults: Simone is forty, according to one reviewer; another singles out that the leads actually behave like grown women, and others call them strong and independent. The Lesbian Review praises how alike they are underneath — equally passionate, just about opposite things.
- Loreto as a soft butch lead: At least one reader describes her as a sexy soft butch, and The Lesbian Review tags the pairing masc/femme. Her swagger hides real wounds, and the reveal gives the book its weight.
- Politics with a pulse: Readers repeatedly praise the compassionate handling of immigration. The Lesbian Review says you don’t notice Spangler educating you until the pivotal moment arrives.
- An earned HEA: Readers confirm the expected happy ending; one calls it satisfying, if slightly contrived. It requires real sacrifice from one of them, which is the point.
Book Synopsis
Simone Price has spent her whole adult life climbing toward the top of American publishing, and she has finally taken a real holiday. It lasts until her boss calls. A tiny, family-run publishing house in Málaga holds the rights to an author her company badly wants, and every executive sent to buy it has come home empty-handed. Simone has a week to prepare a pitch the owners cannot refuse — and she knows nothing about the language, the history or the customs of the place she has just landed in.
She hires a guide, translator and crash course in Andalucían life, and gets Loreto Molina: mocking, allergic to schedules and openly unimpressed by an American who thinks Spain can be learned like a briefing document. Loreto calls her “the blonde” in Spanish and treats the contract as a joke. Simone treats Loreto as an overpriced obstacle. Neither can afford to walk away, so they set off together through the heat — the cafés and fortresses of Málaga, the palaces of Granada, the mosque-cathedral of Córdoba, the plazas of Sevilla.
Somewhere between the tapas bars and the ancient walls, the arguments get personal and the attraction stops being deniable. Simone starts to see what her deal would actually cost the people she is meant to charm. Loreto starts to realise the woman she wrote off is listening. But Loreto has kept the most important thing about herself locked away, Simone’s entire future is riding on a signature, and a week is not long enough to change a life — unless one of them is willing to give something up.
My Review
The setting is the reason to read this, and Spangler earns every word of the praise it gets. This is not a postcard Spain: the region has politics and scars here, not just sangria. Readers who know Andalucía say it is written with love and respect, and readers who don’t say they came away wanting to book flights. As a piece of immersive travel writing folded into a romance, it is among the most committed in sapphic fiction.
The second strength is what that setting is used for. Loreto’s love for Spain is bound up with her own history — one readers connect to a broken US immigration system — and the book lets that history change Simone’s mind about her job, her country and what she is willing to take. Readers who loved it keep naming the compassionate treatment of immigration as the thing that stayed with them. The two leads are equals in stubbornness, so their clashes feel like real disagreements.
Where it struggles is balance, and this is not one reader’s gripe — it is the most consistent complaint in the low ratings. Readers describe the book as a tour guide or history lesson with romance attached; one who quit at 40% says it read like a tour book of Spain, with dialogue that felt lifted from reference material. Another nearly abandoned it and says it only found a pulse around two-thirds of the way through. Around that sit the secondary problems: some readers never felt the chemistry, the relationship moves from glaring to uprooting a life in about a week, one reader could not forgive cruel words that are never properly apologised for, and a Spanish reviewer flags clumsy Spanish grammar and a Latin American phrasing that would not be used in Spain. StoryGraph readers call it slow-paced, and its 3.73 average there sits half a star under Goodreads.
One expectation to reset: the blurb sells heat, temptation and raw attraction, and the book does deliver passion — but it is also frankly political, and Loreto’s views on privilege and economics are delivered at length. At least one reader objected to the ideology outright, and another disputed its economics. If the politics are what drew you, lean in; if you wanted pure escapist romance under the Spanish sun, expect to be taught something along the way.
My honest note: A four-and-a-half-star setting carrying a three-and-a-half-star romance — gorgeous, principled, and slower than the cover suggests. If you read to be transported and don’t mind a guidebook’s worth of history, this is one of Spangler’s most distinctive books. If you want the romance to drive every scene, you may find yourself skimming the monuments.
| Element | In Spanish Surrender |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Simone Price & Loreto Molina — American publishing executive (femme) and butch Málaga tour guide, rivals to lovers |
| Core tropes | Rivals to lovers, opposites attract, travel romance, workaholic learns to live, forced proximity, secret past |
| Setting | Andalucía, Spain — Málaga, Granada’s Alhambra, Córdoba, Sevilla, Gibraltar and the Sierra Nevada |
| Heat level | 4/5 — explicit open door, estimated from reader and reviewer reports |
| Series | Standalone — Ren and Lina from Spanish Heart (2012) make a cameo; nothing else required |
| Content notes | Explicit sexual content, immigration and deportation themes, political and economic debate, harsh words between the leads |
How Spicy Is Spanish Surrender?
A 4/5, with an honest caveat. romance.io lists the book but has not assigned it a steam rating — it has just two ratings there — so this number comes from the readers and reviewers rather than a database band. The Lesbian Review tags it hot and spicy and calls it hot in every way, from the arguments to the lovemaking. Goodreads reviewers describe a healthy dose of sex and a relationship that becomes physical early, with sex scenes recurring through the angst. Nobody reports a closed door.
The element worth knowing in advance is not sexual: the heat sits inside real conflict, including hurtful things said in anger, and one reader felt those moments were never properly repaired. No reviewer I found flags anything on the page beyond that. For butch/femme heat in the same range, The Butch and the Beautiful sits at 4/5, and Spangler’s own Edge of Glory runs a little hotter.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you want a setting so vivid you could navigate by it, you like rivals who argue about something bigger than themselves, you enjoy romance with a political conscience, and you want grown women with careers and histories at the centre.
You may want to skip it if: history and cultural detail slow you down, you need the romance to drive every chapter, you prefer politics kept off the page, or a week-long courtship ending in a life-changing decision strains your belief.
In short: one of the most transporting books in Spangler’s catalogue, for readers happy to take the scenic route to the kiss.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (September 2026)
There is no current moment behind this book. It came out in July 2019, launched at the Golden Crown Literary Society conference, and has since settled into a steady backlist life: 201 Goodreads ratings, 17 StoryGraph reviews, 225 Amazon ratings at 4.7 stars, and a Kindle store rank that says nobody is pushing it right now. The coverage I could find is from the sapphic reviewing community rather than the trade press — The Lesbian Review recommended it and called it delectable, and Best Lesfic Reviews gave it three stars. What keeps finding it new readers is the setting: reviewers keep arriving because they love Spain, have lived there, or want to go. I found no audiobook edition — Amazon lists only Kindle and paperback.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): Andalucía, first and most consistently. A reader who considers Málaga her third home says Spangler caught its atmosphere exactly; another googled every location as she read. “Transported” in some form is the recurring idea — one reviewer calls it a way to experience Spain without leaving the chair. Second, the adult leads: readers praise two strong, independent women who act like grown-ups, and The Lesbian Review singles out how evenly matched they are. Third, the politics, especially immigration — two five-star readers name the compassionate handling of people the system discards as the reason they rated it so highly. A reader who admits a whirlwind courtship shouldn’t work says Spangler makes it work anyway, which is notable because it is the exact opposite of a recurring complaint.
What readers argue about and complain about: The travelogue, above everything. At least five independent reviewers — two of them two-star Spangler fans, one a DNF at 40%, one a near-DNF saved at 67% — say the history and culture crowd out the romance, with descriptions that read like a guidebook or a lecture delivered as dialogue. Chemistry is the second theme: several readers say they never felt it, and one says she disliked both leads outright. Third: speed. The relationship runs from hostility to a life-changing decision in about a week, which some readers call part of the fantasy and others simply don’t buy. Beyond that: disputed economics, a one-line rejection of the book’s ideology, slips in the Spanish, a missing apology, and an epilogue one reader wanted longer. The genuine split is the politics: the same material that earns five stars from some readers costs it two from others.
The standalone question worth asking first: Spanish Surrender stands alone and ends with an HEA — readers describe a satisfying resolution, and nothing further is needed. Ren and Lina from Spangler’s 2012 novel Spanish Heart appear briefly, but you do not need that book, and it is not the stronger entry point: it averages 3.67 across 215 Goodreads ratings, more than half a star below this one. If you finish this wanting more Spangler, we have reviewed several of her books — see below.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Spanish Surrender a butch/femme romance?
Yes, on reviewer evidence. Loreto Molina is described by at least one reader as a soft butch, and The Lesbian Review tags the pairing masc/femme, with Simone Price as the femme executive. It sits comfortably on our butch/femme list.
How spicy is Spanish Surrender?
About a 4/5. romance.io has no steam rating for it yet, but The Lesbian Review tags it hot and spicy and Goodreads readers describe frequent sex scenes. The door is open.
Does Spanish Surrender have a happy ending?
Yes. Simone and Loreto get an HEA, and readers describe the resolution as satisfying, if slightly contrived. It asks one of them to make a big life change, which is the heart of the ending.
Do I need to read Spanish Heart first?
No. Spanish Surrender is a standalone. Ren and Lina from Spanish Heart make a brief cameo, but nothing in the plot depends on it.
Is there an audiobook?
Not that I could find. Amazon lists only Kindle and paperback editions, and Libro.fm does not stock it.
If You Loved Spanish Surrender, Read These Next
For more Spangler at her warmest, The Long Way Home runs the same prickly-woman-reconsiders-everything engine in a small-town homecoming instead of a foreign country. If you want Spangler in a different arena, Edge of Glory trades Andalucía for Olympic-level winter sport with a slow-burn grumpy/sunshine pair. And if Loreto’s swagger was the draw, The Butch and the Beautiful gives you a likeable butch lead and a femme opposite at the same heat, minus the history lesson.
For more in this register, browse our butch/femme lesbian romance guide or the full Book Reviews collection.
The Bottom Line
Spanish Surrender is a romance that wants to be a journey in every sense. The Andalucían setting is superbly realised, the rivalry between two stubborn adults has real substance, and the immigration thread gives the ending genuine weight. It is also slow in stretches, prone to lecturing, and asks you to accept a life-changing love affair built in a single week. If you enjoy learning while you read, want to be transported and don’t mind the scenic route, it is one of the most distinctive books in Spangler’s catalogue. Check Spanish Surrender on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, Spanish Surrender ranks as a richly set, politically minded butch/femme travel romance — transporting and principled, held back by pacing and a guidebook streak, and best approached for Andalucía and the argument rather than for a fast-moving love story.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★★☆ 3.8/5
- ✓ 4.22 average across 201 Goodreads ratings
- ✓ 79% of ratings at four or five stars
- ✓ Recommended by The Lesbian Review
- ✓ 3.73 on StoryGraph, travelogue complaints recur
Romance ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ Rivals clash over something real
- ✓ Opposites dynamic fans call riveting
- ✓ Dual POV shows both sides
- ✓ Several readers never felt the chemistry
Characters ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ Two adults who act like adults
- ✓ Loreto’s guarded past gives her depth
- ✓ Simone’s blind spots genuinely challenged
- ✓ One reader disliked both leads outright
Writing ★★★★☆ 3.8/5
- ✓ Lush, precise sense of place
- ✓ Every location drawn from real travel
- ✓ The Lesbian Review calls it delectable
- ✓ History often delivered as lecture
Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ Immigration thread moves several readers
- ✓ Politics lands without condescension for fans
- ✓ Real sacrifice in the resolution
- ✓ Slow first two-thirds for some
Heat Level ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ Tagged hot and spicy by The Lesbian Review
- ✓ Readers report early, recurring sex
- ✓ Open door throughout
- ✓ No romance.io steam rating to confirm
Ending ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ HEA confirmed by readers
- ✓ Standalone, no cliffhanger
- ✓ Resolution costs something real
- ✓ Called slightly contrived, epilogue short
Re-read Value ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ Setting rewards a return visit
- ✓ Spanish Heart cameo adds a companion read
- ✓ More Spangler reviewed on this site
- ✓ Slow pace and no audiobook
Affiliate disclosure: Lesbian Romance Reads is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. If you buy through the link below we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you.