Publisher: Avon A (January 6, 2009) Paperback: 432 pages
Price: $6.00 from Amazon
Summary:
Rating:He’s a tall, handsome knight with a secret.She’s an adventurous beauty with more than a few secrets of her own.
Finnula Crais needs money for her sister’s dowry, and fast. Handsome Hugo Fitzstephen, Earl of Stephensgate, returning home to England from the Crusades, has money–saddlebags of gold and jewels–and lots of it. What could be simpler than to kidnap him and hold him for ransom? Especially when he’s more than willing to allow himself to be caught by such a winsome captor.
Well, for starters, Finnula could make the terrible mistake of falling in love with her hostage, only to realize he’s been lying about his identity all along ….
But then, so has she.
Now their lives—and the lives of everyone they know and love—could be in mortal danger.
Is Finnula in hell? Or is she in heaven?
Review: I don't know what I was expecting when I checked out the book, but it certainly wasn't this. I've read some of her other young adult books, and thought a few were pretty good. I expected Ransom My Heart to be another one of those fun, easy reads, but, wow, was I wrong.
First off, I would definitely not suggest this for young readers. Somehow, Meg Cabot manages to get in explicit scenes without actually saying the actual, coarse words. And the word "fie" is a bit overused. The characters were pretty flat and unrelateable to me too. It was basically they're "this" and "this," and that was it. There were redeeming qualities, like a mystery and the sterotypical (but who doesn't like it) romance, but this book simply lost my interest towards the end. And, thus, the short review.
Bottom Line: The reason I rated this book okay was because it wasn't an enjoyable read, but it was an amusing read. The whole time I was reading, I was thinking "how much further can she push the cliches?" , but there was really nothingto set Ransom My Heart apart from any other book; it was mainly a bundle of historical romance cliches all rolled into one. While I may find that funny, this is not a book I would be spending my money on. And WARNING: The love scenes are a bit too explicit to be a true young adult novel, and there are definitely better "bodice-rippers" out there. Meg Cabot is usually known for her strong girls, but Finnula just needs a bit of Hugo and she'll always feel better. Fie on such a weak heroine, and I hope Cabot's next book will be better!
