Customer Reviews

Ransom My Heart

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

In England in the year 1291, Finulla Crass, the adventurous daughter of the village miller, is determined to help her older sister, Mellana, who is pregnant out of wedlock and needs a substantial dowry, as her child's father will otherwise be too poor to marry her. The sisters come up with a rather unconventional plan - Finnula will find a wealthy man, kidnap him, and hold him for ransom in order to obtain the money Mellana needs. Finnula decides her captive will be a young earl, Hugo Fitzstephan, who has returned from the Crusades with quite a large fortune.

Hugo Fitzstephan is nothing like Finnula expected, however. The young knight is disturbingly handsome, and Finnula, who prefers hunting and riding to household tasks and is determined to never marry again after her first husband died before their wedding night, finds herself fighting her attraction for Hugo. Meanwhile, Hugo could escape at any time, but plays along as Finnula's "hostage" because he is curious about - and rather fascinated by - this unconventional young woman.

Ransom My Heart is an enjoyable and lighthearted Medieval romance with an entertaining relationship between the main characters. It's not super heavy on historical detail, but I loved that it was different from most romances set in this time period, in that it had a unique storyline and featured a heroine who was a commoner rather than the typical sheltered young noblewoman. This book does have a bit more mature content than Meg Cabot's young adult books, however, so I wouldn't really recommend it to her younger fans. Historical romance readers as well as older teen and adult fans of the author are sure to enjoy this book, and I highly recommend it to them.

I am neither a historical fiction reader, nor a romance reader. The sole reason I wanted to read this book was because of the fact that it was written by the great Meg Cabot. Cabot has written young adult historical romances (Nicola and the Viscount, Victoria and the Rogue) and I was not a fan of those. For the most part, I was completely enchanted by Finnula's story. It's great to see a romance novel that breaks romance novel stereotypes of weak, helpless women waiting for strong burly men to do everything for them. Things like this (and minor anachronisms) remind the reader that this is theoretically being written by a girl in her senior year of high school. It's a fun read, though not entirely suitable for young adults (but you just know Princess Diaries fans are going to ignore this fact and read it anyways). Everything's great until the end approaches. The wedding is skipped over, and then a weird storyline begins. I honestly believe the wedding should have been an ending with an elaborate wedding scene, and then anything after that could have served as either an epilogue or as a sequel. It felt as though it were two entirely different books, and read pretty awkwardly. There's no main idea throughout the entire book, it's two different ones (the first being 'falling in love', the second 'death threats, oh no!').

Rating: 4/5

The reviews on here make me mad for stating stupid points that have little or nothing to do with the book itself.
1. "Parents might pick it up for a kid and not know about the adult content." Be a better parent, and stop being an idiot. It's in the adult section, and if you bother for a minute to skim it, it's clearly not see Jane run quality.
2. Why would Mia right this?! Well, she's a teen girl who talked about sex in numerous of her books, and at the time she supposedly penned this, was 18. In the US, most girls lose their virginity at 16. Stop being squeamish. The Princess Diaries series shouldn't be read by very young readers for the language and content anyway. If you started with the series, you should be old/mature enough to read this by the time you got there.
3. Crappy writing for Cabot, disgusting, etc. I've read 90% of Cabot's book, including her original books penned under the name Patricia Cabot. This book leans a lot back to the style of those original books, which were historical romances. Cabot has never been afraid of sexual content in her books, and is frankly quite creative to create a book in the style that it'd be written in as the character from a different book (Mia.)

Ransom My Heart was a fun read, and you could see Mia reflected in the writing, something not many authors would be able to do. No, it's not a complex novel with twisting plot lines. There's thousands of books out there, find something else if that's what you want. Please stop trashing a good book simply because you were too lazy to learn what it was about before you read it. Stupidity on the buyer's/reader's part is not the fault of the book.

The people in Finnula Finn's town are starving. Luckily, she's can wield a bow and arrow like nobody else. She's been keeping the town's people fed so they don't starve. She likes looking after people and not being a conventional women. When her sister comes to her needing help, she can't refuse. However, she knows nothing about capturing a man and holding him for ransom. When she finds one to her liking, she doesn't realize that she's in way over her head. First of all, he infuriates her. Second of all, she finds herself divulging all her secrets to him - well not all of them. She still doesn't want to talk about what happened on her wedding night. That subject is off limits, but nothing else appears to be off limits including her lips. How did she get herself into this mess and how could it end other than badly?

An adult romance novel written as a senior project by Princess Mia Thermoplis. She uses a pen name in an attempt to become an author without using her title. All the proceeds from this book will go towards Greenpeace. - I love this idea. I love how Tina influences Mia with her romance book reading.

An addicting and romantic read, one of my favorite books by this amazing author! It was the perfect treat.

Ransom My Heart is a light-hearted romp in a world similar to that of Robin Hood. Finn proves to a spirited young woman who is not afraid to speak her mind, and Hugo is the man who proves to be her equal (though she vehemently denies it at first). A charming and bubbly read that you will finish before you know it! The writing is luscious and the characters very lovable!

I am the biggest Meg Cabot fan I know, and I feel guilty giving this book only three stars, but I really have to be honest with myself and everyone else. This just wasn't one of Meg's greatest works. Actually it was probably among the worst. Some other reviewers have complained about the graphic love scenes, and while they are a bit more graphic than usual, I wouldn't say they are over-the-top (in my opinion). Honestly I think my biggest complaint with this book is that the storyline is kind of slow. I'm not used to being bored by one of her books, but I remember being right in the middle of the book and thinking "Surely SOMETHING big is going to happen," and then the storyline fizzles onward with nothing great or surprising happening. Overall I would definitely not say that I disliked the book, just keep your expectations low. I guess we should cut it some slack anyway considering it is, after all, Mia's first novel. :)

I expected so much more from one of my favorite YA authors! I love Meg Cabot as a writer, but this book was just cliched and trite. It almost seemed like an imitation of a romance novel rather than an actual one. Ms. Cabot has a knack for creating wonderful characters, but in this book, I didn't feel like the characters actually lept off the page. The heroine is supposed to be spunky and unique, but she just comes off as a bit whiny. All in all, an okay read, but I expected better. Especially since romance (especially historical romance), is my favorite genre.

It had not registered with me initially that this was a period novel. As I read the first few pages, I felt a bit impatient for the seemingly "trying too hard to be different" language and names of characters - Finnula? Mellana? Fitzstephen? But once I settled down to the fact that it was set in Medieval England, the language and names fell in place quite nicely. Not that I know much about the Medieval language, but the language definitely enhances the charm and romance value of the story.

This is certainly not for the same young adult/teen audience as the Princess Diaries - there's way too much explicit content here. But even among her adult romance novels, Meg Cabot has broken away from her usual style of light and easy writing that mainly relies on humor, without too much of a plot.

A few things set this book apart from regular "chick-lits":
- It has a plot full of intrigue, and does not depend merely on the explicit, steamy scenes for its appeal. The theme is not something stunningly out of the ordinary - but it is woven into a story well told.
- The hero and heroine get married somewhere in the middle of the book, and the plot continues - it makes a point that marriage is not the "end of the story", which I thought was nice.
- The heroine is a huntress par excellence - an interesting choice of occupation for a woman, especially in medieval times. And that too a female Robinhood of sorts!
- The hero comes home after 10 years of fighting in the Crusades, and finds that he has a "bastard" child, who is neatly integrated into the plot without making a big deal about morality issues.

Some things do remain quite stereotypical:
- the dashingly handsome hero is an Earl, and falls in love with a commoner who is of course the slim, fair, feisty female Robinhood.
- the heroine has an impossibly slim waist that would make Barbie envious.
- even though the heroine is fully capable of fending for herself, finally the hero has to prove that he is her protector (Lord and Master?).

Not having read other historical romances (such as any of Georgette Heyer), I have nothing to compare this with for the historical content - but it is not overwhelming in its focus on history - it has more story and romance than history. The period I suspect is used merely as a backdrop in order to justify the quaint language of the book.

Good read overall, glad to have it in my collection.

I'm a teenager and yes I read romance novels because they are of course the perfect story. I don't read them for the sex. While reading this I was however shocked by the sex. It was unexpected because it was written by "Mia". I would not recomend this book for people under the age of 15, because it may scar you. Also in the last Princess Diaries Mia did allude to writing a book with sex in it. Hello? Wasn't it expected? Whatever it was more graphic than I expected it to be, but who cares? I got over it. I did think it was a great way to introduce teen girls to the wonderful world of Romance novels :). Similar to Cabots early novels-which I LOVE by the way, why did she stop?- Lady of Skye was a favorite of mine. Okay to the book.
It was about a 17 year old girl who kidnaps a wealthy "traveler" to raise money for hops for her pregnant sister, so her sister can get married. And you can figure out the rest. This was a great book. Just read it. And if you're a prude please get over it. That is all I have to say.

I as an adult loved this book and thought it was wonderful. I love Hugo and Finn and their story. And I Although I don't know the age range for this book if my child was under the age of adulthood I would want them to wait to read the book when they are older. Finn is most definetly a unique character and so is Hugo and getting to see both side of their feelings and what watching them grow are wonder and delightful I actually set up into morning just to read it. However it does deal with marriage and what come with in a marriage that a younger person might not need to here.