Hero: Hugo Fitzstephen
Heroine: Finnula Crais
Grade: 4.75 out of 5
Mia Thermopolis, Princess of Genovia and star of Meg Cabot’s insanely popular #1 New York Times bestselling Princess Diaries books, has “penned” her first historical romance novel . . . with help from Meg Cabot
He’s a tall, handsome knight with a secret. She’s an adventurous beauty with more than a few secrets of her own. Finnula needs money for her sister’s dowry, and fast. Hugo Fitzstephen, returning home to England from the Crusades with saddlebags of jewels, has money, and lots of it. What could be simpler than to kidnap him and hold him for ransom?
Well, for starters, Finnula could make the terrible mistake of falling in love with her hostage.
Princess Mia Thermopolis, Meg Cabot’s most beloved character, has always been an outspoken animal-rights activist and committed environmentalist. In keeping with Mia’s true spirit, Meg will be donating her advance to Greenpeace.
When I received this book, I wasn’t sure what to expect from it since I’ve never read a historical romance by Mia Thermopolis Meg Cabot. I was hopeful that I would enjoy the book but I wasn’t exactly sure that I would. I mean, I’ve read novels by other authors where I absolutely LOVED their books as historicals but their contemporaries? Not so much and the other way around. As my friend Miah would tell me when I’m horribly wrong, I should…SLAP MYSELF for doubting Meg Cabot’s writing abilities because this book was such a delightful read that I’m finding it hard to find the words to describe just how much I enjoyed this book.
Telling you that I enjoyed this book doesn’t do this book any justice. I mean, sure, I enjoyed the book. I liked the book, but that just doesn’t seem like enough. I liked this book like I like Jordan Farmar from the Lakers (a lot), I liked this book like I like Mango a Go Go smoothies from Jamba Juice, I liked this book like I like David Beckham. Are you seeing the pattern here? I really enjoyed this book.
Finnula was unlike any other heroine that I’ve read about in quite some time. She was kinda like us in our description for this blog, fun and fearless, only she’s way….more. She’s one of those heroines that can probably kick your ass and your husband’s too. She’s one of those heroines that is feisty, stubborn but still not annoying. She had a code of honor that she lived by and she was just a really good woman. I enjoyed getting to know Finnula and I enjoyed watching her interact with the people around her, her brother Robert and her sisters and most especially, Hugo.
Hugo was a hero that at first look, you wouldn’t think much about him because 1) he had a furry beard when we first meet him and 2) when we first meet him, he’s traveling with his squire, Peter and he’s this Earl and he lets Peter talk out of line to him, he lets Peter bitch and moan about every little thing and you sit there while you’re reading this and you wonder why Hugo, as an Earl would stand a mouthy squire. I kept waiting for Hugo to backhand that little shit Peter but he never so much as told him to shut his mouth and that irked me a little. As the book wore on, Hugo’s character just kept getting better and better. By the time the end came around, my ass wanted to marry Hugo my damn self. He wasn’t the perfect hero but that’s what made him even more appealing to me, I love the not perfect heroes.
Ransom My Heart was the perfect title for this book because it was so much of what this book was about and what brought the hero and the heroine together.
This book is really a great book, Mia Thermopolis Meg Cabot did a fantastic job of writing a very engaging story about the town tomboy who has a past and a hero who is tired of the secretive ways women try to get his money. It’s a story that I was totally engrossed in right from the very beginning and I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to read a delightful historical romance about two unlikely people falling in love with one another even though one is a hostage and the other is just trying to get some money to save her damn sister.
I enjoyed Hugo and Finn but I really enjoyed the chemistry between them together. When Finn first takes him hostage and is riding in front of him and mistakes his glorypole (ETA: TM CJ) for a knife hilt, I laughed for a very long time, that was too funny and there was just so many other scenes between these two and Finn’s family and the book was just filled to the brim with great characters, great scenes and the book in general was fantastic, I’m so glad that I read this book and I definitely recommend this book to all of the fans of the Princess Diaries books because a friendly MC fan informed me that fans will be able to find out who Mia ends up with in the PD books by reading this book, so really it should be a delightful reading experience for anyone, even those of you who will laugh your butts off because the girls in this book actually take rich people and kidnap them and then ransom them back to their families…how dumb is that? But aside from that, it’s an entertaining read. I’m not kidding.
Seriously, if you want to read a great book, this is the book for you and even better, Meg Cabot has promised to donate her advance on this book to Greenpeace so how can you not run out and buy this book?
This book is available from Avon.
