Book Review: Ransom

Author: Terri Reed
Title: Ransom
Publisher: Love Inspired Suspense
Publish Date:  Feb 1, 2016
Buy: Amazon

Book Blurb: 

"WE HAVE YOUR SISTER."

Liz Cantrell is terrified when she receives a call from a man holding her newlywed sister captive—and she's convinced her sketchy brother-in-law's involved. Willing to pay any price for her sister's freedom, Liz flies to Niagara Falls with the ransom: an uncut diamond necklace worth millions. But the moment she lands, a handsome, world-weary Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent takes her into custody. Blake Fallon's determined to catch a ruthless diamond smuggler—and the pretty antiques dealer trying to save her sister could be just the break his case needs. But as they team up to rescue Liz's sister and trap the criminal mastermind, a desperate standoff will threaten everything they hold precious—including their lives.

Northern Border Patrol: Keeping the US-Canada border safe.

Review: I don't often read Christian suspense novels. I always fear the amount of "faith" that is involved in the story and how it will affect things.

Ransom worked really well. It is a very clean romance with a strong mystery. Liz wasn't the typical  Christian fiction heroine. Though she was strong in faith, she was really smart and had a strong love for her sister.

Blake was great and though there was one point where I shook my head at his dialogue. I can't see any border control agent would describe Santini as "a bad man." This was a man that smuggled diamonds and had no qualms about possibly killing someone to get them.

Once I got past that Ransom was a very enjoyable story. The pacing was fast enough to keep my interest and a whole lot of drama.

There was the added villain in Ken who was trying to cut into Santini's business.

I loved the Niagara Falls setting. It made me long for the one vacation I had there when I was a little girl. I could really picture the frozen falls.

I loved the way the relationship between Blake and Liz grew even though they both had things in their past that made them weary of getting involved.

The other thing that bugged me was Jillian and her desire to stay married to Travis. He could have had her killed and she was ok with keeping her marriage vows. Sure there might have been some goodness in him, but stealing and getting someone kidnapped, that would have been a deal breaker for me.

It was a great read for this genre.

Rating: 4 flowers

Terri has provided us with a playlist to go along with the book!

 Song Playlist: A prepared playlist of songs that embodies the book’s characters and their love story.

I can’t write without music playing, the more upbeat the better. Here are some songs that make me think of my characters from Ransom and their love story.

1. Niagara sung by Sara Evans --this country love song is so pretty, full of conflict and angst. And the book is set in Niagara Falls, after all.
2. All for Love sung by Rod Stewart, Bryan Adams and Sting—the awesome talent of the three guys notwithstanding, this is such a powerful song and I think of Blake, the hero of Ransom, when I hear it.
3. Some Kind of Wonderful sung by Michael Bublé—such an upbeat tune and the words are indicative of Blake and Liz. They both are so closed off yet they have all these feelings that they don’t know how to express.
4. Waiting for a Girl Like You sung by Foreigner—not only is this my absolute favorite song from one of my favorite bands (I saw them in concert three times when I was in college-okay dating myself!) but also it speaks to the heart of Blake and Liz and the wounds of the past and the hope for the future.
5. Here and Now sung by Luther Vandross—a throw back to the 80’s but one of the all time best love songs and perfect for Valentine’s and for Blake and Liz’s HEA.