Review: The Hostage Bargain
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 8, 2012
3.5 starsPJV Quickie: Short, sexy and silly; The Hostage Bargain is a quick, fun read.ReviewI picked up The Hostage Bargain when I saw that Annika Martin is actually Carolyn Crane`s alter ego.  I love her Disillusionist trilogy, but understood immediately that this book would be nothing like her UF books (thus, the new name).Melinda Prescott is a disgruntled bank teller, well actually she's a sheep farmer who's been forced to work as a bank teller to prevent the bank from forclosing on the family farm.  Her boss is a real slimebucket, and when 3 super-hunky bank robbers in suits and masks come in to rob the bank, she decides to screw over her boss by helping them.As the robbery progresses, things get rushed and the kidnappers decide to take Melinda with them.  She knows she should be scared, but as she has a bit of a thrill-seeking streak she's actually kind of excited about the whole thing.  And as she spends a little time with her captors, she realizes she's kind of turned on. She gets the bank robbers, who go by the names Zeus, Thor, and Odin, to agree to keep her long enough to participate in their next heist so she can earn a cut to get her farm out from under the bank. There are rules to joining "the gang" though - sexy menage rules. Melinda agrees to the rules and names herself Isis.  Adventures ensue...____________________________The Hostage Bargain is the kind of story the phrase "a fun, sexy romp" was invented for.  It's hard to put in a genre box though; it's steamy but not over-sexed, funny but not comically so, and there's a bit of action to boot.  I thought Melinda was a bit ridiculous, but as it fit the overall feeling of the story it really didn't bother me as much as it might have in a different book.  I liked the guys - Thor was the sensitive one, Odin seemed to be the fun, bad boy, and Zeus was the tortured hero. The Hostage Bargain starts off light, gets a little bit more serious towards the second half, going into the guys' histories a bit, and ends on a high note. I'm definitely looking forward to the second book: The Wrong Turn, out later this month.