Review: well-written, super funny smut
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 14, 2012
The sort of well-written smut that, if you took out all the sex, would still be a fun romp of a book.Melinda is working as a teller at First City National Bank when three masked men rob the joint. Fortunately for the robbers, all the tellers hate the bank owner. When Melinda is singled out to help bag the cash ("because I was at the end of the row -- or maybe I looked friendly and cooperative, heaven knows I was planning to be"), she goes above and beyond to get them the best possible haul.For her troubles, she is taken hostage.Pretty much from the get-go, Melinda wants to join the robbers. She's a thrill-junkie, so she's hooked by the danger, and she clicks with her captors (they go by Odin, Thor, and Zeus, and call themselves the "god pack"). Plus, when the masks come off it turns out Odin, Thor, and Zeus are three flavors of gorgeous, and necessity has taught them the virtue of sharing.The eroticism here is built on the appeal of being taken or controlled - held hostage, as the title so subtly hints - and there are elements of dominance to all the sex play, but it's very light. The robbers are very aware of Melinda's boundaries, never push too far, and devote a lot of effort to making sure she's sexually satisfied.The robbers are up for a little bit of fun, but they don't want Melinda to join their crew. Melinda is determined to change their minds and The Hostage Bargain basically covers her attempts to do just that - to prove that she can be level-headed and useful, to bond with the guys individually and as a group. But it turns out she's got some pretty heavy baggage to clear away, and while she's pretty successful at winning over Odin and Thor, Zeus keeps a distance and insists on kicking her out at the nearest opportunity.Annika Martin is a pen name for Carolyn Crane and everything she writes just works for me. I totally dig her humor, I love the banter between all the characters, and I genuinely got to know and like all of them. This would have been a fun book without the kinky menage sex - but it's definitely even funner with the kinky menage sex.