FMR Book Grind: REVIEW ~ Beyond Ransom by A.T. Douglas

January 25, 2014

REVIEW ~ Beyond Ransom by A.T. Douglas

Book title: Beyond Ransom

Author: A.T. Douglas

Release date: January 18, 2014

My body is broken.

My life is shattered.

Everything I've ever known is gone from me, yet I've discovered something beautiful.

I didn't expect to be taken. I never dreamed that love would find me while my life was slowly stripped away. With him something new and alive stirs within me, and I am completely changed.

Though battered and broken-down, I'm not alone. The most unlikely man protects me and gives me strength.

I will survive this for him. I will find a way to save us both.

While they hold me, he holds my heart, and I'm not willing to pay the price to get it back.

WARNING: Beyond Ransom is a New Adult Romantic Suspense novel intended for mature audiences 18+. It contains disturbing situations, graphic violence, strong language, and sexual content.

The Ransom Series concludes in Beyond Revenge, available February 8, 2014.

3.5 stars!

So it was by total chance that I found this book, and while there were stumbles here and there, overall it was a great read. The meat of the story is a good one.

Dark scale (1-10): 2

Mindfuck scale (1-10): 4

Though the female lead is kidnapped, it’s not a love my captor story. She falls for her kidnapper’s first-in-command/adopted son.

100% romantic suspense with mild gritty scenes sprinkled in. If you haven’t read too many dark reads, Beyond Ransom is a good one to start with.

The story starts off with the heroine Morgan preparing to go to college (where the NA part comes in) and can’t wait for the freedom she’ll have. Because she’s an only child and her dad is a detective, she’s been sheltered, so much that when she asks to go to the store, her dad forbids it. Morgan, the adrenaline-high and daring teenager she is, sneaks out and on her way to the store, is taken by two rough looking strangers. Hence, the entire captivity story starts from here.

“Freedom. All I wanted was a taste of freedom.”

Quick break. I had a few issues with the plot in this section.

>> Her dad forbids her to leave the house, specifically this day, so did he just know that something bad was going to happen? Morgan’s going off to college and hypothetically speaking, if she didn’t get captured today, how’s she going to live her college life?

>>Morgan lacks common sense. I attribute it to her being a very sheltered teenager who is, in many ways, an innocent doll. She calls for a cab and what she sees is a black town car and the driver KNOWS her name. Does that not ring a warning bell in your head? She never should’ve approached the car in the first place.

Captured, blindfolded, and gagged, Morgan is frightened and alone, left to deal with her kidnapper Mark’s vices. However, she does have a backbone (as small as it may be) and fights back.

Enter Leo. Second only to Mark, and considered his adopted son. Ever since he was a boy, he was brought up in the filth and danger of Mark’s organization, but inside he retains a kind heart. From the moment he lays his eyes on Morgan, he finds little ways to protect her. As a result Morgan immediately trusts him, relies on him, and sooner than later, falls in love with him.

But Leo thinks he’s broken, undeserving of redemption and all goodness so he rejects her advances.

But as the story progresses, both fall for each other harder. Both stuck in a similar situation they want to get out of. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and a very shaky relationship follows, only to be discovered by Mark.

What comes after is a couple of torture scenes (keep in mind I read A LOT of dark books so while this was mild for me, it may be a lot for you) and the whole reason of Mark’s kidnapping unfolds. There were also some secrets about his relationship dynamic with Leo that’s revealed as well.

Though the story ends on a cliffhanger, I don’t see how it couldn’t. I HATE cliffhangers but I have to admit that this one was brilliantly done. The perfect mindfuck for the characters in question. I didn’t feel like the author threw in a cliffy just to reel readers in for the next book; it was very plot-oriented and flowed perfectly. The next book comes out on February 8 so not too long to wait.

>>What I had problems with<<

1. I found it hard to swallow that Morgan, who was beaten (repeatedly), abused (several times), tied up, isolated, and stripped of bare necessities to develop an instant (I mean “at first sight”) attraction to Leo and start clinging onto him. She even became EMBARRASED of herself!!

“I hate to admit that he’s attractive, and I’m instantly embarrassed to be in this position in the presence of someone as good-looking as this man.”

Maybe she got hit on the head too hard???

2. When I read a book with someone being kidnapped, I want the entire dark shebang. I want it all. I want to see the kidnapper breaking the captive, I want to see the captive’s resiliency and strength in fighting back (physically and/or emotionally), and only then can I accept some form of “hard love” developed. First the love interest isn’t the kidnapper but his adopted son who from the very start was kind to her so that was a bit of a bummer. To me, Mark wasn’t as dark as I’d thought he be; crazy and borderline psychotic YES, but not dark.

Aside from some grammatical errors and all the problems listed above, this book was still a good read. Very fast and easy to read, and I was highly entertained and now I’m waiting to see what the author has in store for Leo and Morgan in book 2.

~Review by Feifei