Ransom Canyon Review

I’ve read my fair share of Harlequin books, but my all-time favorite is Pregnesia by Carla Cassidy. Yeah. That’s right. I said Pregnesia. It had plot, character development some serious suspense, it had URRYTHANG, y’all. Mind you, it was part of the HQN Intrigue line, not a separate, longer novel like Ransom Canyon. When I read the synopsis of the book, I immediately thought of my mom. This particular sub-genre is a favorite of hers, so I was looking forward to telling her about the book. After reading Ransom Canyon, I’m most likely going to tell her to check it out, but I will also give her some sort of disclaimer- get ready to feel unfulfilled.

The cover to Ransom is very appealing; it reflects the serenity of small town/ranch life. This is what initially drew me to the book. Four “families” (a term that I wouldn’t necessarily use to describe them) converge in Cross Roads, a tiny town in north Texas. I did like that each character had their own chapters to tell their part of the story. However some characters’ chapters were only a few pages long, so it made it feel as though it was either an afterthought, or just shoved in there to add little to the story. The inconsistency of the length of the chapters threw me off as a reader to the point where it was almost distracting.

I have to say that the only character that I really actually liked was Sheriff Brigman. He was a mere sub character, but was the only one who didn’t seem like a filler character. Staten, Quinn, Yancy, and Laura were fairly annoying with Staten being the least- and they are main characters! Yancy’s character was sadly underused. I didn’t really care for his character (his criminal past didn’t bother me), because he just blended in with the town so much that you forgot he was part of the story (I know that was his intention, but it seemed as though the author would forget about him as well, then add him in as an afterthought). To me, there was no character development. Well, minimal at best. All of the emotionally damaging sub stories left me rolling my eyes. They were extremely predictable and almost not really needed.

With all that being said, Ransom Canyon was not for me. However, I still have this inkling to read the prequel and the sequel to find out if there is more to each character. I would also recommend this to other customers that I know would enjoy this kind of story.

Middy’s Rating: 5 out of 10.

Disclaimer: I have been generously given materials for a fair and honest review.