Ransom by Julie Garwood Review

Another #KissAndLetMeTeleChat group pick for January as we begin to wrap up our Romance 102 series! Ransom by Julie Garwood was my first Julie Garwood book and I’m sad to say it was not a hit for me as I originally thought it would be…

Check out my previous read Madness of the Horde King by Zoey Draven

Genres: Historical Romance
Publisher: Pocket Books
Publication Date: November 1, 1999
Source: Everand
Format: audiobook/ebook

With the help of Scottish chieftains Ramsey Sinclair and Brodick Buchanan, Gillian, a beautiful young women, matches wits with the ambitious and unscrupulous Baron Alford, the man responsible for the death of her father and the destruction of her family.

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“Every man has a weakness!” he patiently explained. “I’ll find theirs, I promise you.”
“Every man?”
“Yes,” he answered emphatically.
“What is your weakness, Brodick?” she asked.
“You.”

My first Julie Garwood book is officially on the read list! Mariana Zapata once mentioned at a book signing that Garwood was one of her favorite authors, so being a MZ stan I naturally added her to my TBR and got super excited when the #KissAndLetMeTeleChat book club group picked it up as one of our reads in January.

Unfortunately for me this didn’t live up to the hype I built up in my head. Garwood had a unique way of bringing us into the story and for a good chunk of the beginning I was confused on who the love story was centering on and if the people in the prologue were in fact the ones I was reading about presently. I spent a better portion of the book being annoyed at our heroine because the beginning built her up to be this strong independent female who would do anything to protect those around her, but the minute our hero comes into the picture all of that flew out the window and her character just fell flat.

The medieval vibes for this was vibing, and it really lends itself to the old school romance category and feel which was fun to experience and dive into with a northern England/Scottish backdrop. I just wish the execution was a bit better.

My Spice Rating: 0.5🌶️(very gracious 0.5)

Content/Trigger Warnings: Childhood Trauma; death of a parent; abuse; grief

*NOTE ON RATING: this is a very gracious 3 that was rounded up from a 2.5 because the parts I did like, I really enjoyed.