The Hostage Bargain by Annika Martin (Taken Hostage by Hunky Bank Robbers #1)
Erotic Contemporary
April 2012
Self Published
Reviewed by Mandi
Favorite Quote: “A bank heist followed by an orgy is not typically on my daily roster,” I said casually.
Melinda Prescott hates the owner of the bank where she works. She and her sisters own a sheep farm, and the bank owner holds the mortgage. After a barn fire a few years ago, and the death of her parents, her and her sisters were left with a big mortgage, and missed payments. So her relationship with the bank owner is rocky at best. When three masked men come in to rob the bank, she actually decides to help them out. Anything to hurt her boss. So she gives them a ton of money and even shows them where secret diamonds are stored. But things get critical towards the end, and they end up taking her hostage.
Melinda sees this as an adventure though. She is bored in her life, and this is kind of like a dream come true. It doesn’t hurt that these men seem to be nice bank robbers too. She also wants in on the next bank robbery so she can use that money to pay off her huge mortgage debts. So these three masked men, who go by the names Thor, Odin and Zeus (Melinda asks to go by the name Isis) give her this ultimatum:
“Fine then. The game is that we’re dissolute, depraved, sex-crazed bandits and the rules are, firstly, that you have sex with all of us at different times and in different combinations.” Odin paused.
My pulse fluttered. “That’s firstly?”
“Yes, Isis,” Odin said.
I imagined being pressed between them. I imagined their hands and mouths on my. Oh, he was a little evil to pause like that. This too, I richly enjoyed. “And what might be secondly?” I asked.
“That we tie you up, etcetera,” he said casually, almost bored, like it was a totally normal thing. “And we give you various commands that you must obey, within reason of course, and utterly pleasure-focused.”
So she basically has to agree to these rules to stay with them and earn the name ‘Isis.’ And she happily does.
As I read the beginning of this book, I have to admit I rolled my eyes. It is just such a silly plot. I get this book is suppose to be silly (someone on Twitter called it ‘kooky’ and that is a good word to describe it) but it was just too silly for me. This sheep farmer is going to become a sex slave of sorts to three masked bandits? But I kept reading, and actually started enjoying it more as I went. It isn’t just the four of them robbing banks and having sex, although this is a very erotic book. We learn more about the men and I started to feel bad for them that they are forced to live this life style (you learn why towards the end of the book). They live for today, because they are in such an extreme situation. Thor is more of the softie that makes Isis feel welcome, Zeus has deep dark secrets and is the more distant one, and Odin is kind of in the middle.
Bad guys are introduced, which makes it more exciting and the three men, are hot and sexy. Let me say though that this is a very quirky book, and sometimes I had a hard time finding the sex scenes hot and steamy. It was hard to get into that frame of mind for some reason. At the same time, I appreciated the humor of the situation Isis is in too. She is all for the sexin’ but it is a very new situation for her:
A knock at the door. Thor broke away from our kiss. A room service waiter entered and pushed a cart laden with booze, glasses, snacks, flowers, and linens up to a round table. “Would you like me to set you up?”
“No, just park the cart. Leave the table clear. Just in case.” The waiter parked the cart and Odin took off his glasses and gave me an amused look that had 99% pure devil in it. “Don’t you think?” he asked me.
“What?”
“That we should leave the table clear?”
“I guess,” I said.
WTF.
There is also a backstory involving a previous woman these three shared. I won’t go into too much detail because I don’t want to spoil but I’m not sure I liked that. And I also want to know why these three pick up random women to make them their sex slave of sorts but with more books in this series to come, I assume we will get more answers.
I’m still a little baffled at how I feel about this one. I think it is well written, but I’m not sure it is for me.
Rating: C+
Recent Reviews:
Fiction Vixen – B+
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This sounds like the plot of a very bad Skinamax movie. lol. If it were in my library, I’d borrow it but I wouldn’t buy it. Kooky can be fun.
It is a fun book….I’m just not sold on the sexy
I think kooky is a good way to describe this one. The humor worked for me and I liked the heroine.
I just don’t know about this one. As I read your review I was thinking that it’s just weird and out there enough that it might be a good one to read when I find myself in a reading rut…but I don’t know. I don’t really like the menage thing and the hint of bdsm? Not for me.
I think I had the complete opposite experience with this book. ;^)
I thought it was one of the sexiest and smartest eroticas I’ve ever read. The premise may have been kooky, but the execution certainly was not. I have rarely read an erotic story that was so well-written, with such a tension-filled suspenseful storyline and so much sexual anticipation. The fact that there was also kooky humor thrown in was the icing on the cake for me. But I do love outside-of-the-box fiction, for sure.
I’m glad you liked. This one just wasn’t for me. I just couldn’t find a comfortable balance between the erotic and the humor.
Your last sentence sums up my reaction to this book too. I agree with Penelope that it is smartly written and quite sexy. However, bank robbers and a heroine who is willing to give up her life to be on the run from the police and the mysterious and scary bad guys who are after the bank robbers? I couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy. But I do admit that I might have to read the subsequent books to find out how this all turns out.
Yep – agree :)