Ransom My Heart by Meg Cabot (and Mia Thermopolis)

Ransom My Heart is Princess Mia Thermopolis' (of The Princess Diaries series fame) senior project. The beauty of this book is that one doesn't necessarily have to have read The Princess Diaries series in order to read this, so you don't have to feel like you're missing out on anything if you haven't kept up. However, if you want to read the series, they are all available basically everywhere on Earth. Both Ransom My Heart and Princess Diaries X: Forever Princess are available as of January 6, 2009 and all proceeds from the sale of Ransom My Heart go to Princess Mia's favorite organization, Greenpeace.

Finnula Crais is an adventurous beauty, more inclined to wear pants and hunt wild game than stay at home and pursue more traditionally feminine pursuits. When her older sister comes to Finn with a problem, she sets out to solve it the only way she can think of: by kidnapping a man and holding him for ransom. But in a time and place when such things are commonplace, Finn knows that the families of the local men aren't going to be so generous with ransom money this go round. Her only hope is to find a man who isn't quite so local....or so accustomed to being kidnapped.

Enter Hugo Fitzstephen, newly returned from the Crusades with his squire and plenty of gold and jewels to throw around. Hardly a stranger to the feminine physique, he's instantly attracted to Finn and quite amused when she decides to take him hostage. However, neither are prepared for what's to come: the inevitable falling in love with each other and the surprising connection they share that neither knew about.

I had a lot of fun with this book and probably the highest compliment I can give it is that I read it at a time of intense back pain and that reading about the adventures (and of course wild passionate sex) of Finn and Hugo took my mind off of my aching back, which is no easy feat.

Finnula is the type of heroine I feel as though readers don't see enough of: that which neither whines nor needs to be rescued. A female Robin Hood, she's famous (and sometimes infamous) in her village for poaching the estates of the local Earl in order to feed those who would have otherwise starved. Hugo, on the other hand, is harboring a few secrets and many embittered feelings due to his dysfunctional family life. He's both simultaneously amused by and attracted to Finn, which makes the first half of the book some of the best literary foreplay I've ever had the pleasure of coming across.

Before reading Ransom My Heart I tried to get into the mindset that Mia the character wrote the book, that it was her story. Thus, some of the more risque bits caught me off guard (albeit in a good way). After reading about this character for the last eight years I wondered "where did she get the experience to write this?", "could this be based on anyone in her life?", and most importantly: "what is Grandmère going to think about this?". It's a nice feeling to know that a character you've grown up with has reached at least one of her important goals in life.

My only real complaint is that I felt the ending was too rushed. It was a very awkward place to stop and would make more sense if a sequel was in the works -though I have no idea if one is. Meg has said that she may check in on Mia from time to time in the future, so if this checking in has anything to do with Mia's future novels you'll know where to find me: I'll be the one devouring them like popcorn chicken.

Bottom line: it's Meg Cabot, people, and she has yet to really disappoint. We have Meg, adventure, romance, humor, an attempted-murder mystery, and an aging prostitute called Fat Maude. What more could you want?

http://thechickmanifesto.blogspot.com/2008/11/ransom-my-heart-by-mia-thermopolis-with.html