Quaint yet steamy medieval romance novel

Ransom My Heart by Meg Cabot

Book on Amazon | My review on Amazon

4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed March 22, 2010

It had not registered with me initially that this was a period novel. As I read the first few pages, I felt a bit impatient for the seemingly “trying too hard to be different” language and names of characters – Finnula? Mellana? Fitzstephen? But once I settled down to the fact that it was set in Medieval England, the language and names fell in place quite nicely. Not that I know much about the Medieval language, but the language definitely enhances the charm and romance value of the story.

This is certainly not for the same young adult/teen audience as the Princess Diaries – there’s way too much explicit content here. But even among her adult romance novels, Meg Cabot has broken away from her usual style of light and easy writing that mainly relies on humor, without too much of a plot.

A few things set this book apart from regular “chick-lits”:

• It has a very good plot and does not depend merely on the explicit, steamy scenes for its appeal.
• The hero and heroine get married somewhere in the middle of the book, and the plot continues – it makes a point that marriage is not the “end of the story”, which I thought was nice.
• The heroine is a huntress par excellence – an interesting choice of occupation for a woman, especially in medieval times. And that too a female Robinhood of sorts!
• The hero comes home after 10 years of fighting in the Crusades, and finds that he has a “bastard” child, who is neatly integrated into the plot without making a big deal about morality issues.

Some things do remain quite stereotypical:

• The dashingly handsome hero is an Earl, and falls in love with a commoner who is of course the slim, fair, feisty female Robinhood.
• The heroine has an impossibly slim waist that would make Barbie envious.
• Even though the heroine is fully capable of fending for herself, finally the hero has to prove that he is her protector (Lord and Master?).

Not having read other historical romances (such as any of Georgette Heyer), I have nothing to compare this with for the historical content – but it is not overwhelming in its focus on history – it has more story and romance than history. The period I suspect is used merely as a backdrop in order to justify the quaint language of the book.

Good read overall, glad to have it in my collection.