Ransom

A sequel to The Secret and my second Julie Garwood. Not my preferred historical period but this book is delightful. Witty dialogue and narrative. Great characters, and a child who is quite hilarious (hard to depict children who are believable!). Read the whole thing in one day and read it again the next day. Maybe again tomorrow...

Ok so this is my second time buying this book! The first time I read this book I couldn’t but it down I read the whole book in one night. If your only going to read one Julie garwood book this one will change your life.

Una novela sorprendente buena,entretenida algo digno de leerse.La recomiendo mucho les alegrara y sera una buena fuente de entretenimiento y relajacion

Ransom by Julie Garwood is only my second book by this author (the first being Heartbreaker which is more contemporary but nonetheless very good). Overall this book is simply wonderful, heartwarming, romantic, exciting... I could go on forever. I would recommend this book to any mystery, romance, historical fiction lovers out there. Judging from my first two Julie Garwood novels, she is a very talented author and I look forward to enjoying much more of her work. I have already placed three of her novels on order at my local library.Ransom is the story of Lady Gillian, whose father is killed and family destroyed when she is only five and Baron Alford invades her home. She is separated from her sister Christen, who flees into Scotland for protection. Gillian remains in England with her Uncle Morgan. When she grows up, her uncle is held for ransom until Gillian can find Arriana's box, King John's missing treasure that holds the clue to who killed his one true love. Gillian has reason to believe that her sister has the box, so she escapes the baron with a kidnapped Scottish boy, Alec. They head to Scotland to find Christen, and fall together with the laird and a few soldiers of the Buchanan clan. Gillian falls in love with the laird, Brodick.Also included included in the storyline is the romance of Ramsey Sinclair and Bridgid, although it plays a disappointingly secondary role to the main romance between Brodick and Gillian. Between searching for her sister, finding a traitor in the midst of the Sinclair clan whom only Gillian can recognize, and falling in love, the plot is amazing in its complexity. The setting feels utterly real and the dialogue is witty and entertaining. (I especially love the conversations between Alec and Gillian because it makes Alec innocently lovable while being realistic - hey, all five year olds talk practically nonstop about the most mundane things and then say all the things they shouldn't!After all my praise, I must add one tiny complaint. The first few chapters are very hard to get through. I was completely confused as to what was going on with Gillian and Alec (why was he hanging off a cliff, why was Gillian chasing him, how did Gillian come to know about Alec being held prisoner, etc.). Maybe I missed a few hidden clues about what was happening, but it took me a few chapters for everything to make sense and at the time I was getting very frustrated. Perhaps Julie Garwood was attempting to try something different by plunging right into the action, but I feel she could have started at the beginning and the effect could have been the same if not better. This might also have prevented a few readers from giving up in the beginning. However, once everything clicks into place, this book is awesome. I loved it and stayed up till 2 in the morning reading. *****Also, I shall be going back to read The Secret, which I have discovered is the prequel to this, centering on Iann and Judith, who are the parents o

I loved this story.If you have read the story "The Bride" by Julie Garwood this story is a must. This is Brodrick and Ramsey's story.In this story the characters are wonderfully developed. The women are strong and are not weak little push overs. This is evident when Gillian's arm is treated, as well as when Birgid and Gillian foil the soldiers who just want a "little kiss" from them.In this story Gillian helps to save a little boy (I won't spoil it for you) while trying to solve a very old mystery about "Adrianna's Box", find her sister and keep her Uncle safe as well as herself. Enter the highlanders - Alec, Brodrick and Ramsey who are uniquely drawn into the story. They are all lairds of their own land now and it is interesting how JG shows that they are all still good friends even though they are very different and their "ruling" style is very different.I don't want to say to much about this but there is romance, lots of laughter, courage, humor (if the little boy had said "You know what" once more I think everyone would have had to throttle him)and love woven in around the fierceness of the situation...I have read the book (5+ stars) and also listened to the tape (the abridged one is about 3 stars, as it looses a lot of the depth to the story).

This was my second Garwood book and I loved it just as much as the first one (The Secret). This time Brodick Buchanon and Ramsey Sinclair from The Secret are the heroes with a brief appearance by Judith and Iain. In a plot to kidnap Ramsey's younger brother, Iain and Judith's son, Alec, is taken by mistake. Lucky for him, a young woman, Gillian,is also being held. Baron Alford believes she knows where a certain box belonging to King John is and he will stop at nothing to get it first. After beating Gillian and threatening her uncle's life, she is sent to find her sister. When Baron Alford killed her father when she was a child, she and her sister were given the box and sent into hiding. The two children were separated and Gillian never saw her again. If she didn't find the box and return it, Baron Alford threatened to torture and kill her uncle. Knowing that Alec's true identity would cause the baron to kill him, she escapes with him and hands him over to Brodick. Of course it was attraction at first sight and the fun begins here. There were many humorous parts and I loved seeing Gillian stand up to Brodick at every turn. There was a secondary romance between Ramsey and Bridgit that could have very easily been made into its own book. These two books have made me a big fan of Julie Garwood.

I have loved the writings of Julie Garwood since I was about 20 years old. I started reading her and couldn't get enough. I have since had two children and gotten behind in my reading. By chance I picked up Ransom at Christmas to give my mother as a gift for her to read and hopefully like as much as I had in the past. She, at 67 years old, has lost her husband (my dad) and I had hopes of giving her something to do to keep her mind off the loneliness. She loves this book! She told me she read several parts over again and again. After she finished, I borrowed the book from her and I couldn't stop reading it. I had to wait until the children were in the bed to read without any interruption and read into the wee hours of the morning. Gillian and Broderick are great! I loved how they just fit together. Reading about the whole group was like reading about someone you know personally because you know about them from reading The Secret. This book held me spellbound. I can't wait to go back and re-read The Secret over again to refresh my mind on the characters and their lives during that time. Well done to Julie Garwood. I, for one, hope to see more and my mom is just getting started! She has already started looking for more! She has her nose buried in For the Roses right now! Thanks Ms. Garwood for that excited feeling we get when we see one of your new releases on the shelf!