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Dr_Horrible
Posted May 29, 2010
What do you get if you mix up a big and evil empire, their most hated executioner, a gang of rebels, and a lost girl? It becomes "Kidnapped." It's a good story that feels original and fresh. It has all the ingredients necessary to be interesting. There's romance, cruelty, love, treachery, and pain.
As cute as parts of it are with heroine curled up in heroes lap and so on, romance isn't what will make this author famous. It's the bad guys and her willingness to write about things that make you flinch. 
The supreme commander is marvellous and could have gotten a much bigger part in the book. Just imagine a woman who takes an electric knife and saws someone's arm off to set an example! Now, it doesn't stop there. In order to save the heroine, the hero has to do it again, by himself. It's so perfectly wicked that it makes you wonder what else is brewing in the author's brain. 
Tricia is okay, she's a good heroine, but I love Travis and Veronica. The book hints at their past, and I'm hoping for a prequel that explores said past in every gruesome detail!
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.CM77
Posted May 27, 2010
I Also Recommend:
Okay, girl from Earth is in the wrong place at the wrong time. She is abducted by a space police sort of thing. He is not a nice guy at all, but he's at least human. (Don't worry, the book explains why he can come from space and look like us.)
Travis, he's the dude with the spaceship, is used to just killing people. Or why not torturing them if they have something that he wants. He's a scarred man, both emotionally and physically, and he's completely obsessed with his mission. That mission is to find a group of rebels, particularly their leader William.
The heroine Tricia knows nothing about this of course, and it doesn't take long for even Travis to realize that. She's completely useless to her, but he doesn't kill her. He thinks that she's very small and innocent, and he lets her out of the cell. He has never been around a normal person before, and he falls for her. Big time.
Now he has to figure out a way to keep her safe, both from the general dangers in space and from his employer, the Alliance. The Alliance is a big and malevolent government, and if they get their hands on Tricia... Well, it would be bad for her.
The story is highly paced and exciting. It's romantic and cute and at times brutal, and there's not one boring moment in it. I would have liked to see some more descriptions of things and people, some of the characters feel a bit peripheral now, but that would of course have slowed the story down too.
It's a good story that's easy to get into. It has a good tempo and a lot of things happening.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.My Review:
I love a good sci fi adventure romance and this was definitely a good one. It started out a bit like the headlines from one of the checkout rags in the grocery store. A woman driving down a dark deserted road and almost hits a man. The next thing she knows, she's waking up imprisoned aboard a space ship. It seems the man that Patricia almost hit was part of a Rebel group trying to outrun Travis, an Alliance Commander. Travis thinks that because he saw Patricia with William (the Rebel) that she was aiding him in some way. Patricia, of course, is completely clueless. The last thing she remembers is wrecking her car.
I loved this book. Travis is a very unlikely hero. The Alliance raises their soldiers from toddlers and every human aspect of them is programmed, brainwashed, and tortured out of them. They feel no fear, no compassion, very little pain, no real human emotion at all. They kill at will and pretty much indiscriminately. Their entire mission is to do the dirty work for the Alliance and Travis is known throughout the galaxy as one of the most brutal.
For some reason, when he captures Patricia, something about her raises some kernel of human emotion within him. He sees her as harmless so he lets her out of her cell and she quickly starts affecting him. His character is one that had a very slow evolution throughout the book and I love how the author worked that transformation very slowly. It really worked and made him such a wonderfully lovable character even though he has this horrible violent past.
Patricia is just one of those people that everyone loves. She makes friends wherever she goes, even though she's completely out of her element. Because Travis is completely devoted to her (eventually) he is also making connections....something he's NEVER had his entire life...ties to people.
This book covers a long period of time and I loved every moment of it. It's an adventure the entire way and I never knew which way the story was going to go next. I just know that I loved riding along with Patricia and Travis. They were great characters and had a fabulous story. Their journey across the galaxy is filled with brushes with many friends and enemies.
I definitely recommend this story if you love a good sci-fi adventure tied into a fabulous romance!
Driving home one late winter's night, Patricia Risden is shocked when a man appears on the road out of nowhere in front of her car...as if that isn't strange enough, the next thing she knows, she's being held hostage on an interstellar spaceship - and interrogated by a disfigured, highly intimidating man speaking an unintelligible language. All the confusion is soon cleared up, though, when Patricia's captor realizes that he's kidnapped her in error while in the midst of hunting down the mysterious stranger who appeared in front of her car; however, when he decides to let her go, he sets off a fateful chain of events that will ultimately impact both their lives in ways they can hardly imagine...
With taut, escalating action, Kidnapped is a thoroughly intriguing read. Combining elements of romance and Sci-Fi, author Maria Hammarblad has crafted a compelling tale of cosmic significance, taking the reader on a riveting quest of love and adventure that spans the stars. By invoking an understated sympathy for Travis, Patricia's captor, Hammarblad draws the reader into the soft emotional underbelly of her story, which ostensibly rails against the evils of an overly authoritative governing force. In so doing, she strikes a solid balance that lends her tale the credible weight it needs to evolve to a natural, satisfying end.
Strangely engrossing, Kidnapped is an enjoyable tale of action and romance.
Chelsea Perry
Apex Reviews
Linda_K
Posted June 14, 2010
I Also Recommend:
I'm a science fiction buff, and always looking for some new ideas. Too many books go around the same subject in slightly different ways, and it grows boring quickly. Also, too many books have as many pages describing technology and environment as the story itself. This author avoids falling into both traps.
I enjoy the story and the way the hero is both scary, scarred, and sexy. He's the kind of guy you'd want to see on TV! On the matter of sexy, I had expected the book to be a little less PG 13. An explicit sex scene might have been in order after mentioning that the hero was taught to do it to establish authority. I'm just saying!
Apart from that, the book has some interesting ideas on humanity and our development. She does a good job with telling the story. I enjoyed it.
Anonymous
Posted March 27, 2012
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Anonymous
Posted December 27, 2010
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Anonymous
Posted July 9, 2012
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Anonymous
Posted January 12, 2011
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Anonymous
Posted November 27, 2010
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Overview
The next thing she knows is being a prisoner of the unscrupulous Alliance Commander Travis 152; an intimidating man who demands information and complete ...