Preparation H, Hello Hostage Hotel

“You don’t really know somebody if you don’t know their name, right”
Skye Warren, Hostage

I can’t tell you exactly when I began reading Skye Warren… Annika Martin too but I’ve got plenty I’ve seen from Skye Warren’s solo novels, and she has become a name synonymous with kickass reads. Hostage is yet another in a long list of winners, and I should probably start looking up Annika Martin’s novels as well because when you put these two women together.

Speaking of which it looks like Abby is going to get some company; a swing and a missed opportunity by this dynamic duo but I’ll give it five stars anyway, but I think Abby and Brooke might have been something to see. Also, are you telling me you haven’t read “Prisoner” (Criminals & Captives #1), if you have welcome aboard, and if you haven’t… you don’t necessarily have to, but I highly recommend it just because it’s as impressive as Hostage. In any case, you’ll probably see what’s coming regardless, but I’m already wondering will there be a book three; I read this with my erotica reading group, but I would have bought it regardless.

So long story short, Hostage begins near the start of Prisoner and then carries on from where that book ended, and no I don’t want to say conclusion there are several paths left I feel. While Prisoner was a story of the youngest of the crew, Grayson, and his love Abby, Hostage is about the oldest of the squad Stone Keaton and his passion Brooke Carson; stop me if you heard this one, rough criminal, and the golden virgin princess. I mean that family going broke, in high school for most of the story, with a famous name and of course Stone is just flushed with cash, criminal and all.

Common themes but I can say that about the entire genre as well, and these two writers know how to work it into something brand new, once, twice, I want to see more of the crew. I was a bit surprised at the ending myself which is strange, but you can always tell where these stories are going and still you stick along for the ride; you can’t help it.

“It’s like catching fucking sunlight in a jar. I don’t want to let her go.”
Skye Warren, Annika Martin, Hostage

Maybe that’s one of the things I like best, as I once heard in a commercial “between love and madness lies Obsession” and that’s what it was like for both Stone and Brooke; enough that Brooke’s age is a teasing point until she turned eighteen. There was the idea of how much grief Stone gave Grayson when he found love and now that Stone has; well that escalated quickly between him and his crew, the men he calls brothers, but let’s focus on the lovers.

Sadly, there’s nothing new to either of them but names and the circumstances of the situation, Stone Keaton, another victim of the rich who fought his way free and is now looking for revenge not just on one but an entire lot of tormentors. You also have to give him the noble goal of wanting to rescue kids and eventually Brooke, though he took his time with her, nothing but slow seductive time since this is a bit of two books in one and her age. Let me just say for the record it always ends up like this, take away the money and the noble pursuit, and being a guy that has read so many stories from this genre, pull any of this in the real world fellas and no happy endings for you.

Brooke Carson, of course, is in her gilded cage, whether it be from a mother’s expectations, imagine Rose in Titanic just younger and prettier or the criminal that just so happens to have millions of dollars that gets her knocky in the knees and elsewhere. Honestly, you can’t say that her life changed much and that might seem a bit short-sighted but one cage to another, from being a tool of her parents to belonging to Stone, and the world is still the world with just a few less horrible people. The only thing Brooke had to do was choose, and that was a bit of newness since most of the stories I’ve read from Skye Warren the heroine merely is taken but again age, instead of sex he almost murders her the first time.

There was less death, seeing how Prisoners ended; maybe it’s a sign of the times. I won’t give that away, though if you want a taste; Samurai Champloo (Artistic Anarchy) “Tsutchie – Sincerely.” At least that’s how I felt if they made this book into a movie I think. As for the other characters, wealthy parents, mother worried about her reputation, standard rich people, and of course Stone’s crew, bad boys galore and how many times can I say this, money.

“There should be some smooth and nice things left in this world.”
Annika Martin, Hostage

I’m not trying to make it sound dull seeing as how I’m giving it five stars, and that’s almost all nearly storytelling, and you can leave it at that because, spoiler alert. Did the book have flaws, other than things I wish happened; this is novel writing at its best, and there was plenty to like besides the things continually resting in my depraved imagination?

For example, this is the first book I might have seen honestly use the term “fake news,” and that’s just the tip of the iceberg as it plays to today’s lexicon. Anybody who reads this might think the author has something against the rich unless they are undoubtedly hard-working or playing a bit of Robin Hood. I’m not saying that Stone and his crew didn’t deserve every last dime they had after everything that they all endured together. There’s even a bit of Brooke’s weight involved, not being allowed to eat then Stone letting her scarf down a burger and cutting her overly tight fancy dress, or the fact that she didn’t want the discovery of her naked form after.

Brooke’s first time, that scene held a bit of everything, the difference between making love and anyway, though the phone sex was a bit dirtier and raunchier, and the authors made her a uniformed schoolgirl to boot, my weakness. Again I wish something could have taken place between Abby and Brooke; you have close quarters, mostly men and two beautiful women, there are days I tell you that these stories are better than porn visual porn. The ending, I was picturing something else, to be honest not that this ending wasn’t great itself, but sometimes you’re expecting fire and brimstone, but a slow trudge to Hell also works I guess.

Nate’s life is one thing, but it would be amazing to keep following Brooke and Stone and don’t I sound like Detective Emilio Rivera now, talk about an obsession with this story and these two authors. So I hope you are ready if you pick up this title because you’ll be on your backside for a while, hours on end, Preparation H, Hello Hostage Hotel.