Sinner's Ransom by M.D. Gregory

Sinner's Ransom Reviews

• 
  Ro {semi-hiatus}

  it's already my pet peeve when a book opens with a sex scene, but to have two consecutive scenes with two different people before getting anywhere close to even the 10% mark? bye
• 
  Eli

  DNFed
  I'm confused, really. Why keep on making dark and dysfonctionnal relationship so fast paced and botched that they don't make any sense ? Why the insta-lust ? Why the weird mix between romantic emotions and dark relationships when it's clearly not suited for this style of novels ?
  Why, really ?
  I couldn't get involved in Monty and Stone's relationship. It was far too fast paced, wasn't build up at all and didn't make any sense. I didn't even finish and that's telling because I can't even remember the last time a book did so little to me that I couldn't push myself through to finish reading it.
• 
  Leo

  2.5 stars rounded up. This was a reread from last year. I like the premise and the fact that Montgomery is so unlikeable to follow. It's quite interesting. But there is a lot missing from the story. While it wad entertaining it lacked any depth in the relationship. Think it would have been a bit longer and had more time develop.
• 
  Chris

  I liked this one - a little dark & gritty always gets the heart pumping ... I actually expected a little more from the blurb but enjoyed it all the same. What a fab series of twisted reads 😎
• 
  heartbrekkers ♡

  Alrighttt, soooo. This was a decent book, I suppose. The plot was interesting, the characters too 🤔. but ofc, I ended up giving this a ⭐⭐⭐.5. It was goodd, but it didn't end up being a favoritee. I didn't love nor hate this, but it was a veryyy decent book. Montgomery was such an interesting main character, his personality and *coughs* kinks— were.. Fascinating. The way he interacted with Stone was just.. Wow 😳. But one of the reasons I did give this a 3.5 stars, was mostly because— I wanted moree. Like details about each character's backstory, but since it's less than a 200 pages, I can't really complain 🤷‍♀️ (and may I add that I had only read this because I was in a reading slump?). And although I did like the characters a bit, I find myself not caring about them at all, like I wasn't interested in them, only a tiny bit 🤧. The blackmail was also a bitt goodd, but the ending was bland, I think? 🤔. I be liking the Criminal Delights Series though 😙. However, the books seems to be either a hit or miss, if I was to be honest 🤷‍♀️. but yess, this is definitely not a book for everyone, but I do recommend checking it out (only if it seems to be up your alley) 😌👌. 
• 
  Skirmish

  Book Reaction:
  https://neverhollowed.com/2019/06/09/...
  Rating: 3.5 Stars – that place between like and love
• 
  Armand

  Lol I just can't at our abductor's ineptitude. He can rock the strong, silent type swagger pretty well, but you know he'd get mauled by the bigger sharks once he's dropped in the same tank. He was exposed as the amateur he was by a bigger mob boss who unceremoniously demanded a cut from the profits, escorted by an assassin guard dog who could mow him down in a heartbeat, and he even had to take strategic cues from the captive himself to make their mark cough up the dough. There also was a near-escape scene that made me shake my head, chuckling from disbelief. I know this wasn't meant to be a heavy thriller but wth. Yeah I can't take this one seriously.
  
  The breath play stuff was interesting, I have to give it that. Maybe because it's rare that I get to encounter that in books. But in any kidnapping, much of the tension revolves around whether the abductee will survive the ordeal. And really, we know how this entire thing will play out, don't we?
  
  I also can't empathize with the crew's rancor against Monty's father even though he did them grievous wrong. All along they had enough evidence to make him accountable for his crimes, so why did they have to abduct his son? Oh yes, the money. I almost forgot they were crooks. Let's also not disregard the fact that they initially planned to dispose of Monty who, disagreeable as he is, is still innocent of his dad's offenses. How does that make them any better than their target, exactly?
  
  I'm rating this 5/10 or 2 stars out of 5.
• 
  Janet (iamltr)

  I dunno...
  
  This might be a me issue but I was not at all interested in the main mcs.
  
  They were fine, but not that interesting. The blackmail was awesome, but the ending was too bland.
  
  But I'm trying to read all the books related to the pet and this was the next one on the list.
• 
  Claude

  2,5 stars #awful.
  
  
  
  
  This was awful. Like really awful.
  I just hated the main characters.
  
  Montgomery Booker, his lover summarized him pretty well:
  
  « You’re not hard to figure out.” Stone shrugged and shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans.“Daddy didn’t love you, and Mommy left you. All you wanted was Daddy’s attention, but he never gave it to you. You did what any rich teenage boy would have done, you behaved badly. But still, Daddy didn’t care. He paid people for their silence and ignored you. And then you went to college, and to piss Daddy off, you studied something he wouldn’t like. Philosophy, was it? Let me guess, that annoyed him. ».
  
  Montgomery is nothing more than that. He's annoying, self-centered. He behaved badly just to piss his father off. His life is all about embarrassing his father. Nothing more nothing less. The way he treated people around him:
  
  « You couldn’t handle him.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Aren’t you a virgin?”
  Chase glared. “No, I’m not a fucking virgin.”
  “You act like it.” He smirked and slid his glasses down his nose to peer at Chase over them. “If you want guys like Livio to pay attention, you need to get to the gym. You have more flab than muscle.”
  Chase glanced at his stomach. It wasn’t entirely true. Chase wasn’t fat, but he didn’t have the six-pack Montgomery had either, and besides, ribbing his cousin was fun. ».
  
  I just wanted to slap him everytime he opened his mouth, because it was just mean and useless. His kidnapping was (almost) welcome haha.
  
  Nicholas James Rockham aka "Stone" is the leader of the group who decided to kidnap Montgomery. Every men of the team has a story with Montgomery's father. It's all about revenge.
  
  Stone and Montgomery: lust (#love) at first sight. It was kind of disturbing.
  A real parody of kidnapping.
  Montgomery (the victim) talks all the time, gives his opinion in all decisions, hangs around the house, discusses the best strategy to adopt towards his father, flirts with some of his kidnappers, in fact he is treated as a partner in crime fast enough.
  His relationship with Stone grew up fast.
  Overnight they were in a relationship and decided to lead the fight against Montgomery's father (#stupid).
  I didn't like this.
  Montgomery was a brat till the end. Stone was just so blindly in love (#lust) till the end.
• 
  Mirjam

  
  
  
  
  
  Part of the
  Criminal Delights series. While part of a series each can de be read as a standalone:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  leo.

  I want to start this review by saying that the summary of this book’s plot presented on here sounds promising, until the moment you decide to read the book’s content and build an opinion about it on your own.
  
  I’ll be honest, the first couple of pages truly shocked me, because I didn’t expect it to directly kick off with the spicy part, but this is also where my disappointment began to slowly simmer and bubble up. The dialogue fell flat, and extremely unimaginative. I’m even sure that if anyone were to take a drinking game every time someone says the word “fuck” or “asshole”, they would be drunk and immobilised by the time they reach page 10.
  
  The plot is your typical kidnapper with a motive plot, who happens to be just as fruity as our main character. Many aspects of it felt rushed and underdeveloped, anti-climactic, if you may. The twist was predictable, and didn’t offer anything to impress me.
  
  To my even bigger disappointment, the characters were one-dimensional. They dealt with the events and with their emotions in a very artificial way, which seemed almost robotic and forced. As if the characters themselves didn’t wish to be part of this story. Most of the time we were told what’s happening, instead of being shown, with a lot of obviously unnecessary information smacked in between words.
  
  Given the fact that this book is marked as a romance, despite it being “dark”, it has completely missed the whole point, because the main character and his kidnapper (who later became his love interest) lacked any chemistry, whatsoever. Their relationship felt rushed, without any filling, and totally tasteless. You also can’t convince me that two grown up men would converse or treat each other like this.
  
  2 / 5 ⭐️
• 
  Soscha

  M.D. Gregory is a new author to me, and I haven't read much in M/m genre, but I thought I'd give this one a go.
  
  Yes, it's a little dark, as advertised, and there is choking, which IRL is a hard pass for me, so there's a 50/50 chance that can be a major squick for me reading. I didn't get that here, so maybe I'm getting jaded to extra dark romance?
  
  There was something I found quite affecting in this story, sweet even, tender, between the (anti-)heroes, Stone and Monty. I can guess the appearance of the mob boss & his boy are call backs to characters from a previous entry in this series, and...wow...I am curious about those two. And the side character, the assassin, Arden...
  
  Okay, I am indeed completely jaded at this point. I'll need to indulge in some more Criminal Delights, I reckon.
• 
  Mimi

  4.25 stars
  
  This was one of the better Criminal Delights that I have read in the series. Take on the violence and gore. But a good read.
• 
  Christi Snow

  B+ rating
• 
  Nonniereads

  As much as I liked it, I really did, Stone went soft too fast on Monty. I think it would have fit the narrative better if Stone had been rougher with Monty. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it!
• 
  Marta Filipa

  3.25⭐️
• 
  Kaw

  Violent. Bloody. Strong. Toxic!!!
• 
  Elisabeth Dreams

  I hate getting bored while reading novel, this one made me YAWN...LIKE ONE OF THOSE JAW BREAKING ONE.....
  Characters:- one word, weak.
  Plot:- not bad, could have don't more....but it's out (book)and done you can't do anything about it. Also felt so cliched
• 
  triskellionquinn

  Let me just say that this is one campy-ass book based on a kidnapping. I mean, it has all the elements, but it really could have done with another 100 pages or so to give some time for Monty to be properly treated like a ransom captive, and for Stone to actually make some progress towards breaking him like he so constantly thinks about doing.
  
  If this was a more realistic kidnapping scenario, Monty wouldn't have gotten away with nearly the amount of shit he was able to. From back talking and riling up his kidnappers, to full on walking around like he had free reign of the house, it wasn't selling any of the actual tension and helplessness he should be feeling in his situation. Plus Stone was all macho alpha man, and then proceeded to let Monty mouth his way all over him (both figuratively and literally). This felt less like a dark case of kidnapping Stockholm syndrome and more like a couple's kinky kidnapping bedroom fantasy that almost went too far.
  
  I think that's why I'm not rating it higher, because while I enjoyed the book enough to finish it in a couple hours, it's not a very long book and it shows in the pacing and the lack of commitment we see from our resident criminals. In my opinion, the author didn't go far enough with the characters and the scenario they were in. Another 100 pages to flesh out the other members of the crew some more into something more substantial than background filler, as well as have Monty go through a true and proper downward spiral mentally before introducing Stone as his possible 'salvation' from said spiral would have done wonders for the story as a whole.
• 
  Erin

  1.5-2 stars
  
  I’ve found the Criminal Delights series to be rather hit or miss as far as the books being considered “dark” romances. This particular one was definitely a dud for me.
  
  The kidnapping theme was complete bologna with Monty being treated like a team member by day two of his captivity. There was absolutely zero head-fuckery that would lead to any sort of Stockholm syndrome style sympathies and really just boiled down to Monty hating his father enough to want revenge.
  
  The best dark romances have main characters that are genuinely scary and threatening. When Stone and his crew ultimately take down a man who ruined their lives they come across as having saved the day. This totally ruins the vibe! By the end, it felt like the author was using Stone and Monty’s preference for aggressive sex as a reason to classify this as a dark romance; something I totally don’t agree with.
  
  In the end I skimmed the last third and was happy to have finally finished it.
• 
  Jennifer

  3 1/2stars
  
  After reading the blurb I was excited to read a dark and twisted kidnapper/captive ‘romance’. I have to admit to being let down. Having read dark and twisted previously my bar was set high, the story was a good one but the Stockholm Syndrome was easy to occur as he was barely kept a prisoner as such. Sure he was punched a few times, mostly for show he knew was coming, was choked, which he wanted, but other than that he was fed, allowed a bath, even listened to and situations explained. No force was used that wasn’t wanted. An enjoyable read but a huge leap to be described as dark, perhaps a grey romance would be more accurate.
  
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  Sam&Dean

  First time reading this author, but won’t be the last.
  I’ve only read a few books in this series because I’m not a fan of super dark. As some other reviewers mention, this story is hardly dark at all. The story goes along pretty smoothly and could almost be considered insta-love with a HEA. While this is an actual kidnapping, the MC who is kidnapped wasn’t in the best of situations and was living a dangerously reckless lifestyle. Through his kidnapping, he was able to get away from his bad situation and find true love.
  There was a tiny bit of OM drama including detailed intimacy, which I’m not a fan, but in this scenario, it actually worked well to highlight MC careless self-destructive lifestyle.
• 
  Patricia Hoffstaetter

  This is a new author to me & to be quite honest, I really enjoyed reading this slightly dark M/M abductor/captive romance. The story-line & plot is well-written & interesting with unexpected events & splendid scene descriptions. The characters are quite impressive, well-developed & at times quite dangerous.
  There is: twists & turns, intrigue, suspense, danger, threats, enemies, abduction, conflict, violence, beatings, defiance, devious plans, emotional turmoil, escape attempts, bondage, confrontations, spankings, blackmail, compromises and strangely enough, there is attractions, longings, desire & a happy conclusion.
  
  
• 
  Mary

  This is twisted, steamy, suspenseful and romantic. Montgomery is a spoiled rich boy with no manners, no respect and no redeeming qualities who uses men for his enjoyment only. His father hates him and his mother won't claim him. Stone is a criminal who decides to kidnap Montgomery to get money from his father as revenge for things he's done. The kidnappers are like the keystone cops, only they're not really funny. Cocky, but incompetent, they manage to manage to make a mess of everything. It's a great story that will leave you smiling, yet shaking your head.
  I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author. This is my honest and voluntary opinion of it.
• 
  Eve

  Montgomery is that spoiled rich brat that everyone hates, he thinks he is better than everyone and can get whatever he wants.
  When Stone and his crew kidnap him it takes awhile for it to kick in that this isn't a vacation as Stone likes to say.
  Each member of the crew has been wronged by Montgomery's father and want to stick it to him where it really hurts; his bank account!
  I enjoyed how the story played out and Stone's and Monty's chemistry...wasn't your typical kidnap/ransom story and I liked that ... and when the steamy scenes happened all I can say is wow..hot stuff!
  
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  Jaleah Jupiter

  Dnf 35%
  
  The way I couldn't stand this book...
  
  It tries so hard to be a dark romance/thriller type book, but it just doesn't work. From the blurb, I expected intensity, darkness, pain... Stone is not nearly dark enough to deliver on these promises. He tries to put Monty in his place, but he just can't because he just falls into traps and gets embarrassed easily. I don't know, he's just kind of weak, and that really disappointed me.
  
  It's hard to explain, but if you're looking for the type of dark romance that has you questioning your morals and pushes boundaries, this won't be the one for you. It's more like a romance with bdsm, dark-ish undertones.
• 
  J. Ockenhouse

  The beginning started hot with us getting to see the arrogance of Monty and why we shouldn't like the confident, entitled spoiled man.
  
  I really liked the storyline and could feel myself getting annoyed with Mr. I do what I want. The kidnapping and getting it all wrong made for an all so right story.
  
  The twists, dark moments, characters, suspense, mind games all lead to a happy ending. The journey Montgomery and Stone must take is what makes SINNERS RAMSON a 5 star read. I received an ARC for an honest and voluntarily review.
• 
  Suzanne Irving

  Sinner’s ransom is one book in a series by different authors called Criminal Delights.
  If this book is any indication of what the series is like I can’t wait to read the rest of these books.
  A warning though if you don’t like dark m/m “romance” don’t read these books. If on the other hand you do then I can’t recommend this book too highly. It is a sexy fun rather unrealistic read.
  I could go on and on about how much I enjoyed this book but just go read it “please “.
  
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.