Review of Hold by Zannie Adams

Zannie Adams
Hold
Ellora’s Cave Publishing, November 2007
Genre: Futuristic | SciFi
Rating: êêêê½
Heat level: ¹¹

I’m not a regular reader of futuristic or scifi romances, so reading Hold was a rare experience for me. I let a few blogreviews seduce me to try this book and I must admit that it wasn’t a bad read, really not bad at all! The story is situated on a prison planet, were Riana is sentenced to because of a minor crime. Prisoners are always sentenced for life in this futuristic world and life on the prison planet is very primitive where only the fittest can survive. Life is especially hard on women and the only way Riana can survive is to give herself to one of the strongest man in return for protection. She chooses the silent, good-looking loner Cain. He watched her with mild interest when she was dropped into the Hold. And although he is a loner, he likes her spirit and drive, so he stakes his claim on her. Having been a prisoner for more than a year and completely alone, he decides she would satisfy his physical needs at the very least.

In this unusual world of violence and danger Riana and Cain start to live together and end up liking each other, at first only physically but in the end their feelings involve love. It immediately clicks physically between them: when they’re having sex many orgasms are involved. These scenes are pretty hot and sweet at the same time. And they do have sex a lot, because what else can they do during these endless days of imprisonment. But Cain is also working on some sort of device with which he plans to escape the Hold. Zannie Adams put a little bit of extra suspense in the story with that. But the attraction of this story was mostly in the way these two kind people evolved in their relationship that started out with total dependency on Riana’s part and cold-heartiness on Cain’s part. With the growing of their feelings of love, their insecurities grow as well, because of the situation they are in. A situation that’s hardly suitable for romance, of course.

Zannie Adams knows how to dose the elements of her story. The plot is exciting and perfectly paced, not too slow, not too fast, just right. And her characters are portrayed well, so it’s impossible not to feel for them or fall in love with them. She tells the story solely through Riana’s eyes. I would have liked to read from Cain’s perspective once or twice, but I understand that that would have killed a little bit of the suspense of the story. Ms. Adams wrote a few contemporary erotic romances and I’m definitely gonna give them a try, because Hold was really a great first acquaintance with her work!

Back Blurb:

Convicted by the Coalition of a minor crime, Riana is sentenced to life on a prison planet — no order, no safety, just a primitive hold filled with criminals vying for dominance. The only way Riana can survive is to give herself to the strongest man there in return for protection. By desperate instinct, she chooses a mysterious, handsome loner named Cain. She offers him her body and can only hope he'll be able to protect her from the other inmates who circle her like beasts.
She never dreams she will come to take pleasure in Cain. Or want to offer him her heart as well as her body.