Thank you to Netgalley for a copy for an honest review

I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend and I can’t wait to buy a copy for myself 🙂

Rating 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Unexpected Hostage follows Tess who is still reeling from the death of her fiancé who died in a tragic accident the year prior. She uses work as her way of coping before the unexpected happens. She and her colleagues are taken hostage. She soon finds out that the same people who have taken her hostage aren’t just your average kidnappers and Tess’ fiancé's death doesn’t seem to be an accident anymore.

This was fun!

It was hard not to be sucked into the story from the very first pages. I felt like they were laced with something because how was I expected to put this book down when I needed answers??

It’s always nice to see some romance sprinkled in with the suspense of the book. I especially loved the hacking and cyber part of this book and the feeling of impending doom that relied on whether Tess was able to successfully figure out how to save everyone and the company.

My only criticism is that it felt slightly instant love to me but that is very well a me thing and doesn’t affect the overall writing of the book.

This was a fantastic debut and I can’t wait to see what comes next for this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and The Wild Rose Press for providing me with this ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Really enjoyed this book! 4⭐️!
Loved the mystery part and the thrill!
The two main characters were great! They were able to relate with their grief and also help each other heal from the grief and traumatic experience! It was so interesting reading about the hacking and secret codes.

I really enjoyed this read!!
Thank you for sending me a copy!

I could not finish it. I don’t leave books unread but this one, I just couldn’t finish it. I don’t like the different languages in it either.

I really really wanted to love this book - i’m in my thriller era and the concept of the story was extremely intriguing - cyberterrorism mixed with multiple kidnappings.

I felt like the first 15ISH% of the book had me hooked and was extremely well down - when our two MCs were kidnapped. It had you on the edge of your seat and made you want to keep reading. I felt that ended extremely abruptly and felt the book took a giant turn into more romance than thriller.

While i do like both thrillers and romance and when they’re done intertwined i have enjoyed that as well, but this felt like the author couldn’t decide which genre to focus on so it felt disjointed. I feel like if the story would have contained more twists and unexpected turns, and had the romance woven into it still i would have enjoyed it more.

I also felt very bored during the middle to like 80%. It dragged in my opinion and just kept talking about the same things - her flying with her foot, not taking her injury seriously etc etc.

I would definitely give this author another chance and while it wasn’t for me i don’t think it was a bad debut novel!

2.5 I enjoyed the initial first 3rd of the book. It was action-packed and suspenseful and I felt like I could follow along well. After that, I really struggled to remain invested and focused on the story. The plot felt choppy and incoherent. The amount of political, cyber, and tech jargon increased without satisfactory explanation, and it was difficult for me to fully understand the intricacies of the cyberterrorism plot. By the time we got to the climax of the plot, I had a hard time remaining invested. I also felt like I was waiting for this big reveal or twist or betrayal, but was disappointed when there really wasn’t one.

My 6P review

Tess lost the love of her life, Kyle and she has been trying to work through the pain ever since. She is taken hostage alongside Mark, a trauma surgeon from Norway, by an Eastern European terrorist group in Canada. Together they risk their lives to escape, forming a bond together. An international cybercrime uncovers the truth about Kyle’s death and Tess and Mark are once again thrust into the spotlight.

Tess and Mark are both widowers and grieving in their own way. From the mutual trauma, they form a relationship with each other. The other characters aren’t particularly well developed and I don’t know the purpose of some of them, especially that of Kavita.

The sense of place was great. I liked the imagery of Norway and Canada. I had a sense of the weather as well.

The initial terrorism threat and abduction was great. I felt this should have been the main focus of the story though. This part ended abruptly and then the story continued into another cybercrime scenario. I wasn’t sure what genre the author was writing. Was this a romance or a cybercrime/terrorism/thriller? I was awaiting the twists which just never came.

The prose was well written and I had no problems reading it although I did skip some of the romance.

I would recommend this story to readers who enjoy a romantic thriller.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced reader copy from this author.

Thank you to Net Galley for giving me this opportunity to review this book.

Nothing has been the same for Tess since her fiancé’s tragic accident and death. Now at a corporate party a year later, Tess and a doctor are taken hostage by cyberterrorists. There was a lot of political overtones and international intrigue. I would have liked a few more surprises. But I do recommend this book of that is your type of suspense.

A touching Romance mixed with a bit of a Techno-Thriller in Allison McKenzie’s, THE UNEXPECTED HOSTAGE . . .

‘Recent memories of [His] bare skin against hers juxtaposed with visions of Kyle so vividly, she swore he had returned from the afterlife, alive again. But every time, the images vanished, shrinking from the edges before they curled inward like a burning photograph dissolving into ash.’

Though the pacing is slow at times, overall, I love the writing and story.

Recommend!

Thank you, NetGalley and The Wild Rose Press, Inc., for providing me with an eBook of THE UNEXPECTED HOSTAGE at the request of an honest review.

Omg u guys!!! Be ready to brace yourself for a pulse-pounding, heart-stopping thrill ride! The Unexpected hostage is a high-octane political thriller that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go. With a fierce and relatable protagonist in Tess, you'll be dragged into a world of terrorism, cybercrime, and international conspiracies that will leave you breathless.

As Tess and Mark fight for survival, the stakes are raised to explosive levels. Every page turn is a countdown to disaster, every twist a hairpin turn that will keep you guessing. The tension is suffocating, the action heart-pounding, and the betrayals gut-wrenching.

This book is a ticking time bomb, ready to detonate at any moment. With its razor-sharp plot and breakneck pace,,it will obliterate your sleep schedule and leave you begging for more. The Allison Mckenzie’s mastery of the genre is evident in every expertly crafted sentence, every clever misdirection, and every heart-stopping revelation.

Don't dare miss this thrill ride that will push you to the edge and beyond!

Well, that was definitely interesting. It had so many different elements, survival, grief, terrorism, technology and love.

I really liked the dynamic between the two main characters and was pleased with the ending and how everything turned out.

My only complaint is that I stalled a bit in the middle because I am not well versed in cyber lingo or technology so I felt a bit stumped.

This book was a 2.5/2.75 for me… I really enjoyed the initial set up of this book - at first, I thought that the plot from start to finish completed in the first 100 pages but it’s detrimental for the rest of the book and sets up the rest of the plot. However, as the book went on, I really struggled to stay focused. There was a lot of cyber, techy jargon that just didn’t hold my interest.

I also thought that this book would have a romance aspect to it judging from the beginning but there was no real connection that I could grasp from this.

It’s not a bad read but it’s also not one that I would immediately recommend to just anyone. I think you have to have a specific liking for this type of plot to enjoy the book fully.

Fascinating book. Great thriller full of suspense and leaving a lot of room for the reader to imagine all possible scenarios. Very pleasant reading.

Allison's writing style is very detailed and allows the reader to fully imagine the scenery! i enjoyed this book quite a lot!! great thriller

The Unexpected Hostage was about cyber terrorism with romance and this book was one enjoyed. In this book the author had great characters, the plot was good and overall this book was well written. I enjoyed this book and would recommend other readers to read the book. Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for this book in exchange of my review of this book.

'The Unexpected Hostage by Allison McKenzie' , is the first novel by the author.We've Tess, a cybersecurity expert who lost her fiancé Kyle in an car accident. She is kidnapped by a terrorist group during a business trip in Eastern Europe, along with Mark, a doctor who works for a humanitarian organization. They soon realize that their abduction is not random, but part of a bigger scheme involving cybercrime and corruption.

Tess and Mark are both widowers who have been avoiding their grief and guilt. They find comfort and attraction in each other as they face danger and hardship together. They also discover the truth behind Tess's fiances death and the secrets of their captors.

The book is well-written and engaging, with a lot of action, intrigue, and a touch of romance.

I liked reading The Unexpected Hostage and I think it is a great debut one by Allison McKenzie. I recommend it to fans for a pleasant read from a debut author whose future books I'll be following closely. 
Overall reading of 3.5 stars.

After Tess loses her fiancé in a tragic accident, she buries herself in work at a her high tech cyber company job and has little time for else in her life. And that is how she likes it. She fills her free time with evening parties and anonymous hook ups and overindulgence.
Until she takes her boss's place at a super, secure getaway weekend focusing on a new cyber tech program being introduced at a Canadian retreat complex and is taken hostage by a group of middle Eastern type terrorists.
Her life changes within days as she and another hostage, a doctor, manage to escape, while others are murdered.
and suddenly her work consumed life becomes a fight to stay one step ahead of what is happening in the attempted takeover of the technology by a dark web group.
Absolutely fascinating with non stop suspense peppered consistently with high tech terminology and tech info that is easy to grasp and not over stated..
Just a great story by McKenzie with well defined characters and a super plot.
5 stars all the way.