The Wild Card: Sienna’s Story, Book 1 by Dena Starostovic is a suspenseful romance. Sienna Carlson’s mundane daily routine changes abruptly when members of a Colombian drug cartel invade her workplace to retrieve their merchandise accidentally shipped there. Sienna cooperates with its leader, Gabe Cordova, to save her colleagues, but Gabe kidnaps her and flees to Colombia. He has watched her for months, knows her personality better than those in her life know her, and is fixated on making Sienna his woman. Sienna experiences guilty emotions because she misses her husband, yet is attracted to her captor. Alanza, Gabe’s cold-blooded father, is furious, believing his son’s obsession will ruin the family business. When Sienna is abducted, Gabe realizes that his own life will be endangered if he rescues her, but is willing to risk his life for a woman he knows will return his love.

Dena Starostovic has written a romantic novel that sees the protagonist describing most aspects of her life with meticulous detail while narrating. It amazed me how Sienna dealt with her unpredictable dilemma and her conflicting feelings for Gabe within such a short time. Some of the scenes seemed unrealistic due to this. I thought the dialogue was a bit forced and too proper, as most characters spoke in a similar manner, instead of having their own distinctive speech patterns. Nevertheless, The Wild Card: Sienna’s Story, Book I by Dena Starostovic is an unusual romance story that is suspenseful, dramatic, and makes a nice, quick read with its interesting characters.

The Wild Card (Sienna's Story Book 1) by Dena Starostovic introduces you to Sienna, a woman who is a mother, a wife and a hard working woman. She is living what many would consider a dream life, but she struggles inside some days with the redundancy of her life and then everything changes. Sienna's company is overtaken by a Colombian drug gang due to some cargo being accidentally shipped to the company. Sienna becomes the hero of the day, but finds herself kidnapped in the process of becoming the hero. The journey that happens after the kidnapping is an up and down roller coaster for Sienna and the man who took her. Will she make it out alive? Will she even be the same person if she does make it out?

As someone who has a pretty “normal,” day in and day out kind of life, I was curious to see what would happen in this book when life gets turned upside down. I wasn't disappointed at all when I started reading. From the first few pages with Sienna, I was hooked. Sienna really goes through a lot of things after she gets kidnapped; she sees things that most of us couldn't dream of, and takes her journey from there. The book had a good pace and is well written. This is the first book by Dena Starostovic that I have read and I hope it will not be the last. I highly recommend this read.