Published: April 29th, 2014
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 368
Copy: Publisher through Edelweiss
Summary: Goodreads
A flash of white light . . . and then . . . nothing.
When sixteen-year-old Kyra Agnew wakes up behind a Dumpster at the Gas ’n’ Sip, she has no memory of how she got there. With a terrible headache and a major case of déjà vu, she heads home only to discover that five years have passed . . . yet she hasn’t aged a day.
Everything else about Kyra’s old life is different. Her parents are divorced, her boyfriend, Austin, is in college and dating her best friend, and her dad has changed from an uptight neat-freak to a drunken conspiracy theorist who blames her five-year disappearance on little green men.
Confused and lost, Kyra isn’t sure how to move forward unless she uncovers the truth. With Austin gone, she turns to Tyler, Austin’s annoying kid brother, who is now seventeen and who she has a sudden undeniable attraction to. As Tyler and Kyra retrace her steps from the fateful night of her disappearance, they discover strange phenomena that no one can explain, and they begin to wonder if Kyra’s father is not as crazy as he seems. There are others like her who have been taken . . . and returned. Kyra races to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had, but what if the life she wants back is not her own?
Christinabean and I are both very big Kimberly Derting fans - her Body Finder series is superb - so I was very keen to see what she would do with a new series. While The Taking still falls firmly under the 'paranormal' umbrella, it takes quite a different direction. This time it's looking out into the universe, asking the question 'Are we alone?' and coming up with interesting answers.
Kyra finds herself one of many who have been 'Taken' and 'Returned' - yep, there is a difference - and the big mystery is not only why she was taken in the first place, but why it took so long for her to be returned and how it has affected her differently.
There's lots of heart stopping romance here between Kyra and Tyler, but it is of the 'insta-love' type. I was ok with that, but there were just a few too many references to Tyler's good looks and his 'beautiful' eyes for my tastes. He's gorgeous, OK, let's move on. That however was more or less my only negative feeling towards the story. There is a level of tension that increases as the story progresses and a huge twist that I was not expecting - kind of blew me away actually, until I got to the end of the book when it all made sense.
For those of you who scoff at little green men, there aren't actually any in the book, just the idea of them and lots of questions are raised for those of you who do not scoff. I enjoyed 'The Taking" and I'm looking forward to seeing what the future brings for Kyra and Tyler.
I agree a bit with your insta-love comments. That did get a bit annoying. But I loved this book! It's the first I've read by this author, even though I have the Body Finder sitting on my TBR shelf at home. I get to moderate a panel of authors she will be on in May, so excited to meet her!
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