Title: The Taking
Series: The Taking, Book One
Author: Kimberly Derting ♥ @kimberlyderting
Published: April 29, 2014
Publisher: HarperTEEN
Pages: 368
Genre(s): Young Adult ♥ Sci-Fi ♥ Romance
Source: Edelweiss
Summary from 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?
Average Rating on Goodreads (as of 04/30/2014): 3.80
- Christina thought this title was so good. It goes on her second shelf.
**SPECIAL NOTE:** An eARC of this title was provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. However, that did not influence this review in any way. All thoughts, quotes, and opinions will be of this version and not of the published edition.
♥ Initial Thoughts and Rating: 4.5 stars! With an interesting premise that held a ton of promise, I settled in quickly, but was still extremely surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. From the very beginning, The Taking intrigued me. With a steady pace and the cutest kind of romantic interest, I couldn’t help how eagerly I flew through the pages. However, with the cliffhanger ending and more questions left than answers, I couldn’t give this the full five stars it probably deserves. (I can’t help it, I’m stingy with those.)
♥ The Lowdown: Kyra Agnew is a sixteen-year-old with a good family, a long-term boyfriend, a spunky best friend, and a promising collegiate career as a champion softball pitcher. The night that her team won the big game, Kyra has an argument with her father and ends up walking on a deserted road alone out of anger. Then, suddenly, there’s a bright light and her father’s screams. . . and then nothing at all. The next morning Kyra wakes up behind a dumpster and is worried about facing the wrath of her parents when she gets home even though she doesn’t remember anything of the night from after the bright light. So, she trudges home only to discover that her parents aren’t there, and the man and child that occupy it aren’t familiar at all. Then, from her neighbors, the hammer drops and she learns that it hasn’t been only the one night that she was gone, it’s been five years, and everyone she ever cared about had thought she was dead. Five years of her family growing apart and moving on- her parents are now divorced and her mom is remarried and has a little boy, while her dad lives alone and has crazy conspiracy theories about her disappearance. Her boyfriend is now away at college and seriously dating her best friend. Her softball park is empty and named in honor of her memory. And her boyfriend’s- or ex-boyfriend now- little brother is all grown up.
But none of this makes sense, where has she been all this time and why can’t she remember it? Why doesn’t she feel any different, look any older? Then, when strange things start happening and people start following her, Kyra learns that maybe her crazed father might actually be on to something.
♥ My Thoughts: Kimberly Derting is an author that I’ve had my eye on for quite some time; I even have her other series on my bookshelf. So, when this ARC went up on Edelweiss, I immediately jumped at the opportunity to start fresh with some of her work, and I’m so thankful that I did. The Sci-Fi genre tends to bring out the nerd in me– the amazing potential to explore the vastness of the great unknown– and I think Derting’s approach was spectacular. It was easy to get swept up in her plot of these extraterrestrial beings and what they might want with so many teenagers. There were twists and turns, secret agencies, other returnees, and theories upon theories about what it all meant with an added bonus of supernatural powers. I ate it all up. I flipped through page after page in search of answers and falling in love with all the swoons provided by Tyler. There relationship- or maybe it was just him in particular- is the cutest, fluttery-flail-inducing kind of connection. I also instantly took to Kyra, feeling sympathetic toward her situation and cheered her own as she struggled to reinsert herself into a life that had already moved without her. I’ll limit myself to this much fangirling out of fear of spoiling something that I think is better left experiencing firsthand. But know this, I think this book is definitely worth looking into, even after the cliffhanger that made me eager for more.
♥ Swoons: Oh. Em. Gee! Yes, Tyler had me so giddy and fluttery with all the swoons. It got to a point where I was capslock texting Stacee all the quotes because I needed someone to flail with me, and luckily enough for me, she had already read and loved this, too. [I should note here that apparently Tyler is “hers” and apparently she has the “proof” from Derting to back it up. I call shenanigans. She’s a boyfriend stealer.]
♥ Swoony Teaser:
He made a face. “Ouch. Really? That’s what you think of when you think of me? Chalk?”
“That’s not bad, is it?” I laughed at his reaction, pushing off again and letting the swing drift. “Why? What do you remember about me?”
He stopped moving, stopped swinging as he inhaled, his eyes– those green eyes– following mine. “I remember thinking Austin was the luckiest guy I knew.”
~quote taken from the eARC of The Taking at 21%
♥ Rec It? Absolutely! This book has it all: mystery, action, romance, a little Sci-Fi and a little paranormal, all wrapped up with a bit of a contemporary feel as well. I’m definitely looking forward to more of these characters, more of this plot, and more words from this author, especially after that cliffhanger of an ending that left me staring at my Nook with my mouth hanging open.
♥ A very special thanks to HarperTEEN and Edelweiss for providing me an early copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.
