Review: The Taking – Kimberly Derting

Posted April 25, 2014 by Andi in Books, Review / 0 Comments

 

Review: The Taking – Kimberly DertingThe Taking by Kimberly Derting
Series: The Taking #1
Published by HarperTeen
Published: April 29, 2014
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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?

This book was just greatness. So great in fact I’m not sure where to start. I guess I should start by saying that at first when I read the description, I didn’t think this book was for me. I’m not one to read and love books about aliens and alien abduction. But a fellow reading junkie was reading it and talking it up. Since I had a copy I decided to go for it. And in a word, fan-freaking-tastic! I loved loved loved this book and it has become my first 5-star read of 2014(I’ve had many since. HEHE). Because even with the alien plot story, this book was more than a sci-fi book that doesn’t seem possible. It was also a love story and a hint of dystopian all in one.

The Taking is the story of Kyra, a normal teenage girl living a normal life. She’s the star of her high school softball team, has a boyfriend, Austin, who she thinks is amazing and has known her whole life and has loving parents. After a softball game and a fight with her dad over college and Austin, Kyra gets out of the car intending to walk off her anger. But before she can do anything there is a blinding flash and she’s gone. And as quickly as she disappeared she returns. However, it isn’t as quick as she thinks. What seems to be overnight to her has actually been 5 long years. The life she once knew is gone. Austin is off in college now dating her best friend, her parents have their own problems and everyone has seemed to age unlike her. This includes Austin’s brother Tyler who is now a 17-year-old hottie that Kyra can’t seem to stop thinking about. As Tyler and Kyra get closer, questions about her disappearance become harder and harder to ignore. And as the truth starts to show, Kyra is in for the biggest fight of her life just to keep the ones she loves safe.

Did I mention how amazing this book was? I’m not sure if I have clearly stated it so just in case, it’s so flipping good! The story, the characters, the pacing. It was all pretty awesome. I think what made me like this book despite the skeptical feelings I have on aliens, was the way that Kimberly Derting didn’t shove the alien stuff in your face from the start. It was there lingering in the background with mentions popping up, but what sucked me in was the human aspect of it first with the heart-pounding sci-fi part after. Derting let me, as a reader, get to know and love the characters of Kyra and Tyler. I got to root for them and want to hear their story before everything went haywire and the truth about Kyra’s missing time came to fruition. For a book like this, I think that course of action was perfect because I fell in love with the characters and therefore was invested in what happened to them regardless of the underlining circumstances.

And man did I love Kyra and Tyler. Tyler might just be one of the top 10 book boyfriends around. He made me swoon almost immediately. So much in fact that I wasn’t the least bit bothered by the somewhat instalove that happened. Instead, I was happy it happened because there was something there between him and Kyra from the first time they ‘met’. The two of them were the perfect counterparts and I was invested. And even when all the alien chatter really hit its stride, it didn’t really seem to matter. I just wanted to know what would happen to these characters I had fallen in love with.

Without giving anything away just know the story is filled with a lot of twists and interesting revelations that I didn’t see coming and an end that will knock your socks off leaving you pining for more. The book is a totally fast-paced read that will have you at the end of your seat and swooning at the same time. I don’t know what Ms. Derting has in store for us next in this series, but I’m officially in for the ride!

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0 responses to “Review: The Taking – Kimberly Derting

  1. The reviews for this are crazy mixed, but I’m still going to give it a try. Glad you loved it so much! I think Tyler sounds like a guy I can swoon over, even if the romance is kind of… icky? at first. We’ll see. 🙂

    • Funny thing is that I didn’t find the romance icky at all. Tyler seemed older than he was and I think it was written well so I never got that eww factor. I really hope you like it. It is my new book crack which is good because The Selection series is close to being over. 🙂

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