The Taking by: Kimberly Derting

Title:  The Taking
Author:  Kimberly Derting
Genre: Romance, Sci-Fi, YA/Teen
Age:  12+
Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

Summary:

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?   (Taken from the Goodreads website)

Reaction:

Well, that was definitely not what I was expecting.  When I first read about this book I thought that it was going to be the typical girl falls in love with alien book, but I was wrong on both accounts.  This book in fact is not a super cliché book, and it is very unique.  I will admit that this book does get cliché in some moments (like the super insta-love in this book).  In case you wanted to know this book takes place over one week...ONE WEEK!!!!  The only other book I've read that time goes by in a short period of time is the "Ruby Red" series.  But, this book was still good and I enjoyed it very much.

Characters:

Kyra Agnew:
How should I start with Kyra.  Well, I didn't connect with her on any level.  She fought with her dad over the stupidest thing which ended up getting her abducted.  She also has a major case of awkward insta-love...very awkward.  Now, this doesn't mean that I didn't like Kyra, she was funny and easy to read about, but I just didn't connect with her at all.


Tyler:
Yes, we all know that you are very attractive, have all the right things to say, and you are perfect...so you are the next and last cliché in this book.  Tyler is "practically perfect in every way" which is like every other YA male.  Tyler is also technically five years younger than Kyra which is a little weird, but I thought Tyler was funny so I'll let him off the hook, this time.

Overall:

A fairly enjoyable book that I don't regret reading.  I think you should pick this one up if you enjoy reading about government conspiracies or romance, because this book mainly focuses around these two topics. 

Big test tomorrow :( -Terantum