The Taking by Kimberly Derting eARC Review!

      

Title : The Taking
Author : Kimberly Derting
Pages : 320
Published : April 2014
Publisher : HarperTeen
Source : Edelweiss

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?

My Thoughts : 

When Kyra wakes up at the back of the Gas N Sip she wonders how she got there. The last thing she remembers is having an argument with her dad the night before in their car. She remembers getting out and falling, then nothing after. She is weary of what her parents will say after she stayed out all night but heads home anyway. When she gets there a stranger answers the door. She has no idea why there is a strange man and child there. She goes across the road to her boyfriends house only to have his younger brother, Tyler, answer. Yesterday he was only small but now he is a teenager!! She finds out that what was a day for her was 5 years for her family. How could 5 years pass in the blink of an eye and yet she is still the exact same as yesterday?? She is still wearing the same clothes. What happened to her? 

Sometimes you go into a book with no expectations only to have that book blow you away!! I adore Kimberly Dertings writing and books and this is no exception. 

Kyra was such an awesome character. When she wakes up her only fear is what her parents will say to her for staying out all night!! Then to come home and find that 5 years had past and her mother had remarried and had a child and her father is a drunk that spouts out rubbish about aliens!! At first she doesn't believe them but even she cant deny that years seemed to have past. The whole plot could of been very cheesy but with Dertings writing style and attention to detail we are left with a believable book. Kyras confusion and distrust were portrayed perfectly. You could imagine what is going through her brain but with all the facts layed out she may have no choice but to believe. 

Tyler was sheer perfection! He took a tiny bit of my heart ;) He was only small when Tyra disappeared but never forgot her. Even when his brother was dating her he had a major crush on her. When she turns up again he is her rock. He is thoughtful, funny, kind and an overall nice guy. The little things he does for Kyra show his feelings. While I thought that their romance was very rushed at the start it was still so sweet. Usually I hate Insta love but Tyler made me not care. I wanted him to be happy!!

The start of the book is a bit slow but once Kyra meets the NSA and the other "Taken" the plot really heats up. Its action packed, suspenseful and exciting. I loved everything about it. The whole idea of the aliens was thrilling and the fact that the Taken come back changed was awesome. Tyler was a complete sweet heart and added a bit of laughs. My heart was breaking at a certain part of the book and I had tears streaming down my face. It was pulse pounding, edge of your seat, biting your nails type of scene!! This is just a teaser of whats to come and I honestly cant wait for book 2. Derting has created a fantastic start to a series that promises to be absolutely amazing!!