The Taking by Kimberly Derting

The Taking
(The Taking, #1)
by Kimberly Derting
Released |April 29th 2014 by HarperTeen|
Edition |eARC|
Source |Edelweiss|
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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?

I was pretty excited to get my hands on the Taking because I've read two books by the author and have enjoyed them. The Taking was different than any of the alien books that I've read. The main character Kyra gets taken after an argument she had with her father after her softball game. She's wakes up behind a dumpster and finds out that five years has past. She has no memory, whatsoever, of what happened to her during those five years. When she returned she thought it was the day after the fight with her dad after the softball game. That entire concept brought an entirely different twist on the story and I think I found that to be one of my favorite things in the book. I enjoyed the characters and the romance of the story, but it kind of took awhile for those action packed scenes to get started. Overall, the book was pretty good and I can't wait to check out the sequel.


Kyra, the main character, is so confused when she is returned. Not only has five years past, but during those five years her mom and dad are divorced and her mom is married to another guy and Kyra also finds out that she has a little brother. Excuse me?! When she was taken her parents were happily married AND ON TOP OF THAT her boyfriend, now 'ex' is in love with her best friend! So yeah, I could definitely understand why Kyra was so lost and confused about things and why she was so distant from her family. Kyra's dad was the interesting of the two parents. Everyone thinks he's crazy because of his obsession about Kyra being taken by aliens. Soon she starts to figures out that she's not aged a day since she was taken. That brought yet another twist to the story! Everyone around her has aged, but her. The difference she sees in everyone made me feel so bad for her because she's suppose to 21 and yet she still looks 16. Her old friends are in college and she still has to finish high school at some point.

The love interest, Tyler, is Austin's little brother. Austin is Kyra's ex boyfriend. I thought the relationship would be a little odd at first, but since Kyra technically hasn't aged since she was taken it wasn't all that weird to me. The romance is considered to be a little insta-ish because the book is set in a seven day time frame, but I found myself enjoying it. Tyler was a really sweet character and was the only person that Kyra connected with when she got home.

One of the things I had a problem with in this book was that the action didn't start happening until you get halfway through the book. But once things start happening, it didn't stop. With the NSA out to get her, Kyra has to make a run for it and along the way she met some pretty interesting people who are just like her. Overall, I really enjoyed the story and I'm excited to read the sequel because the book did leave off on a cliff hanger. I received a copy for review through Edelweiss. All thoughts are my honest opinion.