Review: The Taking by Kimberly Derting

The Taking (The Taking #1) by Kimberly Derting

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?

Publishes in US: April 29th 2014 by HarperTeen
Genre: YA sci-fi
Source: Harper Teen via Edelweiss
Series? The Taking #1

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    I wanted to read Kimberly Derting because I have heard a lot about her previous series but the whole necromancer thing wasn't for me. But when I heard about a memory loss and the mystery of how she lost five years but didn't age, it really intrigued me. I was lucky enough to be approved to review on netgalley. 

    I connected with Kyra right away because she just seemed like a normal person. Given, she is a great pitcher and I am not athletic but its like living that dream without actually doing it. She is arguing with her dad when she sees a bright light and then the next thing she knows she wakes and everyone else has aged five years and moved on, but she doesn't realize what happens. 

    There was a nice hint at romance in the beginning, but they are thrown for a loop when she is five years younger all of the sudden and he is in college... It is an awkward situation with her and Austin especially since they were friends forever and then romantic and living across the street she also knew his family. The romance that developed five years later was a surprise in some aspects because of who it was, but I loved how it developed. Their conversations, his romantic gestures--drawings, texts, convos, etc. 

    The world building was pretty good, and although I was still left with questions, it was something that Kyra didn't know or even her dad who had been doing research the whole time she was gone. I am hoping that the next books will give more enlightenment on what the purpose of the Takings are and the technicallities of who gets returned and who doesn't. I did like the slow unfolding of Kyra and how she'd changed. I appreciated how Tyler believed her and that he cared for her all the same. 

    There were some pretty big twists in this, but looking back it was foreshadowed all along. It was pretty heartbreaking but I guess also necessary, although I'll admit I was thinking that Kyra would play a bigger role, but it makes sense for continuing on that it happened the way it was written. 

     The ending left me wanting more and wishing that I already had the next book. It semi wrapped things up, but it still left at a pretty dramatic moment, though it did give me some hope and a bit of lasting power until I can get the next one.

Bottom Line: Great premise, main character with a sweet romance.

My question to you, my lovely readers:
Have you ever experienced dejavu?