The Taking by Kimberly Derting

Series: The Taking (bk. 1)

Genera(s): Sci-fi Mystery/Romance

Subjects: abductions, abilities, aliens,

Setting: Burlington, Washington

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, past tense: Kyra Agnew

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 357 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover, now in Paperback

List Price: $17.99/$9.99

Publisher: HarperTeen

Summary/ product description: “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 Review:  I finally decided to start this series since I know the 3^rd book is coming out in 2 months and it’s spring break, so why not series-binge? The Taking was a fun, entertaining and mysterious sci-fi read. Perfect for fan of the X-files. I watched the new 6-part series recently, so I felt in the mood for some alien stuff.

Kyra Agnew, a 16-year old girl from Burlington, Washington, was taken after her high school softball team won the championship in 2009. She got into an argument with her dad, exited the car and saw a blinding light. She wakes up on the ground behind a gas station thinking she somehow choose to sleep outside for the night. She doesn’t find out that actually 5 years have gone buy since that night until mistake her boyfriend’s younger brother Tyler for her boyfriend Austin. Tyler who was only 12 last time she saw him, and is now suddenly looking 17. Austin is now 22 and at college.

Kyra should be 21 now, but she looks exactly the same as she did the night she disappeared, down to her clothes and the bruise on her leg. She discovers her parents divorced, he mother remarried and she now has a little half brother. Everyone is astounded at her return. Kyra is upset with how her family is not the same anymore and feel angry with her mother and jealous of her new brother, and even refuses to get to know her new stepfather. Her real father is living in a trailer park now, kicked out by her mother for spouting crazy ideas of alien abduction and other conspiracy theories. The NSA wants to speak with Kyra, and may want to even experiment on her. There’s a mysterious boy with coppery eyes that keeps showing up where she goes. The one bright spot in her life is Tyler, who listen to whatever Kyra has to say. Tyler, who she’s now falling for.

This was a thrilling, romantic, and awesome book. There’s not enough sci-fi YA book currently out there that are set in contemporary times. I love dystopian books, but once in a while I’d like some modern science fiction. Some “paranormal romance” book could as science fiction, I suppose.

I really liked the romance between Kyra and Tyler. Tyler so funny and sweet. He’s a book nerd and does sidewalk chalk drawing to impress Kyra. He’s very open about his feeling for her, extremely flirtatious. He doesn’t like to be serious because he makes jokes in serious situation. Kyra is more serious, but she can easily banter along with him. He jokes about her being a dumb jock when she calls him a nerd. It’s very cute. It also feels a little heart wrenching toward the end. I’m also hoping there will be no love triangle, so I’m just going to dive into the sequel without reading the description.

Also, I think that’s the way Kyra’s change since she got back is cool. The blood thing’s a bummer, but I hope the abilities develop. They seem to be stereotypical “enhanced” stuff, so I wonder if there’s more to come possibly.

I recommend this series to fan of: The Rules trilogy by Stacy Kade, Blackout by Robison Wells, Rush (the Game Trilogy) by Eve Silver. Pretty much anything with aliens, or teens gaining superpowers. X-file fans, Fringe fans, Kimberly Derting fans (I only read the Body Finder series).

Cover Art Review: Love the title made out of fireflies! Perfect!

Assassin’s Heart by Sarah Ahiers

Series: Assassin’s Heart (bk. 1)

Genera(s): High Fantasy/Romance

Subjects: assassins, murder, revenge, adventure, gods and goddesses, love, supernatural, ghosts, spirits

Setting: The kingdom of Lovero

POV/Tense: 1^st person, past tense: Lea (Oleander) Saldana

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 420 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover 

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: HarperTeen

Summary/ product description: “In the kingdom of Lovero, nine rival Families of assassins lawfully kill people for a price. As a highly skilled member of one of these powerful clans, seventeen-year-old Lea Saldana has always trusted in the strength of her Family. Until she awakens to find them murdered and her home in flames. The Da Vias, the Saldanas’ biggest enemy, must be responsible—and Lea should have seen it coming. But her secret relationship with the Da Vias’ son, Val, has clouded her otherwise killer instinct—and given the Da Vias more reason than ever to take her Family down.

Racked with guilt and shattered over Val’s probable betrayal, Lea sets out to even the score, with her heart set on retaliation and only one thought clear in her mind: make the Da Vias pay.

With shades of The Godfather and Romeo and Juliet, this richly imagined fantasy from debut author Sarah Ahiers is a story of love, lies, and the ultimate vengeance.”

My Review:  I had no idea what to expect with this book. When I first saw it coming out, I didn’t think it would be my kind of fantasy. The cover was kind of interesting. Then I read the description. I was a bit more intrigued. I tried reading it and I was pulled in. This is a really awesome unique fantasy story.

There are assassins, Families, ghosts and gods. Lea’s a Saldana and bear a mask that’s half bone white and half black with a design, like the rest of her Family. She has dirty blond hair and brown eye and she’s a Clipper, an assassin who takes jobs to murder in the name of the goddess Safraella. Lea is romantically involved with a rival Family member, Val Da Via, who’s blonde, sexy and arrogant. This forbidden romance between rival families has the influence of the play Romeo and Juliet.

Lea’s Family is killed in a fire set by the Da Vias and she’s the last Saldana left. Lea wants revenge and meets with the king, who’s a friend of her now dead father. He gives her the location of her only living relative, her uncle. Lea travels to another country full of canals and angry ghosts that haunt the night. There she meets dark-haired Alessio (Les). He’s a wannabe Clipper. She agrees to train him in exchange for his help in making a fire-bomb.

A romance develop between them. I really liked Alessio. I know rightaway her was going to be important, even before we know his name. Just based off the way he was described in the market. He’s funny and sweet. Lea’s a badass and trains him. It made me think of Wren and Callum from Reboot, or other relationships from YA books. I enjoy the humor and banter between them. The ending was pretty good. I found out there’s a sequel that possibly a companion. I’m guessing it’s from another character, maybe in the future (Allegra maybe…)

I recommend this to fans of Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, The Young Elites or Legend by Marie Lu, Divergent by Veronica Roth, Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Page, The Jewel by Amy Ewing, Defiance by C.J. Redwine, Snow Like Ashes by Sarah Raasch, and Shadow and Bone by Leugh Bardugo.

Cover Art Review: This cover put me off because I didn’t understand it. Now I read the book and know that’s the holy coin of the Saldanas and not some strange medallion. I like the velvet texture of the paper.

Dove Exiled by Karen Bao

Series: Dove Chronicles (bk. 2)

Genera(s): Dystopian Sci-fi/Romance

Subjects: moon, space, space colonies, ocean, sea colonies, adventure, war, love

Setting: In Odan, a village on one of the British Isles, floating cities, a moon colony

POV/Tense: 1st person POV, present tense: Phaet Theta

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 297 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Penguin: Viking

Summary/ product description: “The thrilling follow-up to the groundbreaking debut Dove Arising.

Phaet Theta fled the Moon and has been hiding on Earth with her friend Wes and his family. But Phaet’s past catches up with her when the Lunar Bases attack the community and reveal that Phaet is a fugitive. She’s torn between staying on Earth with Wes—whom she’s just discovered her feelings for—and stowing away on a Moon-bound ship to rescue her siblings from the wrath of the government who killed their mother. But when Phaet makes the agonizing decision to return to the Moon, she finds the rebel movement there has turned her into their “Girl Sage,” a symbol of their struggle. She’s the biggest celebrity on the Moon: half the people worship her, and the other half want her dead.”

My Review:  Dove Exiled is the sequel to Dove Arising. It starts out with Phaet on Earth, in a town called Odan with Wes. Odan is on an island within the Bristish Isles archipelago. The Odans hate technology and chemicals and use only organic stuff. The use bioluminescent bacteria for lights at night. They make their own clothes.

The Odan’s are not sure what to make of Phaet. Wes and her concoct a back-story the she is Fay, and was an engine room slave in Pacifia, a floating city that has a population made primarily of Asian people.  The Odans call Lunars “demons” because their lack of religion, and the Odans a very religious. This is mainly why Phaet could not tell then that she is Lunar.

Wes’s dad discovers her true identity and is not too happy about it. Wes and Phaet are exiled, but decide to help the Odans out and set off for the floating city of Battery Bay to help them because Pacifia is planning to attack Odan. Phaet wants to use Pacifia to get back to Base IV on the moon and save her brother Cygnus who’s being tortured there.

I really thought the idea floating cities was cool. I thought they were going to be just huge ships, but they are actually floating cities. Real cities with roads or cannels, tall towers and homes. One was called Tourmaline, which is this really beautiful long, straight gemstone.

Phaet gets back to the moon, and is a fugitive and trying to save her brother. Phaet get turned into a legend, a symbol of rebellion, kind of like Katniss as the Mockingjay, or even Mare as the Red Queen. They call her the Sage Girl. The rebellion called Dovetail, originally formed by Phaet’s mother, came up with a plan for the council election. Something causes difficulties for their plans.

This sequel was not bad, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first book. It was a lot shorter, and also I forgot what happened exactly in the previous book. I think the book begins month later after the first book ended.

I recommend this book series to fans of: Divergent by Veronica Roth, Cinder by Melissa Meyer, The Hunger Games, Matched or Atlantia by Ally Condie, Reboot by Amy Tintera, and other various dystopian series. Also, if you enjoy books set in space, like Across the Universe by Beth Revis.

Cover Art Review: Much better than previous book’s cover. Cool illustrations. Love the city in the background.