REVIEW: The Taking by Kimberly Derting

The Taking - Kimberly Derting

Genre: YA Paranormal

Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads

Goodreads 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?

THIS WAS SO INTRIGUING! I honestly couldn't put it down! It follows Kyra, a 16 year old girl who wakes up behind a dumpster and finds that five years have passed and yet she hasn't aged a day. All she remembers is seeing a flash of light before finding herself somehow in the same clothes, with the same bruises she had the day she disappeared, even though five whole years have gone by. DOESN'T THAT INTRIGUE YOU? COZ IT SHOULD. IT'S AN EXCELLENT CONCEPT. OKAY, ENOUGH WITH THE CAPS LOCK. OKAY. 
Wow. This was absolutely excellent! The thing I'm seeing most in people's reviews is that they didn't like the instalove. BUT... If you were in Kyra's shoes and had come home to realise everyone thought you were dead for five years and your old boyfriends brother is helping you figure it all out, wouldn't you want to cling to someone who reminds you of the past? You wouldn't want to go through this alone, and you would have probably done the exact same thing Kyra did. You've just got to put things into perspective here. Her situation is far from normal. So instalove is allowed to happen, in my opinion. 
I really don't want to say much, except that the writing was beautiful and the story was so unique and gripping that it will keep you up all night just wanting to know how the heck this whole situation happened. Such an excellent start to an amazing new trilogy!