Title: Taken
Author:  Kelli Maine
Publisher/Year:  Grand Central Publishing 1/8/13
Length:  256 Pages
Series: Give & Take #1

Overview

ABDUCTION

He steals her away to a deserted island, to the one place she’s dreamed of being-the one place she can’t go. He’s used to buying whatever he wants, but he can’t buy her.

SEDUCTION

How can she resist the magnetism of his body, the longing ache deep inside her? She wants him to take her-on her terms.

DESPERATION

Every attempt he makes to love her only hurts her. How can they go on like this? This is the story of how she was . . .

TAKEN

My Thoughts

So….i got an ARC of Given – the third book in the series, so of course that meant that i had to start reading from the beginning.  Now though, the question that i have is …..Do i still read the rest of it?  I don’t know.  Knowing me, i’ll tough it out, but let me get into why i’m saying that.

What we have here is a story about Rachael, our leading lady – a girl who has always put others first because of necessity and well, it’s time for her to take control…although that control is taken away from her.  We also have our leading man Merrick – the billionaire CEO of a company that wants Rachael to project manage a renovation of a hotel property that they both seem passionate about.  When we first meet them, it’s during a skype interview of sorts when we see Rachael being drawn into the appeal of Merrick, and he offers her the job based on how much she seems to love the property.

fast forward 3 months and we are in a bar with Rachael and her friend Shannon and she sees a stunningly handsome man walking her way.  He feels familiar yet she doesn’t know why.  Us readers of course connect the dots and know that it’s Merrick, but she’s slow on the uptake.  It’s only after he buys her a drink, she blacks out and wakes up to find herself tied to a bed that she begins to learn that this stranger has taken her and is none other than Merrick.

That’s not really where the story goes wrong for me – it’s the POV and the writing style that does it in for me.  The plot itself has so much potential, but there’s something that just bugs me about the constant ‘you’ reference – like it’s in the 2nd person tense and that we get it at 100% rachael’s POV – but it’s just awkward.

The entire story though is of the 2 of them fighting their attraction from each other or at least Rachael fighting it, all the while working with Merrick to renovate the place and make it what it once was.  There’s a lot of sexual tension among these two, and Rachael keeps pushing him away.

At best, i feel like this story was passable as it was written.  i think that if the style had been better, or the heated scenes at the end just been re-worded, there could have been so much more that could have gone right.  The only thing that i can hope for is what i’ve seen in other series that i’ve been less than thrilled with the intro – that the next installment gets better – by force of the editor or just the author getting her footing a bit more.  we’ll have to see.