Taken by Zia Marie

"Lately, I think you've forgotten which side you're on," he says to me. Instead of responding, I smile. I know exactly which side I'm on. Whichever one gets me the hell out of this place.
* * * *
All Jackson Smith wanted to do was take his little sister Aubrey to a county fair, but they ended up in the town of Wicker Farm, a place that doesn't even exist on Earth as he knows it. Run by the ambitious and diabolical Governor Richards, Wicker Farm is in the process of rebuilding following a disease that wiped out most of of the population of the state. Anyone who ends up there is expected to stay forever.

With the governor's forces everywhere, escape seems impossible-- not that Jackson can even begin to figure out how to escape. That is, until he forms an uneasy alliance with Russell Tremell, the young leader of The Resistance, the rebel group that opposes the governor.

If Jackson can lead two lives, moving up the ranks as the perfect Wicker Farm resident while working for The Resistance, he may be the key to getting everyone out. This means bringing the danger even closer, from Richards' security officers and from the temptations that Wicker Farm offers: the type of life he never would have had access to in his world.

But after finding himself torn between Charlie, the Resistance wild child, and Sasha, Governor Richards' daughter, the real danger could come from the unlikeliest source-- from falling in love.
The first book in the YA sci-fi/dystopian adventure, The Taken Trilogy. "Lost," the second book, is scheduled for a December 2011 release.


I liked the idea behind the story, that there is this mysterious town that Jackson and his sister Aubrey end up in accidentally when going for a drive one day, but they get trapped there. There is this whole idea behind the story is that is this a better place than their home or a dangerous town that they must get out of as soon as possible. The only thing is..how? They seem to have traveled through a portal into another world. There has been a recent loss of several of the townspeople and they have opened the portal to repopulate. Once you cross over, you cannot go back. There is a also a resistance group of rebels in the town that Jackson forms an alliance with, but ends up falling for the Governor's daughter and torn on what to do.
I had a friend recommend this book to me, she referred to it as a Twilight Zone feel to it, and I couldn't agree more. That is exactly the feel you get from this book.

There were a few times that the pacing of the story and the unraveling of mystery dropped in intensity. I kept wanting to see huge fight scenes, escaping and running for your life kind of stuff, but it was more of an slower unraveling and getting to know several characters in the town on more personal levels than a high paced story. Jackson is an intelligent guy and I loved his sister as well. I am not a big fan of romance, sometimes it takes away from the story and the pacing in my opinion. But in this story the romantic aspect is a big part of the plot, will Jackson choose to get him and Aubrey back home or will he choose to stay?