Taken by Kelli Maine, Book 1 of series
Review by: Wendy
3 stars
Rachael DeSalvo is out a club with her best friend. Her friend leaves with a guy leaving Rachael at the club. Rachael notices a hot guy checking her out, and lets him buy her a drink. The next thing Rachael knows is she is bound to a bed where she has been drugged and kidnapped.
Merrick Rocha is a billionaire CEO. In a desperate move decides the only way to get Rachael to accept a job as a Restoration Project Manager for Turtle Tear Hotel/Island is to kidnap her. Poor choice on his part.
Rachael can’t leave her mother, who is emotionally dependent after the death of her father, her roommate/BFF, and her internship. She feels she is needed more at home, and heartbreakingly declines the job she wants at Turtle Tree Hotel.
So, Merrick takes matters into his hands and believes if he can get her to the island she will fall in love and choose it over her obligations. He soon realizes his mistake in handling things in this way, and tells Rachael he will not touch her, she will have to make the first move, if she so wishes.
First let me say, this book was a little difficult to get started on. It is written in the second person, which is told from Rachael’s perspective as if she were thinking to herself about Merrick. So instead of words like “him” or “he” she says “you” or “your.” I personally do not think I have ever read a fiction book from this perspective. This made the first part of the book difficult to get into. I did not notice it as much in the latter half of the book as I got more into the story.
The storyline was interesting because it provided a different take on a version of Stockholm Syndrome. There was some definite sexual tension and weird blurred lines that were, in my opinion, crossed. I didn’t understand some of Merrick’s decisions, but I guess his decision making skills went out the window in the prologue.
Over all I liked the book, but I do wish it had been written in a different POV, I think the second person POV really distracted from the story.