Taken by Nikita King
My rating: 4/5 cats
this book just goes to show that you can be in a monsterporn reading group with someone and still not know just what they’re capable of.
and THIS is why we don’t get up to use the bathroom. because a cat’ll just flop down on your chocolate-covered almonds, shove your sparkling ice out the way, and force you to go “aaawwwww!” and stop reading because you need to take pictures of how cute she is.
this book starts out as a sort of traditional fantasy-daydream, but then it goes through some very surprising and dark turns. forty-one-year-old beth lowe is a regular woman—bookish, concerned about her weight, a little bored, and in the middle of an amicable, but still disruptive, divorce. she’s got a little celebrity crush on roman reed, the lead singer of phantom, whose music is a sort of bonding point she shares with her young autistic son joey. one night, she and a friend take joey to a phantom concert, where they have paid for backstage access, and everything is going well until three masked men show up to kidnap roman in a revenge and remuneration plot. one of the men is smitten with beth’s boobies, and decides take her as well, as a bonus. beth doesn’t want to put joey in harm’s way, to be added to the hostage pool, and since he is safe with her friend, she doesn’t protest when she is hauled off with roman.
and at first, it’s not so bad, for a kidnapping. she’s stuck in a cage with a man she’s fantasized about before, and the kidnappers are treating her (if not roman) really well—they bring her toiletries and food and a futon and even an ipod with music she chooses herself. and although she thinks:
Being kidnapped anytime would not be fun. I’d never read a book where a person was kidnapped and they had a good time. Never had someone kidnapped another with the intent on playing a game of Monopoly. Kidnappings were bad and lots of bad stuff happened while people were held captive,
at first, this may as well be a monopoly-abduction. sure, roman is actually kind of a jerk, and she misses joey, and it’s weird to discover that one of the kidnappers is kind of hot and seems to be very apologetic and concerned that she got roped into this. but the other kidnapper, the one who loves her boobies, is still a little creepy, so it’s not all relaxing.
for a while, the “nice” kidnapper keeps sicko in line, and beth and roman are forced to get to know one another. and a sweet escapist fantasy develops, even though it is in a very untraditional setting. removed from the rest of the world, away from the distractions and the trappings of celebrity, these two people really get to know each other—they open up and eventually there are feeeeeelings. and it’s sweet—beth is plucky and funny, and she’s not going to let roman reed walk all over her just because he’s used to women falling for him and she’s nursed her own fantasies. but now that she’s actually getting to know him as a man instead of an idol, real feelings can develop, not just a schoolgirl crush. and for his part, roman is discovering the hidden depths to beth, depths which his recent “relationships” have lacked. he even listens to her talk excitedly about twilight for a long time, baffled, but paying close attention.
Hell, maybe I could even get some tips from this Edward guy since Beth seemed to get excited about him. But to me Edward was coming off as a stalker. I didn’t have to stalk Beth. She was already here.
Shit! Am I comparing myself to a sparkly vampire? God, this basement is making me insane.
it’s funny, it’s sweet, it’s an unconventional romcom.
but they are still in a cage. so there’s that.
and then the story shifts from a romcom to something closer to romantic suspense, where the perilous aspects are heightened times a thousand. and sweetness is left far behind.
and THEN, just when you thought you had a handle on where the story would be going, things go off into bizarro territory. i mean, DAMN. i did not see that coming, and it was horrifically chilling and right now i’m a little scared of sunny. it definitely ends on a cliffhanger, and i’m glad she sent me the second part to this as well. because i need to know what the psychological repercussions of this kinda situation are. i’m pretty sure this is unprecedented.
well done, sunny! you have made love and terror go together like a bird and feather.
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