Review: The Taker by Alma Katsu

ISBN #: 978-1-4391-9705-9

Page Count: 436

Copyright: 2011

Book Summary:

(Taken from dust jacket flaps)

On the midnight shift at a hospital in rural Maine, Dr. Luke Findley is expecting another quiet evening of frostbite and the occasional domestic dispute.  But the minute Lanore McIlvrae - Lanny - walks into his ER, she changes his life forever.  A mysterious woman with a past and plenty of dark secrets, Lanny is unlike anyone Luke has ever met.  He is inexplicably drawn to her ... despite the fact that she is a murder suspect with a police escort.  And as she begins to tell her story, a story of enduring love and consummate betrayal that transcends time and morality, Luke finds himself utterly captivated.

Her impassioned account begins at the turn of the nineteenth century in the same small town of St. Andrew, Maine, back when it was a Puritan settlement.  Consumed as a child by her love for the son of the town's founder, Jonathan, Lanny will do anything to be with him forever.  But the price she pays is steep - an immortal bond that chains her to a terrible fate for all eternity.  And now, two centuries later, the key to her healing and her salvation hinges on outrunning her past.

Mandy's Review:

Cover

I am pretty taken with this cover.  The gold lettering and filigree set against the turquoise cover and blurred blackness of a mansion give the cover a little elegance and spookiness, at the same time.

Plot

A skillful blending of past and present keeps the reader intrigued and wanting to know more.  I wouldn't say it's a book I didn't want to put down, but I was taken with its concept and originality.

The reader is introduced to characters who can never die, unless it's at the hand of the one who made them.  They're not vampires, though!  Instead, the author introduces a new, alternative way for staying alive forever.

Main Characters

Lanore - I don't think I have seen anyone more obsessive over a person than Lanore.  This chic just could NOT let the man she loved go ... even after his infidelities and promiscuities.  She was always rushing into situations and then wishing she could take back the irrevocable actions she had done ... kind of annoying, really.

Jonathan - This man was fine.  Every girl that saw him, wanted him.  He was a born player, but I don't blame him.  I think he did it to rebel against the pressures of his family's and society's expectations of his position.

Adair - Born of a gypsy family, he was sold by his father into servant hood.  He endured terrible ordeals at the hand of his master and, when finally free, was changed for the worse as a result.

Overall

I commend the author for uniqueness and for ingenuity, but I did not appreciate the very first word of the novel being the unnecessary and offensive 'GD' explicative.  I saw that and almost closed the book right then and there.  There was no need for it in my opinion.

Other than that, I enjoyed this novel, but probably would not read it again.