The Replaced by Kimberly Derting (The Taking book 2)

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first book in the series, The Taking, Stop! I don’t want to ruin the series for you.

“How do you move forward after someone steals your past?”

It has been seventeen days since Kyra Agnew watched her boyfriend Tyler Wahl, her father and Agent Truman be abducted by the same aliens who took her five years earlier. The experiments/modifications they conducted on Kyra and the other Returned leaves their blood poisonous to humans. The only reason she and the others took Tyler to the Devil’s Hole to be abducted was a last ditch effort to save his life after he was accidentally exposed to Kyra’s blood. Her hope is that the aliens can cure him and be able to find him before the NSA’s Daylighter Division does.

While searching through a classified email that Jett intercepted from the NSA, they are discovered and locked out. Before that happens a popup containing only the word “supernova” is seen. Kyra is positive that it was from her father, a nickname he gave her. Simon and Jett try to convince her that it might be a trap, looking for the Returned. She takes in their looks of pity but is undeterred. The email from the NSA leads the to believe that the NSA might be holding Tyler at their Tacoma facility. Simon thinks that they should check it out even though it is the type of place the Returned should avoid. Kyra knows that Simon has his own reasons for going. She believes that the email is about Tyler because it was signed by Agent Truman, the same agent who disappeared the same night as Tyler and her father. Kyra is haunted by all that she has done and the unanswered questions. Jett knows that the Returned always come back after forty-eight hours. Kyra is the only known exception.

Simon, Jett and Kyra pack the SUV with supplies for their mission to rescue Tyler. Willow is tagging along but doesn’t think that the trip is a good idea. Things really take a weird turn when Natty decides to join them. The group is shocked even more when she and Thom share a tender goodbye. Things really get tense when Thom becomes the sixth man for the mission. He and Simon are able to put aside their differences during the trip. Throughout the drive, Kyra cannot help but wonder what Agent Truman might have in store for her.

Arriving at the Tacoma facility, they divide into two teams. Kyra isn’t happy that she isn’t initially on the team who will rescue Tyler. Plans are changed and Kyra will now be with Simon and Willow. She is floored to find out the plan for Jett’s team was to cause an explosion to draw attention away from their entrance. They make it to the enormous lab and find nothing. Willow goes off to search elsewhere, leaving Kyra and Simon in the main lab. Suddenly, the alarms stop blaring and the lights come back on. Hearing rushing footsteps, the two don’t know which way to run. Thanks to Kyra’s quick thinking and Simon’s steady hands, the two skip into a vent. Simon promises to take care of Kyra. Her worst fears come true when Agent Truman makes his presence known. He sends his best men out in hazmat suits to capture the dangerous teens. Looking behind them, Kyra sees a staircase leading down. They run through the maze of duct work until one of Truman’s agent grabs a hold of her wrist. He looks at her and says “It’s you!” Simon outs off some sort of knockout drug while Kyra holds her breath. The two are able to escape with Willow’s help.

Outside the building looking for the others, the three into Agent Truman again. He isn’t dressed in a hazmat suit like the others and is holding a gun. The trio is stunned when he pulls the trigger and shoots Simon. Willow goes to charge him and he shoots her as well.. Kyra cannot believe neither had blood spilled. Taking awhile to heal themselves, Several of Truman’s soldiers rush forward. They shoot a net at them, trapping Willow. Simon and Kyra run, leaving Willow behind, and meet up with the others.

Are Kyra and the others able to rescue Willow? Why wasn’t Agent Truman protected against Kyra’s blood? What has happened to Tyler? Will Kyra be able to find him? Was the popup message really from her father? Does Kyra’s heart completely belong to Tyler or is Simon worming his way? What is so special about Kyra that Agent Truman will stop at nothing to get her?

This trilogy will be completed in 2016.

Visit Kimberly’s Derting’s website.

The Taking by Kimberly Derting (The Taking book 1)

"What if the life you are living is not your own?"

"A flash of white light ... and then ... nothing."

After a fight with her father over her future, Kyra makes him stop the car by the side of the road so that she can get out. She will call her boyfriend Austin to come and pick her up. Kyra runs and falls on the asphalt. Picking herself up, she brushes the dirt and gravel from her clothes. Suddenly, all she can see is a blinding, white light. She hears her father screaming. Kyra feels dizzy and weightless, then, nothing.

Kyra wakes up with her head pounding, the feel of asphalt at her back and the smell of gasoline in the air. Realizing that something is hitting her in the head, she opens her eyes to blinding daylight. She sees a little boy and finds herself at the Gas 'N' Sip. Not knowing how she got there, Kyra sees that she spent the night behind a dumpster. She decides to call Austin because he and her parents are probably freaking out over her disappearance. She is shocked to see that her cell phone says “No Service.”

She begins to walk the short distance to her house and has a strange since of déjà vu. Her house looks the same but also different. The door is locked and the key is gone from over the doorway. She knocks on the door and a small boy peeks out of the window. Kyra is confused since she is an only child and her parents dote on her. Finally, an unfamiliar man opens the door and she is even more confused. The furnishings are different and the man offers to call for help. Confused, she looks across the street to Austin's house and notices his mother' car s in the driveway. She crosses the street and knocks on the back door. Austin answers and Kyra falls into his arms. Relieved, she hears Mrs. Wahl ask Tyler who is there. She pulls back to speak to her when Mrs. Wahl drops her coffee mug. Austin tells his mother that Kyra is there but Kyra notices that something is off about Austin’s voice. She looks at the arms around her waist; they aren't tan like they should be since Austin had just completed his lifeguard certification for the summer. She looks up at Austin's face and he has to catch her for a second time. Kyra isn't in the arms of her seventeen year old boyfriend Austin’s. She is in the arms of his younger brother, Tyler, who yesterday was twelve. Now, Tyler looks seventeen.

Kyra wakes up in Austin's bed. The general decor hadn't changed but things don't seem lived in. Mrs. Wahl tries her best to explain that five years have passed since Kyra went missing. Looking at Tyler, Kyra seems to believe her but when she looks at herself, she is confused. Kyra is still dressed in her softball uniform from the championship game, ribbons still woven in her hair from last night. She even still has the bruise on her leg from the previous night when she wrestled her best friend Cat for the remote. Mrs. Wahl tells her that her mother is on the way and hopefully she can explain things better. Kyra is watching out the front window when Tyler comes up behind her. He comments that things must be weird for her. Kyra sees her mother is driving a different car. She has the door open before her mother can knock and is in her arms. Her mother makes her promises and she asks where her father is. Before her mother can answer, the man who answered the door at her house comes up to them, with the toddler boy following along behind. Her mother endearingly calls the man "Grant.' He apologizes to her mother that he didn't recognize Kyra from the pictures. The little boy climbs into her mother's arms and says "Mommy!" Kyra immediately knows that her parents have continued on with their lives, separately, while she was supposedly missing. Her mother tells her that she didn't want her to find out this way. Kyra asks for her father. Her mother lets her know that he is on his way. Kyra goes back inside the Wahl's house, leaving her mother and new family outside.

Kyra goes back to Austin's bedroom and Tyler follows. She asks him if there is anything else she needs to know. He teases her and she wonders why she mistook him for his brother at first. She asks Tyler if she can call Austin. Tyler sits down beside her on the bed and he tells her that there is no need. His mother has already called him but she had to leave a message. She asks him how long her parents have been divorced. Tyler isn't sure but her father moved out a year after she disappeared. The police looked into the case, to no avail. Rumors started circulating that her father had something to do with her disappearance. Kyra is adamant that her father had nothing to do with it. His father, a policeman, believed that her father was innocent. Tyler asks; What did happen? Where has she been for the past five years? Kyra has no answers.

Kyra soon realizes that life has gone on without her. She is now a legal adult even though she looks the same as she did five years earlier. Her parents divorced over her father's theories over her disappearance. Her mother has started a new life and family while her father has a drinking problem and believes Kyra’s disappearance is because of alien abduction. Austin has moved on with his life, with her best friend, Cat. Tyler, who had a crush on Kyra when he was younger, is the one person who she can count on.

What really happened the night Kyra disappeared? Where was she for the past five years? Why is she unable to remember? How come she hasn't aged? What happens when Kyra begins to lean on Tyler more and sparks begin to fly? Will she ever find out what really happened? Was Kyra abducted by aliens?

Visit Kimberly Derting's website.