Early Review: The Taker by Alma Katsu

 

The Taker
Author:Alma Katsu
Release Date: September 6, 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN:   1439197059
ISBN13: 9781439197059
Genre: Paranormal/Historic Romance
Review Copy Source: Publisher

True love can last an eternity . . . but immortality comes at a price. . . .

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 mortality, 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, 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 lies with Dr. Luke Findley.

Part historical novel, part supernatural page-turner, The Taker is an unforgettable tale about the power of unrequited love not only to elevate and sustain, but also to blind and ultimately destroy, and how each of us is responsible for finding our own path to redemption.

I'm not huge into Historical type books so I really wasn't sure going into THE TAKER if it would be something I would enjoy. That is important to tell you because in a shocking switch I enjoyed the flashback/historical moments of the story the most. The story is about a woman Lanny who falls in love with a man (well boy as they were children when she fell in love with him) that will never love her back. The story switches from present day to past as Lanny recounts her centuries of life with and without this man by her side to an ER doctor Luke who happens to live in the town she is from. Luke is pulled to Lanny and her story from the beginning of the book and listens to everything she says as they escape the town Luke hasn't been able to break away from. Every word of THE TAKER is beautifully written while your pulled into this tragic love story. The plot flowed nicely and was quite different from what I usually read. I was disappointed with the ending, I was reading along and all of a sudden there was the acknowledgments right as It felt like stuff was about to happen so it was left feeling unfinished so I really hope that what I read from someone else's review of there being another book is true. THE TAKER is definitely worth the read if you enjoy historical type books and just might surprise you if you aren't usually taken with that sort of thing.

I gave it 3.5/5 stars