Review: Stolen by Lucy Christopher

Title: Stolen
Author: Lucy Christopher
Page Count: 299 pages
Summary: (from Goodreads) Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back? The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don't exist - almost.

Review: I picked up Stolen based on a few recommendations from other blogs - Let the Words Flow and YA Book Shelf and I definitely have to say I don't regret it!

It wasn't fast read, for me at least. I meandered through in a few days, just trying to soak up the Australian outback and get into the tone of the book. The writing was awesome and the thing that I liked most was the fact that I completely empathized with Gemma. I felt everything that she felt, which is so rare for me in a book. That last hundred pages flew by because I wanted to know what happened. I began to like Ty just as much as Gemma did, understanding and sympathizing with him that was she did. It was almost like I had Stolkholm's syndrome myself!

I really enjoyed this book - I loved the concept, the setting, the characters. Ty was a little creepy, but by the end of the book, I liked him a lot. Maybe it was because there was the distance of a book between us, but it was easy for me to forget what he'd done and start to like him. He was so into the desert and its beauty that it was hard to think that he could be evil.

My favorite part was the end because I wanted to know so much what would happen. There's one point that just tugged at my heartstrings and I was just a conflicted at the main character about what she should do.

I can't find one bad thing to say about this book, but I didn't think it was perfect. Maybe it was a little bit too slow or maybe the descriptions were a little too in-depth sometimes - I'm not sure exactly what could've been improved. When I closed it, I was satisfied, but not sad that it was over. An awesome book changes you, in some way, and this book only nudged me a little.

I'm not gonna rate the romance, so this is just overall:

Overall: 4.5/5 stars