Terry’s Review of “The Overtaking”, by Victorine E. Lieske
Author’s Product Description
Shayne Bartlet has been kidnapped, his powers disabled and his memory altered. He’s not having a good day. And he doesn’t even know it.
When Shayne’s telepathic abilities surface, he finds out Danielle isn’t the normal teenager she appears to be. In fact, she’s not even from his world. And when he finds out her race is responsible for the overtaking of his entire planet, he sets out to uncover the truth about her.
Danielle didn’t mean to fall in love with a Maslonian boy. Her job was to observe and report. But when Shayne’s well being is at stake she goes against orders to help him, putting her own self in danger.
Together, Danielle and Shayne discover that things are not as they seem. They must stop Danielle’s race from destroying the Maslonian planet, and free Shayne’s people.
** SPOILER ALERT ** Be advised I have included some minor spoilers below.
Since I don’t haunt the Young Adult romance aisle of the bookstore, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I read this novel. What I got was an enjoyable read and characters I truly cared for. Shayne and Danielle are strong, likeable characters put into an interesting and twisty situation. Danielle and her people have been kidnapping people from Shayne’s world for a long time. Now Danielle is hunting for Shayne while he is trying to stop them.
In the process of them dealing with their divergent goals, they fall in love. They also encounter other honorable people and villains. These secondary characters didn’t have the same depth and development as the primary characters. For the most part that isn’t a major problem, however I would have liked to have seen them more fleshed out.
Since this story is a romance and not science fiction, I kept a more open mind when it came to some of the futuristic plot elements. A few of them had me raising an eyebrow, they didn’t detract from the romance storyline.
I would have liked to see a bit more ambiguity when figuring out who the bad guys were. I think that would’ve helped ratchet up the action and conflict. Maybe that is not the way Young Adult Romance handles things. Again, this really didn’t detract from the story for me.
I liked this book a lot and none of the issues I mentioned really slowed me down as I read the story.
I’ll have my eye on Victorine and will grab the her next book when it comes out.
I give this book four out of five stars.
