STOLEN by Lucy Christopher

Gemma, 16, is on layover at Bangkok Airport, en route with her parents to a vacation in Vietnam. She steps away for just a second, to get a cup of coffee. Ty--rugged, tan, too old, oddly familiar--pays for Gemma's drink. And drugs it. They talk. Their hands touch. And before Gemma knows what's happening, Ty takes her. Steals her away. The unknowing object of a long obsession, Gemma has been kidnapped by her stalker and brought to the desolate Australian Outback.

STOLEN is her gripping story of survival, of how she has to come to terms with her living nightmare--or die trying to fight it.

I found this book at the library and borrowed it right away. It's one of those books that I've noticed online several times and had my eye on it, but for some reason never got around to actually buying it. It's just one of those things, and I've got many other books on the same list. I really should write them down, instead of trying to keep them inside my head...

Anyway. It took me a few days to read it because I was so wrapped up in my own writing, but when I got to the last 100pgs, I just read it in one sitting. This is quite an intense book, and it deals with a horrible subject because the main character--Gemma--gets kidnapped by a man at Bangkok Airport. He takes her to Australia, to the middle of nowhere and she hates every minute of it.

The strange thing about the captor, Ty, is that as delusional, strange, and even crazy as he is, he really loves Gemma. So much that he's convinced that by taking her away from her parents, friends, and London, he's actually doing her a favour. He's also positive that the longer she stays with him, the sooner she'll fall for him too. It's quite bizarre, but even stranger is the problematic relationship between them. He might want her, but he never actually physically hurt her.

Well, except for 'stealing' her from her life.

In the end, the experience really screws her around and she winds up both hating and loving him (in some really screwed up Stockholm syndrome way). I also didn't see the end coming, and was really glad to see that it surprised me. There was nothing predictable about this story.

It was scary, haunting, and really sad... but I'm sure glad that I finally read it. :)