I bought this book after listening to a fragment on Bookalio.us the short snippet that Pam read had me intrigued and so I immediately rushed out and picked up a copy for myself. I started to read it the day after it arrived on a trip my friend and I took to the beach – which just added to the ambiance of the read. Unfortunately I had to put it down soon after to read some review books but thoughts of this story stayed with me. When I was finally able to pick it up again I was kept up late reading. I was so engrossed….no that’s not the right word….I was addicted to the story.

Stolen by Lucy Christopher is like no other book that I’ve read its a book that trumps everything that I’ve read so far this year. And as I’ve read some pretty amazing reads that is saying a lot. This book is unique in so many ways. First there are no real chapters to speak of….just short breaks here and there in the narrative. The narrative itself is also fairly unique in that it is a letter….a very long letter written by Gemma – who is the victim of Ty. Ty….words are so hard to describe him. He is the abductor, the villian, the tortured soul who thinks he is saving Gemma from the evils of the world. He is a person that you think you should hate and despise but find that you can’t. Ty defies all that it means to be a villian because while he has done something bad he isn’t a bad person. Then there is the setting – the outback of Australia – which because more then just a setting and turns into a character all on its own.

This is a novel that I had no expectations of before walking into it and now that I have finished it I don’t have the words to say just how truly amazing it was. Gemma’s voice is unique and real and touches the very soul inside you. As a reader you turn the pages wondering just where it will all end and what choice Gemma will make. You are torn between wanting her to escape and return to the life she lead before and wanting her to stay and make a life with Ty. These conflicting emotions become a struggle – both with the reader and with Gemma – and there are no easy answers. There is only this book that is filled with such prose and detail that you can almost touch the desert sands. (Of course it probably doesn’t hurt that I read the bulk of this sitting on my balcony on a very hot summer day.) This is a book that I will become a champion for and Lucy Christopher is an author that I will be eagerly waiting to see what she comes up with next. Although I think that Stolen will be incredibly hard to surpass.

And seriously folks, if you only pick up one book this year, then it should be this one. Its just that good.