The Taken One
by Brittney Sahin
Brittney Sahin always finds a way to up the intensity and bring a brand new book boyfriend and sister-friend to my kindle. The Taken One does all of that and is divine in its ability to balance suspense, intrigue, passion, and heart.
Building on a solid second chance romance premise, The Taken One takes on a life of its own as Gray and Tessa are thrown back together in a series of situations that make fate as much the star as the main characters. Add in elements of age-gap, forbidden romance, and some forced proximity to the mix with Sahin’s brilliantly intense signature suspense and you have a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat, up-all-night-reading epic romance.
Gray and Tessa are two incredibly well developed characters surrounded by a host of familiar faces and names who help bring them and their relationship to life. And it truly is a beautiful relationship, forged in renewed trust and rekindled through solid chemistry. The steam factor is enough to make you reach for a cold glass of water—to drink or to pour over your head, either way, you’ll need something to cool you off while reading this book. Not only are the bedroom scenes spicy, but so are the characters themselves. Gray is all kinds of growly goodness, and Tessa definitely holds her own in the independent and sassy register of Sahin heroines.
In addition to the Falcon Falls Security team, several familiar favorites from Sahin’s Stealth Ops series drop in to enhance the plot and provide assistance along the way. At the same time, they offer some interesting insights into whose story may be coming next. The banter between and among the characters is solid, lending even more reality to the intense situations they find themselves in.
I definitely recommend having some tissues on hand for this one. Sahin will take you on a wild rollercoaster ride of a story, dropping you squarely in your feels multiple times. I also recommend reading the Falcon Falls Security series in order to achieve the best satisfaction from this story. Just don’t be surprised if you also want to go back and binge read her Stealth Ops series once you finish The Taken One. And yes, it is 100% worth it.
