Taken by Mary Anne Mushatt

Taken is a daring story where Elizabeth is abducted from her family as a small child and is found and brought up by the Bennet’s as their own. This premise is very different from canon and even if I don’t usually like stories where Elizabeth is not a Bennet, I decided to read it because Taken appeared to be an adventurous book with a lot of character growth.

I was not wrong as Ms. Muschatt cleverly created a complex family background that I really liked in the beginning of the book. There is more to the story then Elizabeth not being a Bennet, and those additional layers to the story were very interesting to read. 

However, as the story progressed, I felt that too much attention was dedicated to other family members and their own storylines, which diverted the attention from Elizabeth and Darcy’s story. I did like to read more about some other characters, and some twists were interesting, such as Mary’s close connection to Elizabeth, but I would have liked to see more developments in Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship, especially because I found Darcy’s love to be too deep and sudden, he barely knew Elizabeth and he couldn’t think of anything else except her. I believe that if more attention would have been given to them, instead of extensively developing the other characters’ storylines, the story would have been more to my taste. 

Another quibble I had with this story was Darcy and Elizabeth’s characters. Once more, I really enjoyed the character growth and even the storyline of some minor characters such as Caroline Bingley, whose storyline was incredibly interesting, but Darcy and Elizabeth felt too different from cannon for my taste. Darcy was very easily persuaded and influenced by some of his family members, and even made an offer to Elizabeth I don’t believe he would ever do, and Elizabeth seemed perfect in everyone’s eyes, which is not something I associate with her. She had as many faults as Darcy in P&P, and that is the beauty of the book and their relationship in my perspective. I undertsand this Elizabeth went through different circunstances that shaped her character, but by changing her so much, Ms. Muschatt made me feel disconnected with this Elizabeth.

Nevertheless, this book has engrossing original characters that will be in the center of some family dynamics that will make the reader question what is really important in life and where loyalties truly lie, so this is an appealing aspect of the book.

Taken is a very well written and complex story full of original and interesting characters, so if you like to read family sagas, this might be for you.

You can find Taken at:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk