Stolen by Shiloh Walker
Ballantine Books
Contemporary, Suspense
ISBN: 978-0345531902
Reviewed by Miranda

Author Shay Morgan lives in seclusion in Earth’s End, Alaska. She prefers a life of solitude only interacting with others on her terms. There is only one person that ever tested her resolve. She wanted to keep local book store owner Elliot Winters to herself but her fear and insecurities had her keeping him at arms-length. Ex-Military man Elliot could only take that so long. He wanted more from Shay. Now they are forced back together when someone tries to systematically claim Shay’s life. Shay is thrust out from the safety of her home to hunt for the person trying to destroy her. At the end of this journey Shay will learn some lessons. Will one of them be to open her heart to love or will she discover you can never outrun your past?

Shiloh Walker’s Stolen is an intense contemporary suspense novel. When I was a little girl I remember watching a movie called The Net and how it forced me to think about how we could become cut off from society by our new technology. Well Stolen takes this to new extremes that fits in today’s society. I feel that a person suffering from any form of paranoia should not read this because it will feed into it. There was many times where I was thinking “holy crap” because of the way Shay’s life was being taken away from her. I was fascinated by all the intricate ways Shay’s technology was turned against her and that sounds really bad doesn’t it, lol. I find it interesting because I look at how we all lean on our technology today and how we are destroyed when someone decides to take an identity or worse. It definitely made me want to keep all of my identifying documents safer.

While I did enjoy this element of the plot, I felt that the culprit was too easily identifiable and it was too easy to figure out why they were doing it. I could have lived with knowing who a fourth of the way into the book if I didn’t already suspect why they were doing it. I am on the fence about Elliot and Shay as a couple. They have some very sweet moments together but I never felt that passionate burn between them and that may be because of the characters pasts. I just never felt their love on the page. Stolen is a so-so for me if you enjoy books heavy on romance then I would pass on this. This is definitely a plot driven story focusing heavily on the suspense elements.