Taken by Storm by Angela Morrison

Isadore took everything from Michael. She was vicious, brutal, and unrelenting. In her wake she left Michael friendless and orphaned. That is how he came to live with his paternal grandmother in the small rainy town in the Northwestern US rather than in sunny Arizona or balmy Florida. After the hurricane killed everyone on the scuba-diving boat trip, Michael didn't have anything left. He kept his dive log and used it as a type of therapeutic journal when Isadore became too much for him to bear.

Until he meets quiet, enigmatic, Mormon Leesie (dubbed The Ice Queen by fellow classmates), Michael thought he might need to give in to what Isadore told him. He finds himself drawn to Leesie's presence despite her very strike moral and religious guidelines. At first it appears that they won't work out due to his volatile nature as a result of his grief. He's trying to overcome something that seems insurmountable and Leesie wants to help him, both spiritually and emotionally. They spend all their free time together, despite what they are hiding form one another. In the end, their secrets may be too great for them to bare alone. Can they manage to rescue each other before one of them is gone?

Taken by Storm is not only told in alternating voice, but by multiple means. When it's Michael's turn, we're reading his entries in his dive log. They tell so much and yet not always enough. He's very clipped and refers to himself as "i" rather than "I" insinuating that he is less important that others. When Leesie is narrating, she speaks in either a chat log with Michael or her poetry critique partner or uses her actual poetry to convey action. Her work is very literal with less symbolism than one encounters during English class, but there is still rhythm and measure to it. It was very pleasing.

The religious aspect of this book added a whole other dimension that I enjoy authors exploring openly. Leesie is like a lot of girls, both religious and not, who are abstaining from physical intimacy (of most kinds) and is trying to do the morally appropriate things in all situations. Naturally, Michael plays the sinner attempting to be saved by this girl, but really it's deeper than that. She's not necessarily concerned with saving his immortal soul and converting him, but really she just wants to open his mind to other ways of thinking. A very unique experience I must say.

Overall though, there was very little real action and sometimes the dialogue left something to be desired. At least 50 pages could have been cut out since it was just repetitive arguments between the main characters over how far they could go and what his parents' deaths mean to him. It was kind of hard to read through those moments, but I felt satisfied at the end of this novel. The ending especially gave me a huge boost. I felt that it was very telling and very fitting this particular situation. Give this book a chance and stick with it. If you find the characters appealing at all, you should enjoy this novel.

This book was provided by International Book Tours.