The Overtaking: (The Overtaking Series)

I was very impressed with this book. Had me hooked from the beginning. No frustrating, obvious grammatical errors that I have found prominent in most self-published books. The author focuses on the story and the romance without focusing on or involving sex. Making it appropriate for any age. I cant wait for book two! Not being a patient person, I hope its soon.

Best selling author Victorine Lieske has made the jump from romantic suspense to alternate universe romantic suspense. And she has done it in a compelling manner that will not disappoint her existing fan base. As an author of political and military thrillers, I admit to having read Ms. Lieskes Not What She Seems to research romance narrative. But I was hooked by her authenticity and character development. I followed with The Overtaking in the same vein, but because this author has a unique style. On an author chat board the other day I classified myself as a cross genre reader and its Ms. Lieskes fault. In this genre, mostly for young adult in this case, I have to admit I found the characters immature in many respects, but that is exactly who they are throughout the story. They are represented correctly, although at first I saw them as simplistic, self-centered, and unaware of the consequence of their actions. Does that not describe most teenagers? As with the other reviews of this book, I was confused for several pages, wondering when I would be able to get into the story. The opening flow is jerky, but without realization, within a few chapters I was immersed in the storyline. The audience for this type of story, (YA and Sci Fi) will be quite pleased with the result, I think, and I expect to see yet another of Ms. Lieskes titles on the NYT best seller list. This looks like a runner for the next several episodes. Well done, Vicki. Gordon Ryan

I bought the book last year at a conference and just got around to reading it...it only took three evenings. Once I started the book, I didnt want to put it down. The concept of an alien invasion taking place where the people are abducted, memories changed and placed into a dome to live their lives. As the book progresses, we discover that the earthlings have various powers and they are not on earth. Later there are other discoveries...no need for a spoiler alert. This is an excellent book and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys science fiction, human interaction and a story with enough twists and turns to keep you turning the page from start to finish.

I enjoyed this book. It is sci fi which I like, clean romance, and good character development without having to strain your brain. A fun quick read

Ive read several of Victorine Lieskes and this is my least favorite. I like sci-fi and I really like her other books, but the writing in this book felt so choppy and the story just didnt flow for me. I had such a hard time with the story I almost didnt finish this book. There was no character depth and this story ends in a cliffhanger. Content: Completely clean Language: Completely clean Religion: Not at all Overall story: Science fiction romance. This had a lot of potential. Two characters from different worlds meet. Both are misunderstood. One society had super powers. Kind of a cool premise. BUT, as mentioned above theres no meat to the story. Neither the characters nor the story are very well developed. HAPPY READING!

People started disappearing. It was discovered Dykens were kidnapping the Maslonian citizens, memory resequencing them and locating them in a Holodome which duplicates life as it appeared in the 21st-century earth. All of the Maslonians had all their memories erased and replaced with entirely new memories ensuring they were on eath. Little did they know earth had actually been destroyed by war, now little left but scorched and desolate, no vegetation, everything has been destroyed. To venture out of their Holodome for any length of time gas masks are a necessity. The general population of Dykens also had their memories replaced by resequencing and are convinced Maslonian was actually involved in a devastating world war, on the verge of destruction. They have pledged their lives to save other worlds from what they have witnessed happening to the earth. The elite few know what is really happening. General Stott and Trenton Madison have actually deceived everyone else to their plans. Maslonians all have special powers besides being able to read minds. The Deken technology is highly advanced, they have cloaking devices which is what they used to kidnap the 27,465 citizens they have located in the Holodome until they can use their shuttles to strip the planet of minerals and vegetation to supply life back to earth. Things escalated quickly and certain citizens are regaining their powers. One is Shayne Bartlet who is an extremely powerful telepath and has other powers developing. The Dykens have stationed some of their soldiers in the Holodome acting as roommates to the Maslonians to monitor that they believe they are attending classes at an elite private college, when needed they log into their computers and update the higher-ups as to the behavior of the citizens. Danielle explains to Shayne what she believes as to why they have invaded Maslonian. After Brady, Shayne Dakens roommate also realizes that when they landed there was no sign of destruction or that anyone was possessed with so much hate of their fellow man that they were going to wipe out civilization. What they all believed could not be true, they started to assist Danielle and Shayne to gain some of the Dyken weapons and technology to try to free the people living in the Holodome, thinking it is the 21st-century.

Ever wonder what a world without badness would look like? Or how it would feel to live in a perfect environment? The Overtaking takes you to a place where goodness reigns and bad thoughts can simply be erased. People are transplanted from a harmful society to a manufactured city without crime and worries. Danielle believed the premise. She thought she was kidnapping Shayne for his own good, taking him out of an evil environment and giving him paradise. But Shaynes memory wipe does not go as planned, and he retains his mind-reading abilities. Memories of a mother he was programmed to forget pop up, and he starts to realize that things are not as they seem. As Danielles eyes are open, she and Shayne fall in love and discover a nefarious plot built on an illusion. The story is fast paced and fresh--cute and heart-pounding and joyous and gut-wrenching all at the same time. This book was a great start to what will be an epic and exciting series. The cast of characters includes many talents and special abilities as well as two members from the overlord group. Shayne is a cutie-pie, Danielle is gutsy, and Jennaya upbeat and friendly. My only complaint is that one of the heart-throbs died. He had so much potential! (sob, sob, sob). Summary: Delightful sci-fi romance and great start to an engaging series. Victorine Lieske has gathered a personable cast of characters, Shayne, Danielle, Nolan, Celeste, Jennaya, Kellec, Asia, and Gita to fight an evil empire bent on mind controlling a peaceful planet and raiding it for their resources. I cant wait to read the next installment.

Since I dont haunt the Young Adult romance aisle of the bookstore, I wasnt sure what to expect when I read this novel. What I got was an enjoyable read and characters I truly cared for. Shayne and Danielle are strong, likeable characters put into an interesting and twisty situation. Danielle and her people have been kidnapping people from Shaynes world for a long time. Now Danielle is hunting for Shayne while he is trying to stop them. In the process of them dealing with their divergent goals, they fall in love. They also encounter other honorable people and villains. These secondary characters didnt have the same depth and development as the primary characters. For the most part that isnt a major problem, however I would have liked to have seen them more fleshed out. Since this story is a romance and not science fiction, I kept a more open mind when it came to some of the futuristic plot elements. A few of them had me raising an eyebrow, they didnt detract from the romance storyline. I would have liked to see a bit more ambiguity when figuring out who the bad guys were. I think that wouldve helped ratchet up the action and conflict. Maybe that is not the way Young Adult Romance handles things. Again, this really didnt detract from the story for me. I liked this book a lot and none of the issues I mentioned really slowed me down as I read the story. Ill have my eye on Victorine and will grab the her next book when it comes out.

This is a good book. The Overtaking is a light, fun read with excellent pacing; I started and finished it in a single day. Young adult books are not my primary reading genre, but Im glad I took the time to read this one. At the beginning of The Overtaking, the Maslonian people are disappearing one by one. The Maslonian Council wants to get to the bottom of it. After his mothers disappearance (in the books opening scene), Shayne joins the Council and is promptly thereafter kidnapped. Then, he is in another world thinking he has had completely different life than the one he actually had. But Shayne is resistant to the new memories, and he discovers he has hidden memories and powers. His powers reveal the thoughts of those around him, and he knows that some of the people around him are lying to him . . . about everything. All the while, theres a growing romantic connection between Shayne and one of his schoolmates, Danielle, who seems to be mixed up in all of this. How did Shane get to this new place with these new memories? What is Danielles involvement? What is happening to the Malsonian people as they disappear? And most importantly, why is someone doing this to Shayne and his people? In my opinion, the best thing about this book is the pacing. My time reading it flew right by, because it was light and never dragged any scene along more than necessary. The characters were fine; perhaps a little one-dimensional, but like I said, it was a light read. The writing was solid for the most part, although there were a number of times (maybe fifteen or so) that I was abruptly thrown out of my suspension of disbelief by some cliche word choices. But Ive spent a lot of time editing novels lately, so maybe thats just me. More people should be reading this book. Not all people, of course, but those who are into young adult, paranormal stuff. Its a good book, and it was well worth my time.

This was an awesome sci-fi novel! I raced through it! I loved the premise and the twists and the characters. However, I just found out it was written 11 years ago and the rest of the series obviously hasn’t followed. I’m devastated!