Wanted by Amanda Lance

At 17, Addie Battes is a girl who calculates everything and spends most of her time in the library with her nose stuck in a book. When she and her father make a stop at a crowded rest area, she never could have predicted the way her life would change forever. Addie finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time, witnessing a truck hijacking, which leads to her kidnapping by one of the thieves.

Addie's life is now in the hands of Charlie Hays, the thief that kidnapped her. Charlie finds himself feeling strangely protective of Addie, and when one of his colleagues tries to eliminate Addie, he comes to her rescue. When she awakens from the attack, Addie finds herself a stowaway on a cargo ship in the middle of the ocean. Addie knows that she shouldn't trust Charlie, but their relationship quickly evolves into something neither one of them expected. Addie and Charlie fall in love, but their future is anything but certain. When Charlie's spurned colleague comes to seek his revenge, Addie and Charlie find their love and lives in danger again.

I honestly don't know how to feel about this book. I really wanted to love it. The description was intriguing, but once I got into the story I had some serious reservations. For one thing, Addie is 17 and Charlie is 29 - that's quite an age gap, bordering on statutory. It made the story less believable and somewhat uncomfortable for me. Charlie is a series of contradictions. He is rough around the edges, lacking a formal education, and yet he is intelligent and artistic. It is clear that he comes from a difficult past, which we get glimpses of, but is never fully explained. While that might normally serve to make his character complex, in this case it left me scratching my head and made it difficult for me to fully embrace him. I liked Addie, but confess that I didn't find anything all that special about her. While description of the book originally intrigued me, the more I read the more clique the story felt to me. I think it had tremendous potential, but ultimately it fell short for me. It is left wide open for a sequel and while I have reservations about the story, I will probably pick the sequel up out of curiosity sake and hope that the story gets better. What can I say, I'm an eternal optimist...