Teaser Tuesday # 134 ~ Gravity (The Taking #1) by Melissa West

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

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My Tease for this week comes from:

Gravity
(The Taking #1)
by
Melissa West 

First - The Blurb:

In the future, only one rule will matter:

Don’t. Ever. Peek.

Seventeen-year-old Ari Alexander just broke that rule and saw the last person she expected hovering above her bed — arrogant Jackson Locke, the most popular boy in her school. She expects instant execution or some kind of freak alien punishment, but instead, Jackson issues a challenge: help him, or everyone on Earth will die.

Ari knows she should report him, but everything about Jackson makes her question what she’s been taught about his kind. And against her instincts, she’s falling for him. But Ari isn’t just any girl, and Jackson wants more than her attention. She’s a military legacy who’s been trained by her father and exposed to war strategies and societal information no one can know — especially an alien spy, like Jackson. Giving Jackson the information he needs will betray her father and her country, but keeping silent will start a war.

Second - The Teaser:

He glances down at me and lifts his hands to my face, tracing a line down my jaw. His fingertips hesitate at my lips and his gaze drops. I draw a breath, and then his lips find mine. It's an explosion of emotions - first warmth, then contentment, then fear, so much fear. Of what this will mean, of whether we can succeed, of the guilt that threatens to overcome us both. Because of all the things we should be doing right now, after so many people died, this isn't it.

This isn't it.

Jackson pulls away, resting his forehead against mine as though he can't stand to move farther away. "I'm sorry."

"I know."

It's the year 2140 and Earth is nothing like we know it. Cities have been destroyed, lives have been lost, and an alien race known as the Ancients are trying to take control. Why? Because their own planet - Loge - is dying and they need a new place to live. Not surprisingly, the human race isn't going to give up Earth without a fight.

Ari isn't your typical teenage girl. In line behind her father to become the next Commander of what's left of the human race, she has been trained for battle. Kick-ass in every sense of the word, she is top of her class and rivaled only by one other... Jackson.

Jackson is your typical smoking hot alien who wavers between sweet and caring, and cocky and arrogant. Planted as a spy on Earth, he has managed to keep his identity a secret from the humans which surround him. That is, until the night he decides to expose himself to Ari.

Aware that she should tell her father but curious to know why Jackson chose her to confide in, Ari decides to hold onto his secret. As they grow closer and feelings which should not occur between the two races begin to develop, Ari suddenly finds herself in a position where she must decide which side she wants to be on. And the decision is not clear cut.

There are many twists and turns in the story and a few times I was a little confused with what was going on. However, it is an intriguing read and I look forward to reading the next installment  - Hover - to see what happens next.

My Rating: 4 out of 5

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Okay, so what do you think?

If you liked my Tease, please leave a comment below.