THE TAKER

Carly always saw Princeton in her future, until she received her less-than-Ivy-League SAT scores. However, just as she begins to panic, she receives a mysterious call from The Taker, a creepy man promising unbelievably improved scores on her retake. Desperate, Carly agrees to The Taker’s terms, including absolute secrecy, a promise to study and that she will do something undisclosed for him later. Although initially resistant to studying and its effects on her social life, Carly begins tutoring sessions with Ronald, her school’s SAT whiz and soon learns that his lessons apply to life beyond the SAT. As Carly’s skills improve, she quickly regrets her pact with The Taker and attempts to bail on her promise, but she’s too late and finds herself having to come face-to-face with him. Although initially cluttered with faceless generic high-school characters, Ronald and Carly’s strong personalities shine and their quirky and real relationship quickly dominates the text, leaving readers rooting for their unlikely romance. Entertaining, even if slightly predictable. (Fiction. YA)