It all makes for a pretty compelling read. If he doesn’t, any number of poisonous critters or the harsh conditions might get her. Although Ty has not physically harmed her, Gemma is constantly worried that he’ll soon tire of her and kill her. Although there is a vehicle, Gemma has no idea where she is or how to find help. The harsh landscape is alien to Gemma they truly are in the middle of nowhere. He slowly reveals parts of his life to Gemma and in some ways he is a sympathetic character – until you remember that he’s taken a sixteen-year-old girl away from her family and friends. Ty has clearly been planning this kidnapping for a long time. Ty claims to have stolen her as a way to keep her safe, although from what, Gemma cannot discern. Thus begins a period of captivity for Gemma. When she wakes up – hours or days later – she is far away from her family, alone in the Australian outback with Ty. Before Gemma has even realized what’s happening, the man is buying her coffee, introducing himself as ‘Ty’ and engaging Gemma in a conversation that makes her feel “grown-up, sitting there with the most handsome man in the café, drinking a coffee he had just bought for me.”īut then, things change for Gemma. This encounter is the beginning of Gemma’s journey in Lucy Christopher’s debut novel Stolen. He’s hard to miss because he “had that look in eyes, as though wanted something from me.” Gemma, on the precipice of adulthood, is drawn to the man and “those blue, blue eyes, icy blue, looking back at me, as if I could warm them up.” She’s just had a fight with her parents and she’s gone off on her own to grab a coffee and cool down. Sixteen-year-old Londoner Gemma is in the Bangkok airport, a stop-over on her way to a family vacation to Vietnam.

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