Taken by Erin Bowman

There are no men in Claysoot, not a single one a day over eighteen that is.  The heist has taken them all.  The heist doesn't care if you are a son, brother or even father.  If you are male, when you turn 18 you vanish at midnight on your birthday.  They call it the heist, because no one knows what happens to you, they don't know if you live or die or anything about where you go.
There is no escaping is, no one ever has, not since the beginning when the ground first shook and the winds kicked up and then the light came towards and took the first boy.  It's happened the same way ever since.

Some have tried to figure it out, they have attempted to climb the big walls that surround Claysoot.  But anyone who climbs is killed.  They may disappear over the top of the wall, but by morning the town finds their body burned and dead lying next to the wall.  Which is why climbing the wall is a form of suicide.

Gray Weathersby's doesn't have much time, just a few short months before his own turn in the heist will come.  But when he discovers a letter from his mother that he wasn't supposed to see, it changes everything.  Gray begins to question anything and everything.
He only has his childhood friend Emma to confide in, but even he's not sure how much he can trust to tell her, without risking her own life as well.
But he's bound and determined to find some answers, even if that means risking everything.  One night Gray makes a choice, a choice that will kill him or save him or possibly worse.  He has no idea, but one thing he is sure of, only minutes after making it he realizes Emma is bound for the same fate as him now.

I really enjoyed Taken by Erin Bowman, in this Dystopian primitive world.  The author made a few choices that I particularly liked.  First I really liked that the main character was male.  Of recent most of your main characters in Dystopian are kick butt females, so I really liked having the main character as male.  He's also quite likable.  Not some insane image that you can't relate to, but the character Gray himself is very realistic.
I also liked that as many questions as you get, you also get some answers.  You don't have to wait until the third book to find out what the heist is, you find out pretty quickly.  With that said, this is a very fast paced book, so as soon as you figure one thing out, you are thrown another set of questions and obstacles.
I really did enjoy this read!  I am already reading the sequel Frozen, and look forward to later this year (April) when the third and final book Forged comes out!  In other words, this is a great series to start, because you won't have to wait years to find out how it ends!