Review: How They Were Taken (Jenna Wyatt #1) by Carolyn Ridder Aspenson

                                                                 

Print Length: 246 pages

Publisher: Severn River Publishing (July 8, 2025) 

From Goodreads.com: In Atlanta's shadows, where secrets fester and the missing stay buried, one woman's quest for truth threatens to unearth her own haunted past…

Jenna Wyatt thought she'd left her demons behind when she traded her GBI badge for a private detective's license. But when a desperate mother's plea echoes the unsolved mystery of Jenna's own missing sister, she's pulled into a labyrinth of deceit spanning decades.

Reluctantly partnering with Jack Parks, a magnetic ex-NCIS investigator, Jenna probes into Atlanta's underbelly, uncovering a chilling pattern of abductions and murders. As they peel back layers of lies, Jenna and Jack find themselves trapped in a deadly game where every revelation brings them closer to danger—and to the ghosts Jenna has spent a lifetime trying to outrun.

With lives hanging in the balance, Jenna must confront her darkest fears and how much is she willing to sacrifice for the truth?

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My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

There were quite a few moments in this book that either didn’t add up or were so absurd they completely pulled me out of the story. Right from the start, we get a scene where Jenna meets with a woman who wants proof her husband is cheating, only for that same woman to hand over a thick folder containing what seems like more than enough evidence to prove the affair. Which immediately made me question… what was the point of this scene? It doesn’t tie into the larger plot in any meaningful way, and honestly just felt like filler.

That kind of leads into my biggest issue: Jenna herself. We’re told she had been an incredible agent, solving every case, in possession of a photographic memory, the whole package (at least until she was let go for conduct unbecoming as far as I can tell), but as a character? She was incredibly hard to like.

Look, I understand the setup. Her ex cheated, and yes, she acknowledges her own role in the breakdown of the marriage with her constant focus on work and her tendency to drink to cope. It’s cliché, but fine, I can work with that. What I couldn’t get past was how she handled literally everything else. She makes no real effort to prioritize her daughter, frequently missing or showing up late to visitations and expecting her ex to just accommodate her. She refuses to sign the divorce papers even though she knows they aren’t getting back together (and claims she doesn’t want to). To that end, both of them supposedly have lawyers, yet they seem to handle everything directly between themselves anyway. Not to mention the way she constantly refers to Heather (aka the other woman) in derogatory terms? I get the anger, I really do, but at some point I expected at least a hint of maturity.

It gets worse when she starts subtly fishing for information about Heather through her child. That was the moment where any remaining patience I had for her pretty much disappeared. And let’s not forget that she’s handed a life-changing sum of money upfront for a case… and instead of diving in, she gets drunk and only gives the files a “brief look.” Not exactly confidence-inspiring behavior.

Jack didn’t do much to help matters either. Him showing up at Jenna’s house at 3 a.m. (when they were strangers to one another), to insert himself back into a case he’d already been fired from? Absolutely not. I understand his frustration, but boundaries exist for a reason. Honestly, in my opinion, it would have served Jenna right if Jessica had fired her for even allowing him back on the case as her partner.

Beyond the characters, the pacing was all over the place; dragging in some areas and then rushing through others with an almost suspicious convenience. And when the truth finally came out, instead of feeling shocked or satisfied, I was mostly just confused. There were so many unanswered questions, especially considering how long these cases had supposedly gone unsolved. You’re telling me none of this came up during the original investigations? And the people behind it all didn’t exactly come across as criminal masterminds, which made their long-term success even harder to believe.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt when you have essentially unlimited money and connections backing you. Jenna and Jack's wealthy benefactor made it possible for them to piece everything together in what felt like record time (days, maybe weeks), after the cases had been cold for years. It just felt… a little too easy.

That being said, I’m not completely writing this series off just yet. This is only the first book, and I’m curious to see how Jenna (and potentially Jack) manage without someone bankrolling their every move. I’ve already committed to picking up the next installment, so we’ll see if things improve from here.