<em>Taken</em> by Erin Bowman releases today!

Today is the launch day for Erin Bowman's TAKEN, and we here at Pub(lishing) Crawl couldn't be more thrilled! Seriously—no exaggeration—we are all flipping out with excitement over this book's release. Not only Erin is a great writer, a great friend, and also a pivotal part of the inner workings of this blog (we wouldn't be here if not for her—heck, she designed the graphics of this site, after all!), but we're also HUGE fans of Taken. We are—as the awesome phrase goes—taken by Taken. ;) After selling her book back in 2011, Erin's AWESOME YA dystopian thriller is finally hitting shelves TODAY, and we just cannot stop the celebrations over here. We all stayed up until midnight, video-chatting to ring in the launch day with Erin, and today, we're all heading out to buy copies (in addition to all the preordered copies that will be arriving in the mail). For those of you who don't know what this book is about, here's the synopsis:

There are no men in Claysoot. There are boys—but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends...and he's gone. They call it the Heist. Gray Weathersby's eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he's prepared to meet his fate—until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he's been raised to accept: the Council leaders and their obvious secrets, the Heist itself, and what lies beyond the Wall that surrounds Claysoot—a structure that no one can cross and survive. Climbing the Wall is suicide, but what comes after the Heist could be worse. Should he sit back and wait to be taken—or risk everything on the hope of the other side?

And if that doesn't make you want to read it, then check out this trailer (seriously, the trailer gave us CHILLS).

Or, if you're still not convinced to check out Taken, our very own Marie Lu called it "an action-packed thrill ride from beginning to end." Yeah—that pretty much sums it all up, and we are SO glad the book is finally going out into the world so it can captivate other readers as much as it captivated us. Basically, so YOU can now be taken by Taken. ;) To celebrate this exciting release by our lovely Erin, we are giving away a copy! There are lots of ways to enter, so be sure to fill out the Rafflecopter form below and also leave a comment wishing Erin well on this super exciting day! a Rafflecopter giveaway