Altered by Jennifer Rush

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: Little Brown Books

Pages: 336pgs

The Story

When you can’t trust yourself, who can you believe?

Everything about Anna’s life is a secret. Her father works for the Branch at the helm of its latest project: monitoring and administering treatments to the four genetically altered boys in the lab below their farmhouse. There’s Nick, Cas, Trev . . . and Sam, who’s stolen Anna’s heart. When the Branch decides it’s time to take the boys, Sam stages an escape, killing the agents sent to retrieve them. 

Anna is torn between following Sam or staying behind in the safety of her everyday life. But her father pushes her to flee, making Sam promise to keep her away from the Branch, at all costs. There’s just one problem. Sam and the boys don’t remember anything before living in the lab—not even their true identities.

Now on the run, Anna soon discovers that she and Sam are connected in more ways than either of them expected. And if they’re both going to survive, they must piece together the clues of their past before the Branch catches up to them and steals it all away.

The Review

Man, what a thrill ride this book was! Jennifer Rush's ALTERED is - in all honesty - everything I was looking for in a YA book lately: action-packed, exciting, easy to read, fast-paced, shocking twists and with slightest hint of a small romance that is currently in the works. Yeah it had pretty much everything I wanted in a book and I totally fell for it too!

But before I had even started the book, I was a bit worried at first with how the author was going to deal with four REALLY hot guys - Sam, Trev, Cas and Nick - not to mention the main girl character, Anna, but my worrying was really all for nothing because the author dealt with everything perfectly and in the best way she could at the time. I loved it! I mean, not one of the characters was undeveloped, two-dimensional nor forgettable in any sense but instead the characters were all addictive, interesting, and completely adorable even with some of the guys being constantly moody all the time and being well . . . typical boys! Hehe.

However, even though I loved every single character (either for their humor or mere bad-ass actions), the clear standouts in this particular book was the relationship shared between Sam and Anna. A special and tender relationship I found. They were just so cute together and yet so obvious that they had some unresolved feelings for each other . . . what with Sam being so overprotective over our Anna. But don't worry girls, Anna isn't a girl who swoons over a guy non-stop in the book and becomes another Bella Swan for you. Sure, Anna's character may have been overshadowed at times by the whole group of hot boys that she is constantly surrounded and on the run with - including hottie Sam, but she soon develops her own spotlight just for herself and becomes this kick-ass-and-completely-fearless girl you never saw coming! Whereas Sam, on the other hand, is the typical alpha male guy but no matter the typical guy thing of pushing people away and not admitting to your true feelings, you just can't help but be swept up by Sam's character and how he holds Anna's best interests at heart. Well, most of the time at least.

Overall, ALTERED is the perfect start to new YA series and reminded me so much of False Memory by Dan Krokos and of the Bourne series which is a perfect combination if I do say so myself. But on a whole, I can't wait to read more from this author and see if she continues down this wonderful path. But I'm pretty sure the sequel is going to rock even more than this one right here. I just know it!

The Rating

5/5 stars