Review: Altered

Altered by Jennifer Rush

Synopsis (From Goodreads): 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.

Jennifer Rush has created an action-packed debut with a bit of sci-fi thrown in with mystery and romance, all tossed in to make a thrilling read. Anna's father works for a secret branch of the government, monitoring the treatments of four boys (Nick, Cas, Trev and Sam) who are being kept below their farmhouse. When the branch decides to take the boys, Sam decides it's time to escape.

Anna is caught between the dilemma of following Sam or staying behind with her old life, but her father makes Sam promise to take Anna with them and keep her away from the branch. Now outside, there's only one problem. The boys don't remember anything about living outside the branch and now they have to piece together fragments of memory from their old life to find out the truth about who they are before the branch catches up with them all.

Altered has everything that a good action story should have. Right from the start, there's the lies, deceit and the mystery, not to mention the tortured hot guys who just want to get their memories back. That's not all, it also has a heroine that's not afraid to put in a few punches too and break a few rules if necessary. I'm sure Anna could take on any of those boys if she ever needed to.

Each of the characters have their own distinct personality which was fantastic to see, and as the story progressed the reader learned more about each of the characters. The one thing that was great about this novel was the evolution of the emotions and feelings of Anna and Sam, it was great to see how they evolved and grow naturally and their emotions did not feel forced.

At times I did feel some of the characters did some stupid things, and didn't question how the branch found them so easily at times, but other than that it was a fast and enjoyable read and I look forward to seeing where the second book takes this group.

Source: audio book
2013 Debut Author Challenge: #1 of 12

2012 Audio Book Challenge: #1 of 25