My Thoughts: Altered by Jennifer Rush

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.

OMG this book was incredible. Go read it. Seriously, this is how I want to leave the review. I don't even know what to say other than what are you waiting for?

So, the only reason I pushed this book up on my TBR pile was because Amber from Books of Amber really enjoyed and totally sold me on it. I was not let down.

Altered tells the story of Anna and four boys who have been a part of her life for many years. As the synopsis implies the boys are hidden in a lab run by Anna's father. She has been assisting him with the boys for a long time and they have become her closest friends. This is cause for some tension considering the boys are being held captive by a secret government corporation and all four have no memory of where they came from or who they are. When the boys finally escape and take Anna with them, they find themselves following an obscure set of clues in an attempt to figure out their life.

While the concept of memory loss may not be incredibly unique in the world of YA, I believe that as long as the author knows what they are doing with it and where they are going, it can still be a thrilling concept to read about. Jennifer Rush nailed it with Altered. I had no freaking clue what was going on half the time and that was okay. Why did the four boys not know who they were? What happened to them? Were they even human? What does genetically altered even mean? All of these questions were flying through my head as I read. And every time I thought I had an answer, I would totally have it wrong. I loved that about this book. I would think that I had something figured out but Rush would through something in that would leave me reeling. I was never ever bored with this book. In fact I didn't want it to end.

I LOVED the characters of Altered and I absolutely loved how they interacted with one another. Anna was a great protagonist, and while some may find her annoying, juvenile, immature, I did not. I thought for the situation she was in her response was pretty reasonable. The boys- Sam, Nick, Trev and Cas, were all great as well. Sam was broody, Nick was moody, Cass was hysterical and Trev was Anna best friend. My favourites (cause of course there are going to be favourites) were Sam- for obvious reasons and Nick.

I really liked how Anna and Nick would bicker,I don't know why. Nick would pick on Anna and it would drive her insane and I loved it. I also liked how loyal he was to her in the end. It wasn't that he genuinely did not like her, but in his eyes, she was the enemy's daughter which in retrospect that made her the enemy.

Sam, whoa, Sam. I had SUCH a crush on Sam as I was reading this book. He was an alpha male to the max, but he also had a softer sweet side (but it wasn't pathetic). However, Sam was scary. He could snap a guy's neck without even blinking and feel no remorse about it afterwards. It was fantastic. I could totally see why Anna had the hots for him. The romance between the two of them was definitely not the focal point of Altered, but it sure did add to absolute amazingness of it.

Over, Altered by Jennifer Rush was an action packed novel that never had a dull moment. I adored this novel and I cannot wait to see what's in store next for Anna and the boys. Read this books guys, you will not be disappointed.

~Happy Reading Everyone!