Altered by Jennifer Rush

Altered by Jennifer Rush
Release Date – January 1, 2013
Publisher Website - Little Brown and Company
Publisher Social Media -  Twitter
Pages -  336 pages
My Rating- 3.5/5
**Received from publisher for review via BEA**

Here is the Goodreads synopsis

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.

When I originally read this was like Dollhouse meets Prison Break I knew I had to read it. Hot guys? Secret agencies? Genetic modification? Secrets? All the elements needed to make me very eager to get my hands on this. This story delivers what the synopsis promises, but the potential for it to be much deeper left me feeling like something was missing.

Nick, Cas, Trev Sam are the young men being held as experiments for a secret project. They’ve been genetically altered, and as a result don’t remember anything of their time prior to being part of this experiment. I enjoyed each of the boys. Cas with his positive outlook, and ability to make everyone smile. Nick with his attitude, and sarcasm. Trav with his love of quotes, and friendship. Sam, the leader, and most reserved of the guys. You easily love their camaraderie, and  see what the draw is for Anna.  Each of these boys is interesting in their own right, and I feel that more of the story should have been devoted to their back stories. I can only hope that the questions I have about them will be answered in subsequent novels. The biggest being what made each of these boys sign up for this experiment in the first place.

Anna is an interesting character herself. I loved that she wasn’t a damsel in distress or clueless about anything. She is fully capable when things start happening and is not a bystander while the boys always save the day. Her story is the one that is followed the most closely, and we learn the most about her, so it was nice to be invested in her story outside of the boys as well.

I found myself wanting more from the plot, more from the characters, and just more in general. At times I felt like the characters did things that were opposite of what I would expect of them, especially towards the end. Sam is a guy that is presented as a leader, and someone who goes in with a plan. I don’t see him, at a crucial moment, deciding to do something major without planning out the attack first.

I found myself continuously surprised by the plot. Certain things I predicted to happen actually ended up going in a different direction all together. It’s almost like the author took normal formulaic story points and deliberately teases them only to have them veer off into something else.

This novel is a quick paced, action packed read that left me turning the pages. While I was left wishing the story had delved a little deeper, I do have hopes that this series will end up being a great one. The build up of the plot, especially the ending, and the author’s ability to surprise leave me hopeful that the sequel will deliver.