Review: 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.

If there's one thing I can say about Altered, it's that it's a joyride... A thrill... A test of the nerves... This book hits the ground running and it doesn't stop until the very end... and even then, there's still a battle to be fought.

Sam, Cas, Trev, and Nick find a way out of the lab, and when Anna gets caught in the crossfires, she is forced to go on the run with them, leaving everything she has ever known behind. She feels like this was all an accident, a grave mistake. Like she had a choice to get involved with the boy's dangerous undertaking for freedom. She questions herself about her decision, if she would have made a different one, but the lurking truth is, she's a part of them and they are a part of her.

The boys are a group of supercharged misfits. I just love them. Even Nick with his surly attitude and hatefulness towards Anna. Then there's Cas with his "innocent-but-mischievous way that only five-year-olds can pull off;" Anna's best friend, Trev, with his myriad of quotes from the books he loves to read; and then we have Sam ~ "The things that truly defined him were still a secret."

All these guys have their own personalities and distinct voices ~ it's impossible to get them mixed up. And Anna's in the middle of them all. She grows so much throughout this novel, beginning as a naive teenager just trying to finish high school at home, baking pumpkin cookies for the four boys locked up in her dad's lab, to this kick-ass, courageous female who can take care of herself and those she loves. She didn't suffer from damsel-in-distress syndrome like so many female characters tend to do. While the boys do feel the need to protect her, she soon proves that they need her just as much as she needs them. Anna takes quite a few massive hits, both physically and emotionally, and while she doesn't come out unscathed, she accepts the weighted truth and allows it to make her stronger.

Of course, there's hardly ever a good story that doesn't include a little romance. Maybe I shouldn't call it "romance," as that sounds a bit on the cheesy side for Anna and Sam, but there's no denying their feelings for each other go beyond friendship. "It wasn't just love. It was a million other things all woven together. Emotions I couldn't even name." What I loved about their relationship is that it wasn't head-over-heels from day one. There was no need to rush and force them to be together, and it felt real and believable and left you hoping.

This book just doesn't stop, and there's not a single dull moment that I can think of. Stolen identities. Secret experiments. Wiped memories. Hidden messages. And that constant motion of watching your back to make sure no one is following you. It's definitely a whiplash-worthy ride.

I highly recommend this book, guys. There's no way you'll be able to put it down once you get going.

Five stars!

*****

Visit Jennifer Rush via

Twitter ~ GoodReads ~ Website

Happy Reading Everyone :)

~ Keely ~

Teaser Tuesday Prelude

The Tuesday Prelude is a meme that was inspired by Should Be Reading's Teaser Tuesday. Since I could never just stick to two lines, I decided to expand this weekly post a bit by introducing you to more than just a little piece of the story.

This week, I'm diving into Altered by Jennifer Rush ~ I'm currently listening to this little beauty on audio, and it's incredible... Especially with the complexity of Anna and Sam...

Anna has grown up knowing Sam, Cas, Trev, and Nick, four genetically altered boys who are contained in the lab where her father is constantly working to study their every movement. But Sam has always been special.

The whole time I'd known the boys, they had suffered from amnesia, an unplanned side effect of the alterations. Despite that, I felt like the others had shown me parts of who they were, deep down. All of them but Sam. Same gave only what he thought was necessary. The things that truly defined him were still a secret.

Despite this mysteriousness, or perhaps because of it, Anna sneaks down into the basement most nights to play a game of chess with Sam. She's curious about him, and, more importantly, she feels different around him. More.

For some reason, everything I said and did around Sam felt weightier. As if merely his presence could shake my soul, make me feel. He savored every detail I gave him, as if I was his last link to the outside world. I guess in some ways I was.

Their relationship is... tense... in more ways than one. Sam acts more like a machine than a human being, doing what needs to be done to escape the basement, even if that means using Anna.

"We were never friends, Anna. I was a prisoner in your basement for five years. ... I wanted out, so I did what I needed to do to win your trust. If you had been in my position, you would have done the same thing." 

Sounds a little cold, but you have to imagine what Sam's been through, being used as a lab rat for some genetic experiment. But as their fight for their lives continues and grows more dangerous, something changes or is at least brought to the surface.

"It's written all over your face." He pushed a lock of hair out of my eyes. "I'm not going anywhere." 

What I love about their relationship is that it's believable. It's push and pull, up and down, hesitation and diving in head first. They care about each other, but it's not all googly eyes and promises of forever. It takes time to develop, overcoming obstacles, secrets, and revelations. It feels real.

I didn't know what Sam and I had, if we had anything at all, but the void opening in my chest told me that it was enough, that maybe the connection between us was real...

*heartbreaking*

Love this book SO much! Review coming soon :)


Happy Reading Everyone :)


~ Keely ~

(P.S. It was brought to my attention that I should include a linky for this post, so keep scrollin' and you'll find it (: ...)

Review: Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on. 

His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.


Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong...these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.


Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.

***WARNING: There may be spoilers afoot...***

I have mixed feelings about the second (and final) installment of Kendare Blake's series about Anna Dressed in Blood. I loved it, but at the same time I was left feeling... like I wanted more. It just didn't reach the expectations I had formed after finishing Anna Dressed in Blood.

Cas is my favorite. He's sarcastic, brave, and has a bigger heart than he'd like to admit, although he loses some of his sharp wit due to the depression and guilt he's battling over Anna's sacrifice. Thomas and Carmel ~ I adore the dynamic between these two opposites and how they come together despite the challenges they each face. Another tidbit added to the mix was Jestine, a kick-ass young woman of the Order ~ Cas's equal (if not surpassing him) in every way.

The creepy factor is totally up to par when compared to Anna Dressed in Blood ~ an element I find myself adoring despite the chills it gives me. Cas goes about his business destroying ghosts, but Anna's connection to the athame distracts him, putting everyone around him in danger. He's obsessed with her memory and finding her. He'll bleed, take down devils, open a portal to Hell, and face an entire cult-like Order to get to her. He'll even sacrifice himself to save her.

Which is why I think the end just fell flat for me. Cas loses his mojo, standing there with his mouth bobbing open and closed like a fish, just watching his girl get her bones broken and Jestine get pummeled. Kick-ass Cas disappears in the end, until some vague memory brings him back to the business I've grown to love him for. It was weird... You'd think the rage and pain caused by hearing Anna's bones snap would do the trick, but nope, Cas becomes completely drained of his marbles because of... get this... fear. I've known Cas to be afraid, but never paralyzingly so, so it just was... weird... that he would get that way in the heat of the moment he'd been waiting and sacrificing so much for.

When he finally gets it together and does what needs to be done, he's faced with a tough choice. I get it, I totally do. But it still sucks! I know he'll be okay living with the knowledge that Anna will be happy. She'll never have to wait for Cas, she'll never have to not belong... But still.. These two had such an instantaneous connection, it would have been nice to see more to their story. It's sad but truthfully, it was inevitable.

I say I would have liked to have seen more, but I think that's coming from knowing and reading the second book. If Blake had left this as a stand-alone and just expanded in book one, I think the whole thing would have been better.

I do love these books. They are unique, funny, spooky as hell ~ and it's just difficult not to love the characters. I guess I just loved them too much, and to see it end so suddenly leaves me thinking.. That's it?

3 out of 5 stars from this reader.

Happy Reading Everyone :)

~ Keely ~

Giveaway: Anna Dressed in Blood AND Girl of Nightmares

Well, the month's half over, my Halloween Giveaway has come to an end... and I'm kinda like.. "eh, what now?" So... to prolong my favorite month's festivities, I'll be hosting another giveaway... lucky you ;)

So what'll it be this time? I've gotten a lot of responses on my review of Anna Dressed in Blood, soooooo... yeah, you guessed it.. I'll be giving away not only a copy of that little wonderfully goulish nugget, but also the second in Kendare Blake's series, Girl of Nightmares...

How excited are you???

Queasy stomachs need not apply...

::Anna Dressed in Blood::

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story...

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead. 

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

Curious? Check out my review of Anna Dressed in Blood here.... 
Like the sound of murderous ghosts with horrifying pasts? What about a teenage ghost hunter who carries more than his fair share of burdens?
Get clickin'...   a Rafflecopter giveaway


Happy Reading Everyone :)


~ Keely ~

Review: Anna Dressed in Blood

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story...
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead. 
So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.
And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

***4.5 OUT OF 5 STARS***

I think I ate up this book in the short time span of three days... I do dig a decent ghost legend, and that is exactly what I got with Anna Dressed in Blood. It's not one of those stories that holds back, sparing readers the bloody and slightly horrific details ~ it gives you a full-on, up-close image of the havoc wreaked by the fashionably blood-adorned Anna.

Cas, our little hero of a ghost slayer, reminds me of Dean and Sam Winchester from Supernatural. He has pent up issues he does everything in his power to suppress; he's low on friends due to his constant chasing of urban legends and ghost stories; and a freak-show demon helped itself to his dad like an all-you-can-eat buffet. The kid is tough ~ can pretty much handle anything that comes his way... and that's what he's counting on when he comes face to face with the infamous Anna, the most powerful ghost he's ever encountered...

    This city smells like smoke and things that rot in the summer. It's more haunted than I thought it would be, an entire layer of activity just under the dirt: whispers behind peoples' laughter or movement that you shouldn't see in the corner of your eye. Most of them are harmless - sad little cold spots or groans in the dark. Blurry patches of white that only show up in a Polaroid. I have no business with them.
    But somewhere out there is one that matters. Somewhere out there is the one that I came for, one who is strong enough to squeeze the breath out of living throats.
    I think of her again. Anna. Anna Dressed in Blood. I wonder what tricks she'll try. I wonder if she'll be clever. Will she float? Will she laugh or scream?
    How will she try to kill me?

The details in this novel make you cringe, but try as you might, you can't look away... Anna literally tears people limb from limb, and the image of her, even when formed through the simple black and white of words, tends to sear itself into your nightmares... Her tattered white party dress stained with the drip-drip-drip of crimson... Two black orbs in place of eyes... dark veins covering her pale skin... *creeped-out*... But she's still the most lucid ghost Cas has ever come across, intriguing him.. Why is this? What happened to her to give her such power?

We see glimpses of Anna as she was before, beautiful and innocent... And there's something about Cas that keeps her from hurting him... They have this strange connection that defies life and death... Of course it would happen like that for Cas ~ the only girl he's ever fallen for would just have to be dead already...

She is with me all the time. I feel stupid now, for not seeing it sooner. But hey, at least we'll have this strange story to tell, love and death and blood and daddy-issues. And holy crap I am a psychiatrist's wet dream.

As you can tell, Cas has a pretty blunt voice ~ hilarious, but right to the point. He doesn't mess around with niceties and he's fiercely independent, which is both a blessing and a curse for a teenage guy who hunts ghosts... You praise his strength just as much as you pity his predicament... I don't think he'd have his life any other way, but you're still tempted to want to shoulder some of the massive burden this kid carries... I fell in love with his humor, courage, stubbornness, and quiet suffering..

This story is as much about Cas as it is about Anna... He learns of her history just as his past catches up with him, presenting him with what could probably be the most difficult decision he's had to make in his young life... Fabulous twists make themselves known, and Cas gains as much pain as he does peace in the end...

Incredible read, creepy and nightmare-worthy... but it also breaks your heart just as it gives you hope... I've got the second book sitting on my shelf just screaming at me to be read... Ahhh, the beauty of "more to the story.."


Happy Reading Everyone :)


~ Keely ~

Feature and Follow

Feature and Follow is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely Parajunkee and Alison Can Read in which we bloggers make new connections, gain new followers, and learn a little bit more about each other...

Q: What book do you think would make a great Halloween movie? Please explain in graphic detail of goriness…

The book that immediately came to mind is Kendare Blake's Anna Dressed in Blood. First of all, there's creeptastic Anna who has black orbs in place of eyes and blood constantly dripping from her white party dress. That's the scream-worthy image you see right before she drags you through breaking glass and tears your writhing body in half with her bare, ghostly hands. Then there's the monster that follows Cas around ~ the voodoo freak with his eyes sewn shut. Gives me the shivers just thinking about it ~ you can feel his eyes on you, but all you see is black thread through dead skin.... *cringe*....

Love these Halloween themed posts! If you're in the spooky spirit, swing on over to my Halloween giveaway for your chance to win your choice of classic horror and a very nice, fabulously festive bookmark :)


Follow me and I'll follow you!


Happy Reading Everyone :)


~ Keely ~

Monday Montage

Monday Montage is a weekly meme I created out of my sheer loathing for Mondays. I figured I had to give the day some kind of redeeming quality, so I took the books I'm reading or just recently finished, and made a fun stream of pictures, videos, etc., to get me going. This Monday isn't so bad ~ Columbus Day = Holiday, so I'm happy!

This week's montage is inspired by none other than Kendare Blake's Anna Dressed in Blood.

Have a great week!!

Happy Reading Everyone :)

~ Keely ~

MWahahahahahahHA!

LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!

Just in case you were wondering... as it is my favorite time of the year, I'm making it point to read nothing but spooky novels
(*clears throat* besides those I'm scheduled to review, of course...) 

So, what do I have in mind? Well, I'm kickin' it off with Kendare Blake's Anna Dressed in Blood. It's been glaring at me with "oily eyes" since I bought it a few months back, but I knew.. I just knew I needed to save this one for a special occasion.. 

and that occasion has arrived ;)

In case you'd like a little taste of the goose-bump-worthy-spookiness I've been reading, here's a little teaser...

"This city smells like smoke and things that rot in the summer. It's more haunted than I thought it would be, an entire layer of activity just under the dirt: whispers behind people's laughter, or movement that you should see in the corner of your eye. Most of them are harmless, sad little cold spots or groans in the dark....

But somewhere out there is one that matters. Somewhere out there is the one that I came for, one who is strong enough to squeeze the breath out of living throats.

I think of her again. Anna. Anna Dressed in Blood. I wonder what tricks she'll try. I wonder if she'll be clever. Will she float? Will she laugh or scream?

How will she try to kill me?"

Totally puts me in the mood to engorge myself on candy and scare the crap outta myself with horror flicks ~ all lights off, of course... I'm no pansy... well, mostly sometimes... ;)

Happy Reading Everyone :)

~ Keely ~

Review: Eve by Anna Carey

The year is 2032, sixteen years after a deadly virus—and the vaccine intended to protect against it—wiped out most of the earth’s population. The night before eighteen-year-old Eve’s graduation from her all-girls school she discovers what really happens to new graduates, and the horrifying fate that awaits her. 

Fleeing the only home she’s ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust...and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.

I've seen mixed reviews towards this book, from bad to worse to fabulous... I tend to lean toward the side of "loved it ~ would recommend..." I nabbed this book in the audio version, as I was going on a trip that included a long, solo drive, and I thought "why not?". Not sure what made me pick Eve, as I scrolled through the iTunes market, but there it was, and I'm glad I did a quick point and click and hit the road with Anna Carey's novel. 

I'm a huge fan of Dystopian fiction in any shape or form, but in this case, it's a plague that's wiped out life as we knew it, paving the way for anyone power-hungry enough to create a monarch-style government and call it good. What the King says goes, from rebuilding a city on the backs of orphans to repopulating the country through brutal "breeding practices." Pretty sick guy hiding behind a hopeful mask, but there are those who see the situation as it is. After all, what would a tyrant be without rebels to stand against him? These are the people Eve must learn to trust, even though everything in her upbringing screams at her not to.

Eve only knows life post-plague, and it's interesting to hear her wonder about things we take for granted every day such as movies, birthday cakes, and co-ed schools. She's booksmart, severely lacking in any type of survival skill, and she's completely naive. This got a little annoying, I will admit, but you have to remember how she was raised. She was taught that men are the enemy and will do whatever it takes to manipulate and destroy women. Not only that, she never thought she had to know how to do things like swim, hunt, and basically think outside the box. She's always done what she was told, believing that that's all she needed to do to flourish. Like I said ~ naive. However, all of this was ingrained into her from the time she arrived at the school as a very young child, so as much as I wanted to scream at her and ask her "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?", I had to remember her state of mind in order to understand her line of thought.

Of course, we have to have someone who brings Eve to the light, and that's where Caleb steps in. He's amused with Eve's seemingly silly distrust and reaction to him, but he just lets her accusing thoughts roll off of him with a monumental amount of patience. He doesn't put an active effort into changing her mind, but is just his wonderful self, allowing Eve to come up with her own judgements in her own time. Their relationship begins slowly ~ I didn't detect the dreaded "instalove" ~ as Caleb unknowingly earns her trust and begins to see that Eve may be slightly blinded by her former life in the schools, but she's willing to learn and do what it takes to survive. 

I do want to take a sec to mention Arden... She is, by far, my favorite... She's badass, ruthless, sarcastic, and incredibly smart. She's got a slightly evil streak, but that makes her all the more lovable in my eyes. She's not blind to what's going on around her and she doesn't take what everyone tells her to believe at face value. Of course, she had more experience in the world outside the school's walls than Eve ever did, so maybe that's why she seems to know so much, but still ~ she knows what makes sense and what doesn't...

The writing style was fluid and, while I have a difficulty sometimes imagining the world created through audio books, I had no trouble envisioning everything that was happening to the very last detail.  The storyline is heartbreaking and hopeful through and through. The horrific things these people go through day to day ~ it's amazing that they don't break. Constantly running and living from day to day, hoping that sunset won't be your last... It's astounding... 

And the end... OH THE END! This pretty much sums up how I was feeling when that last paragraph breathed through the speakers.... 

Totally, totally blew my mind, and at that moment, I did kinda hate Eve, but I'll say no more on the matter to keep from spoiling it....

I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be moving on to round two. I can't even begin to make a prediction on how the storyline will continue, but I do hope to see Eve grow and become smarter in the ways of the world she knew so little about.. It'll be an interesting journey to unravel...

Happy Reading Everyone :)

~ Keely ~

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on.

His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live--not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.

Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong...these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.

I have the first in this series on my shelf ~ to be my next read! I'm psyched that I won't have to wait long for the second in the series. I've heard so many great things about Ana Dressed in Blood, I don't have (m)any doubts that I'll love it too.


Happy Reading Everyone :)



~ Keely ~