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 (: ...)

Spotlight: 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.

Sounds pretty intense, eh? I love the simplicity of the cover ~ black and white with that splash of neon. Beautiful.

One thing that irks me about a synopsis like this is that they always reveal who has stolen the heroine's (or hero's) heart! Cheeses it up a bit... but the rest sounds pretty amazing.. I'm curious to discover how these four guys were altered by Anna's mad scientist of a father... And how she and Sam are connected... hmmmm... ???

Can't wait to read this one!

Oh, and one more thing! Check out the excerpt I stumbled across while perusing Jenn Rush's website...

Altered Excerpt

Happy Reading Everyone :)

~ Keely ~

Review: Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.

High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying. While she’s in the air, it’s easy to forget life with her absentee mother at the low-rent end of a South Carolina beach town. When her flight instructor, Mr. Hall, hires her to fly for his banner advertising business, she sees it as her ticket out of the trailer park. And when he dies suddenly, she’s afraid her flying career is gone forever.

But Mr. Hall’s teenage sons, golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson, are determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business — until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers — and the consequences could be deadly.

Such a Rush is one of those books that slams into your emotions on every level. The determination, pain, strength, betrayal, love ~ it's all there, wrapped in a pretty cover.

Leah is, for lack of a better word to describe her, badass. She does what she has to do, completely wrapped up in the desire to do better for herself than what everyone expects from "trailer-park trash." She's tough, takes care of herself, and rarely gives in to self-pity. She has a temper, and when you touch that sore spot ~ as Grayson and Alec discover ~ she can be venomous without mercy. However, although she has grit, she hasn't allowed her difficult life keep her from desiring a decent future and someone to love her.

Her relationship with Grayson and Alec, while the synopsis may make it seem like the overused love-triangle, it is anything but. I won't give away the good stuff, but I'll say that Leah knows who she wants from the very start, and she never wavers.

The storyline is steadily awesome, integrating so many different aspects of Leah's life into one amazing whole.  Leah has almost multiple faces ~ a pilot; "the-girl-who-lives-in-a-trailer-park"; the daughter of a young, absent mother; flirty Leah who gets what she needs vs. no-BS Leah who just gets the job done. She's a very complex young woman, and yet, none of these aspects I've described define her as a whole. Leah has to deal with huge obstacles in her life such as her mother's abusive boyfriends, being unable to fill the fridge in her small trailer, and being accused of being the school "slut," but she defies all odds and shows the boys of Hall Aviation what she's really made of ~ even if, at first, she doesn't see it herself.

The writing style is what hooked me from page one. Echols' descriptions are incredibly beautiful, bringing inanimate objects to life and instilling the feelings of the characters directly to the heart of the reader. I felt as if I were flying over the ocean, experiencing that rush of knowing that anything could go wrong at any moment, hoping I was in the capable hands of the pilot. Jennifer Echols is amazing!

This book is very, very happily-ever-after ~ almost unbelievably so ~ but who am I to stomp on Leah's new-found fortune in all things? If anyone deserves it, Leah has proven that she does.

I'm usually a lover of trilogies, series and the like ~ but this is one *stand-alone* I would highly recommend to those who love YA, a little love, and an underdog story ~ this one's not all hearts and flowers, but it still hits all the right places.

Visit Jennifer Echols @ 

Twitter ~ GoodReads ~ Facebook ~ Website

And guess what!? You get a chance to win a hardcover copy of this sweetly written romance :) Enter via Rafflecopter below! (International entries welcome!)


a Rafflecopter giveaway



Happy Reading Everyone :)

~ Keely ~

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This Teaser Tuesday is going to be a little more exciting @ Realms of an Open Mind this week. A few days ago, I held a voting poll to see which book you wanted to read next, in celebration of 200 GFC followers :). You picked Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols, and there's no way the other books are gunna catch up in the polls. So, in addition to the teaser, there will be a giveaway!

"And sure enough, his chuckle faded into a frown. His blond brows knitted. He seemed to be concentrating on the puzzle of my hair. I knew he was sliding away from me already. Now the unexpected sweetness that made him Grayson was fading, and he seemed like any other guy out there."

I just finished this book last night (review to come) ~ it exceeded all my expectations. Not my usual type of read ~ I'm kind of a paranormal junkie ~ but it called to me, I had to read it, and I have no regrets.

Now on to the even better stuff. Enter to win your own copy via the Rafflecopter form below. (International entries welcome...)

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Happy Reading Everyone :)




~ Keely ~

July Giveaway ~ VOTE!

I'm trying to do a giveaway every month ~ they are just SO much fun ~ and this month I want to do something a little different than just picking a book and throwing it out there. I want you to pick. On the right hand sign you'll notice a poll asking "What book do you want to read in July?"... Well, all the books listed are, from what I've gathered from other blogs and my own personal opinion, *highly anticipated* reads of the summer. You'll have until July 7th to vote, and you can vote once per day :).

Here are the contestants:

"Together we lifted our feet and stepped into the unknown"—the thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestseller A Discovery of Witches

Deborah Harkness exploded onto the literary scene with her debut novel,A Discovery of Witches, Book One of the magical All Souls Trilogy and an international publishing phenomenon. The novel introduced Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and reluctant witch, and the handsome geneticist and vampire Matthew Clairmont; together they found themselves at the center of a supernatural battle over an enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782.

Now, picking up from A Discovery of Witches’ cliffhanger ending,Shadow of Night plunges Diana and Matthew into Elizabethan London, a world of spies, subterfuge, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the mysterious School of Night that includes Christopher Marlowe and Walter Raleigh. Here, Diana must locate a witch to tutor her in magic, Matthew is forced to confront a past he thought he had put to rest, and the mystery of Ashmole 782 deepens.

Deborah Harkness has crafted a gripping journey through a world of alchemy, time travel, and magical discoveries, delivering one of the most hotly anticipated novels of the season.

The year is 1876, and there’s something strange and deadly loose in Philadelphia…
Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about. Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walks by. But this is nothing compared to what she’s just read in the newspaper—

The Dead are rising in Philadelphia.

And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor…from her brother.

Whoever is controlling the Dead army has taken her brother as well. If Eleanor is going to find him, she’ll have to venture into the lab of the notorious Spirit-Hunters, who protect the city from supernatural forces. But as Eleanor spends more time with the Spirit-Hunters, including their maddeningly stubborn yet handsome inventor, Daniel, the situation becomes dire. And now, not only is her reputation on the line, but her very life may hang in the balance.

A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.
High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying. While she’s in the air, it’s easy to forget life with her absentee mother at the low-rent end of a South Carolina beach town. When her flight instructor, Mr. Hall, hires her to fly for his banner advertising business, she sees it as her ticket out of the trailer park. And when he dies suddenly, she’s afraid her flying career is gone forever.

But Mr. Hall’s teenage sons, golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson, are determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business — until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers — and the consequences could be deadly.

Happy Reading ~ and Voting ~ Everyone :)


~ Keely ~