Altered

Abandoned by her family, Lacey is sent to a juvenile detention center known as Clear Waters. Her teen years don't look promising until she is befriended by a mysterious stranger named Taylor, a gorgeous guy whose captivating eyes seem to stare into her soul. Convinced she is in danger at Clear Waters, Lacey joins Taylor in a daring escape. As she meets Taylor's group of friends, she discovers that they're more than they seem - they've been sent from the future to head off an evil corporate plot that will lead to a world war unless averted. With Lacey as their only hope to prevent a grim future, Taylor shows Lacey how to tap into her psychic abilities known in his time as evolved humans. Travelling with her new friends, she discovers the magic of love while she grows into the powerful warrior chosen to make the difference to the world!

I knew this was a time travel book but I thought it would be your typical time travel novel, I'm glad it wasn't. I think it's a great concept. I really like the plot and the characters. It starts as a normal teenager struggling with life, abandonment, loss, a new family, troubled teens; relatable events. "Maybe it was because I had been on the receiving end of being abandoned and knew exactly how it felt." After that, is a whole different story, she has things to do and still try to figure out who she is.
The characters are likable, different but still human. The only thing is I felt like the writing is a bit different, like the narrator (which happens to be the main character) could show a little more emotion sometimes as she expresses her feelings, I just felt like she was rushing through things. Also through the dangerous situations, I felt like they happened so fast, I don't know why. Also, I feel like we hardly got to know most of the characters, maybe it's because we only saw them a couple of times and they hardly interacted with the main character but I feel like she could have added more to their reaction and what she thought of them when they were around each other.

The romance, I don't think it was insta-love, I feel like there's more to it, maybe we'll get to see it better on the next book. I understand physical attraction from the moment you meet someone, so I had no problem with that but it looks like things happened a little too fast, I'm hoping I'm right and there's a reason why it happened like that.
There are some things were it felt like she forgave too quickly but I think about it and I am like that. I'm always making excuses for why I'm the one who's wrong and the guy had all the reason to act the way he did. Though I know if I heard it from someone else, I would be mad and tell them "you are so nice (I'm going to go with nice for lack of another, stronger word), you shouldn't make excuses for him, stand up for yourself!" So, yes, I think I relate too much to the main character sometimes to say people don't act the way she does. (I don't do this with every guy, I'm talking about a special guy) So I think her feelings could be to blame for her reactions.

Other than that, I liked this book, I do want to read the second one and see what happens. I'm curious about how this would end, as always I don't know how you conclude a romance between people who don't belong but you still want them to end up together. There was a twist in the end I didn't see coming, I'm hoping we get to see more of that as well. I felt like we got a good explanation of what is happening and easy to understand and catch up with the main character who is just as clueless as we are at the beginning. Most reactions from the main character are normal, not really believing what is happening but since it's happening directly to her, there's only so much you can ignore.

I used to judge books by their cover, now I'm trying not to do that anymore and I'm glad. When I first saw the cover I pictured a book for adults about relaxation or something along the lines. But after reading it, I understand the image on the cover, though I still wouldn't think of teenagers.

I don't give half ratings and I don't think the couple of things I mentioned are worthy of a 3 monkey bookmark rating so I give it 4 since I rate the plot overall and I really liked it.
*My rating policy


Favorite parts:
"I preferred letting my feelings fester inside." I tend to do that as well. I relate to her in many ways.
"That night an overwhelming feeling of loneliness took over..." I could feel it with her
"sometimes hope was the only thing that kept you going."

This is a book I received by the author for a review, I normally don't add this (all of the reviews are of my own opinion, I am sometimes offered books from authors to review but am not compensated for them), but since she offered all the information on the email I thought she might want me to add it here as well.

The Evolved Trilogy, Altered - Revelations of the Evolved
Amazon -- Ebook
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Author, Shawnda Currie: Blog -- Facebook -- Twitter