Altered by Jennifer Rush

This is the first novel in the Altered series by Jennifer Rush.

For five years, Anna has been sneaking down to the basement to see the four boys that are being experimented on. Her father is observing them and giving them tests - tests for what, they are not sure, but the boys have been altered someway so they are faster, stronger, smarter than guys their age.

Trev, Cas, Nick and Sam are her only friends - well not Nick because he hates Anna - because Anna is homeschooled and is an only child.

Just recently, her father is letting her come down to the lab during the day to help with the records and testing procedure. But Anna still likes to sneak down around midnight to see the boys when her father isn't around.

While Cas and Trev are funny and she can talk to them about anything, Sam is a different story. Anna has always been attracted to him, much more than a friend to talk to. But Sam is hard to read, so she's not sure what he thinks about.

After the authorities of the project come and try to take the boys away, Sam is able to escape and kill all of the guards. When him and the other boys are leaving, Anna's father says to take Anna with them, to protect her.

So now Anna is running off with the boys she's grown up with, away from everything she's grown used to.

The more the boys try to remember their past and why they are being experimented on, the more questions seem to pop up. Like, why do the boys feel the need to protect Anna? She's just the scientist's daughter - they should despise her.

And why is Anna getting headaches like the boys are? They are having headaches because of the lack of treatment... but Anna never got treatments.

With all of these questions building up, the five of them are still running away from Connor and Riley, the head of the project. They are not going to stop until they capture all of them - even Anna.

Will the group be able to get away and keep their freedom, or will they get captured and be forced to go back to a cage? What is Anna's part in all of this, because it seems that she might not be just the scientist's daughter? Read Altered by Jennifer Rush to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
This is the author's debut novel?!? I would never have guessed, assuming that she has written many before! That's how good I thought this book was!

Right from the beginning I was sucked into this book and read it all in one sitting within a few hours. The world that Rush created was very intense.

Anna is such a sweetheart. She snuck down to see the boys and formed a bond with them. She brought them cookies, books, games, hair products, whatever they wanted. And she talked about outside, what color the sky was, if it was warm or cold. She was their outside source and most of the guys adored her.

But I liked that she wasn't completely a sweetheart - she also took self defense classes once every two weeks, so she was also able to defend herself if the situation ever needed her to do so. And she sure did need them when her and the boys were running from the special ops that were chasing them down.

All of the secrets that slowly came about was very refreshing, and I didn't see all of them coming, which I liked because I hate figuring things out before hand.

My favorite parts were with Cas and Trev - they were the goofy ones of the bunch, especially Cas. No matter how serious the situation was, Cas was always there to make a joke of something.

I really, really liked this novel and I can't wait to read the second one in the series! But Goodreads says it won't be out until January 2014 so I have a while to wait before I can find out what happens after the ending of this one!

I would definitely recommend this novel to other readers, because I think they will appreciate the freshness and action that this novel gives. Really great job!