Altered by Marnee Blake
Released: December 8, 2015
Paranormal Romance
Entangled
Reviewed by Mandi
The premise of this book really drew me in. The heroine wakes up, and the entire small town she lives in is dead. (Okay, that’s not awesome but I do like end of the world type scenarios). The heroine somehow survives and the hero who is just visiting along with some other friends make it. They gain superpowers (well water was infected) and save the world. Not really, but super-hero romance is cool. But sadly, the story didn’t work for me.
Blueberry (the heroine’s name is Blueberry. Maybe I should have stopped there) lives with her beloved grandmother who has raised her most of her life. One evening, Blue starts to feel really sick. Her grandmother is already in bed sleeping, so Blue goes to bed too. Blue starts to have severe flu symptoms. In the morning, her symptoms disappear just as fast as they started. She gets up, and checks on her grandmother – who has died in her sleep.
Blue runs to the nearest gas station (she doesn’t have a cell phone) to call for help, and realizes the family that lives above the gas station are also all dead. Everyone in the town is dead, but her – and the hero. Seth is a specialist in the army, on his way to training. He stayed the night in the town of Glory, and when he wakes up, he starts to realize everyone is dead. Seth and Blue meet, realize they are the only ones alive and decide to get out of town. Blue stops on the way to a friend’s house, realizes Kitty is alive (but no one else in her family) and then scary helicopters come. The three of them (they actually pick up a few more people) realize something must have been put in the well water in the town killing everyone but them. It’s a scary research lab and they don’t know what to do.
On top of all of this, the survivors all have special powers all of a sudden. Blue can make objects move with her mind. Kitty can hear everyone’s thoughts. Seth can fly. Awesome – but…
First let me start with the entire town dying. That’s hard-core. It was a super small town, but still. It was a mass murder. Blue’s grandmother who raised her was murdered. Kitty’s entire family – murdered. But – no one freaks out that much. Blue actually cracks a joke not too long into the entire ordeal. Minutes after meeting Seth, she hears him laugh and “the sound did something strange to her stomach.” I wanted to feel the horror of what happened. I wanted to feel Blue’s grief and devastation of everyone she knows in the town is dead. Her reaction was not – big enough for me. I needed to dig into her emotions and we don’t get that.
Next – the super powers. This was not explained well enough for me. I realize, Blue and the group don’t know why they have super powers – but I needed a lot more detail about these powers. Blue can move things – but it comes so easy to her. When she makes a person stay in place, she realizes the person can’t breathe – so she can’t do that to her friend. But very soon after this, she needs to help Luke, a member of their group, get on a train. And she states:
At least she and Luke had used their practice time to master holding someone still without making them suffocate.
But – how did they figure this out? It’s not explained in the book. So I’m left scratching my head – but there are a lot of things like this. Kitty can hear EVERY thought of everyone around her. Yet, she is still tricked into getting kidnapped. Wouldn’t she be able to hear things and realize what was going to happen? There are a lot of frustrating things like this in the story.
Finally, the romance. It just didn’t work for me. I never felt a passionate love between Seth and Blue. It felt forced and their chemistry falls flat.
This one just didn’t work for me.
Grade: D
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