Item: Erased
Rating: 4
Author: Kassiah

Erased by Jennifer Rush
Also by this author: Altered
Series: Altered #2
Also in this series: Altered
Published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers on January 7, 2014
Genres: Sci-Fi
Pages: 288
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They thought they had escaped. They were wrong.

After fleeing the Branch with Sam, Cas, and Nick, Anna is trying to make sense of the memories resurfacing from her old life. At the same time, she's learning how to survive in hiding, following Sam's rules: Don't draw attention to yourself. Always carry a weapon. Know your surroundings. Watch your back.

Then a figure from Anna's childhood reappears. Is it a Branch setup, or could it be the reunion Anna has hoped for? Uncertain of where her loyalties lie, Anna must fight to learn the truth -- before she is betrayed again. Ultimately, the answers hinge on one question: What was the real reason her memories were erased?

Jennifer Rush delivers a thrilling sequel to Altered in a novel packed with mysteries, lies, and surprises that are sure to keep readers guessing until the last page is turned.

The 411:

Because pretty much everything we could talk about would be too spoilery, we really have to keep it vague here. But trust. We want to tell you all. the. things.

Picking up two months after the end of Altered, Anna and the boys are still on the run from the Branch, trying to find out more about where each of them came from and trying to escape the Branch. What happened to some of them before coming to the lab in the farmhouse begins to be pieced together through flashbacks, and when someone from the past enters the picture, it will have them questioning everything they thought they knew and causes the group to split up. Anna might get some of the answer’s she’s been craving, but she soon finds out that everything comes at a cost–and it’s a price she might not be willing to pay.

It’s truly intense and will leave you on the edge of your seat until the last moment.

What We Loved:

The heart-stopping action. Like Altered, Erased was a thrilling ride that did. not. stop.

Rush’s writing style is truly amazing and the way the story built up was unlike anything we’ve ever read. Again, we don’t want to spoil, especially for those who haven’t read Altered yet (what are you waiting for? read!).

We loved the characters and their relationships. We could feel their friendship and genuine camaraderie, even when they were frustrated and tensions were running high.

Um...Not So Much:

There were a few things that we didn’t like. We thought that Anna was too trusting, and Sam did some things that we didn’t think he would ever choose to do.

The predictability. Unlike Altered, which had twists and turns we didn’t see coming, we felt like this one was way more predictable.

Anna and Sam’s relationship baffled us. There are some steamy kisses and definitely tenderness, but even Anna admits that Sam’s not her boyfriend. We would have liked to see more from Anna and Sam (even though one of us is unjustifiably #TeamNick). Though there was a little romance, it wasn’t much.

I took Sam’s face in my hands and kissed him. If I lost feeling in every other part of my body, I’d be all right as long as I could feel this: his lips on mine, his breath on my face, his fingers brushing the tears from my chin.

We know there’s another book in this series, but we felt like the loose ends were just a little too loose. We just wanted more. The action and Branch-y things were amazing, but we wanted more information about all of the boys’ pasts and where they’re going from here. Lucky there’s another book coming.

The Boys:

Probably our favorite part of this book is the same camaraderie and loyalty the boys have for each other that we saw in Altered.

There was a thud a second later, then an umph. “Ohhh crap,” Cas groaned.

“You’re such a g* idiot,” Nick said.

“At least I’m good-looking,”Cas countered.

Nick tsked. “Except no one likes a dumbass.”

Cas laughed. “That would explain why you get zero action.

Sam. He’s still brooding, still the leader of the pack. He seems to be a little less sure of his role in this one, but he’s learning to deal with life not under the influence of the branch.

Although I knew what Sam and the others were capable of, I still had a hard time connecting the Sam I knew now to the Sam who’d spent his days planning missions and following through with kill orders.

We loved that he was constantly touching Anna. He just makes some choices that we didn’t expect.

Nick. There is so much more to Nick that we get to see, and we’re really hoping for more about him in Book Three. We loved that even though he’s a dick to Anna most of the time, we never doubted that he was really looking out for her.

Nick and I looked at each other. Something unspoken crossed between us. An understanding, maybe. That if we stopped butting heads so much and started working together, we’d be unstoppable.

Cas. There’s more to him than just comedic relief, and we hope we get more about him in Book Three, as well. He is pretty funny.

“What happened?” I asked groggily.

“You passed out.”

…

Cas sat down next to me on the bed and put his hand on my leg. “I offered to give you mouth-to-mouth, but Sam vetoed. I don’t know why. I said I wouldn’t use tongue.”

I snickered. Sam frowned and pried Cas’s hand away by the fingers. “I’m sure she appreciates your concern,” he said, “but she was breathing just fine.”

Cas scrunched up his face, shrugging. “Minor detail.”

Trev. Even though we didn’t love some of the choices that he made, Trev was perhaps the most loyal of all, and is one of our favorite characters. We don’t want to spoil, but he says one of our favorite lines ever spoken. &hearts;

There are a few other characters that we’d like to mention (and throw into a volcano), but we can’t 🙂

The Girls:

Anna totally kicked ass. Though she loves the boys and feels protected, she doesn’t want them to see her as a delicate petal.

I was so tired. I was tired of arguing. Tired of being treated like I was somehow more fragile than the boys. I might have been a girl, but that didn’t mean I needed to be coddled. I contemplated confessing that we’d encountered agents, that we’d seen Riley, that we’d had to fight for our lives and won.

We loved that she was so determined and the fact that her loyalty to the boys never wavered. She was tough, but also vulnerable. Though we didn’t totally understand the dynamics of her relationship with Sam, we loved that she was so realistic in her uncertainty about where they were headed.

It didn’t escape me, though, the fact that I was in love with my sister’s old boyfriend, and that if she were alive, Sam and I probably wouldn’t be together.

What if digging into our past reminded Sam of what he’d lost with Dani? What if it brought on the guilt that was already creeping into my thoughts?

And what would that mean for us?

I wasn’t sure I was willing to take the risk.

There might be another girl that we hated, right from the beginning. And that’s all we have to say about that.

What We Think Will Happen Next:

There are so many things that are still up in the air, we don’t know what will happen next. We hope there’s more Nick and more Cas and more kissing and just omg we can’t wait!

Bottom Line:

Jennifer Rush brings jaw-dropping action to a new level in this followup thriller that will leave you on the edge of your seat right until the very end.