Seventeen-year-old Lexi Matthews keeps two secrets from her elite boarding school classmates—she’s the daughter of a famous and controversial geneticist, and she can influence people’s thoughts. But after new student Jack DeWeese heals her broken arm with an anything-but-simple touch, he forces Lexi to face a new reality—her abilities reach much further than speaking to the minds of others.
After Lexi’s father goes missing and she receives threatening emails, she can’t decide whether to fall into Jack’s arms or run and hide. As Lexi seeks answers to what she and Jack are, she discovers a truth more unsettling than anything her science books can teach. And letting Jack into her life of secrets is not only a threat to her very existence, but it just might break her heart wide open.
This book was actually a surprising read. It was free on apple books so of course I wasn't expecting much but it ended up reeling me in. Not to say this story isn't without its flaws but it is first of a series of four books so there's room for more explanation later on.
Lexi was just an ok main character. I wish we had gotten to know her better before everything started because there was a lot of stuff that she did without motivation. I understand that as the main character AND narrator she already knows everything about herself and doesn't need to repeat it, but we only got snippets of her past. There were so many questions along the way that the author forgot about or just didn't feel like going into: why was she on meds? why did her grandmother take care of her? was her dad always on the run? why didn't he take Lexi with him? I'm really hoping this is expanded on in some of the later books.
Also, her abilities weren't described very much. It's assumed early on (and explicitly stated later on) that she's the hero all the crazies want but we don't know why. Yes, she's special, but just because you can read minds and such doesn't make you the all powerful savior...again, unless there's more I don't know about in later books.
I feel like that's a recurring theme in this review - there's got to be more in the rest of the series or this author really likes to write action scenes. Not a bad thing, but action means nothing unless we know the motivation behind it. It's hard for me to feel sad about a character sacrificing themselves (which I'm sure Lexi will do at some point) if I don't know what they have to lose.
That being said, her relationship with Jack was annoying. The story from day 1 is that they were bred to be together but in the end, that's the not the case. Suddenly there's a whole host of kids like them but it's still not explained why only they have a special bond (there's no way it's just super special teen love. there's no way I'm buying that). I'm honestly hoping for a Luke and Leia thing here: oops, you guys are actually related. Awkward love story shut down.
Another frustrating thing about the book is that the villain keeps changing. First, it's Jack, Then the program people, Then Kyle, who literally came out of nowhere. I'm not sure who to hate.
So all this stuff sounds bad but it actually was a pretty interesting book if you suspend reality for a while. Obviously, people can't control brains just by touching them (no matter how much 'special science' is used) but that makes life more exciting so I'm along for the ride. If the other books are free I'm down to continue the saga for a while. If not, then I guess Lexi's story ends here for me.
3 stars, solid but needs editing. I guess you get what you pay for.
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