A Diamond In My Pocket by Lorena Angell

BLURB: After breaking the 100m world record, sixteen-year-old Calli is whisked away to a secret facility where she's placed with other teens who possess superhuman speed. She soon finds herself in a deadly situation involving other superpowers, a magical diamond, and a centuries-old clan vying for world domination. Calli will have to rely on her quick wit and gut instinct to navigate her new world which includes secretly carrying a power-infusing diamond, all the while steering clear of the young man who mistakenly believes she's his soulmate.

Book one of The Unaltered series introduces a secret universe existing within our own. In this world, cosmic energy grants superhuman abilities, and people of like ability band together in clans for both safety and community. Flesh-ripping demons prowl at night, drawn to the cosmic energy. Governments spy on clans, clans spy on governments, and trusting the wrong person may carry a terrible price.

2 STARS

MY REVIEW: I took an instant disliking to Callie, the main character of this book. Which is not good in any case, but is made all the worse by the fact that the story is told from the first person perspective and so I was stuck in her head the entire way through the book. Callie is this oh so average, plain, and ordinary girl who is yet so much more mature and smarter then her peers, who to hear her talk are all a bunch of airheads and dumb jocks. And yet, she actually says that she doesn't like any of the boys in her school because they aren't good looking. 

So anyway, Callie suddenly finds herself with these remarkable abilities out of the blue and she gets whisked away to this compound filled with all these athletic and extremely attractive people, who she instantly assumes are complete and total jerks. And then Callie, who is at this compound with all these well trained Runners who have been studying their abilities for years, for all of a day, gets sent out on a vitally important, life threatening mission. Not only is she part of the team, she's actually one of the leaders for reasons that make absolutely no sense at all. 

Then there is the 'romance' between Callie and the hyper gorgeous Chris. Talk about

insta-love. They know each other a total of three days before they are so committed to one another they will willing die to protect each other. This is, of course, after Chris has treated Callie like dirt since the moment they met. But that's okay, because he is really hot. 

But I think the worst part of the book is the plot itself, which is incredibly thin and even though there is more of an explanation by the time you get to the end of the book, it still makes little sense. 

I struggled to read this book all the way through. It had some interesting points with the clans, and the powers, and these different things, but it was poorly executed. And I didn't connect to any of the characters enough to care what happened to them, which to me is the most important aspect of a story. 

At the time of this review, the book is free, so you might want to check it out and see if you feel differently then I did.