Author: Tiffany Truitt
Publisher: Entangled Teen
About the book: Life is bleak but uncomplicated for sixteen-year-old Tess, living in a not-too-distant future where the government, faced with humanity's extinction, created the Chosen Ones, artificial beings who are extraordinarily beautiful, unbelievably strong, and unabashedly deadly.
When Tess begins work at Templeton, a Chosen Ones training facility, she meets James, and the attraction is immediate in its intensity, overwhelming in its danger. But there is more to Templeton than Tess ever knew. Can she stand against her oppressors, even if it means giving up the only happiness in her life?
Purchase Links:
Add on Goodreads
My Thoughts: This was a great dystopian novel! I would love to see it made into a movie! Tess tries to be tough and unfeeling, but her walls start to crumble after she meets James. She is a Natural, and he is a Chosen One. While the powers-that-be don't discourage contact between the Chosen Ones at Templeton and the Naturals working there, it is understood that any contact they may have is simply a physical relationship. That there can be no true feelings between the two. But let me back up.
When war has taken the life out of the Naturals, they decide to create a race to fight for them, so the Chosen Ones are created. They are all male, no emotions, fighting machines. For the first years of their life, when emotional attachments are generally formed, they are kept alive on machines with only videos looped over and over to educate them - to tell them how insignificant the Naturals were and how they are unbeatable. Women especially are viewed as insignificant and what caused the downfall of the human race. For the most part, they are now sterile and if they try to have children, both they and the child die in childbirth. This is how Tess comes to be at Templeton.
The oldest female child is forced to serve a term at Templeton. If for some reason, they cannot fulfill that term, then the next female child must finish it. Tess's older sister Emma, foolishly got pregnant and died in childbirth, so Tess had to finish her obligation at Templeton. She meets James the first day there and there is immediately a strange attraction between the two. They know it is dangerous and that they must keep it hidden, as theirs is not a physical relationship, but one of trust and caring. If it is found out, they can both be in danger.
I love how you see and feel their relationship build from the beginning. How you want to see them together, but you don't know who you can trust. The author slowly reveals the secrets of Templeton to you and begins to reveal the power of the Chosen Ones. You learn right along with Tess, so her shocks are your shocks as well.
I am so happy that I already have book two, Naturals, to read! It is being released in April, so watch for my review then!
~I received a complimentary ecopy of Chosen Ones from Entangled Teen in exchange for my unbiased review.~
