Slated by Teri Terry

I recommend this book

Finally! A good book! I am really impressed. Sure, this book has it flaws, but overall I am really really really super happy with this book. 

I was interested from the first page. While most of the beginning was slow it still had this interesting quality to it. Kyla has no memories and her personality is gone. She has been slated. It's the governments way of dealing with bad kids (like terrorist/criminal bad). She is told that this is a gift, a second chance. The book starts when it's time for her to leave the hospital with her new family. For me though the book didn't really start until she meets Ben. Kyla has dreams that feel more like memories to her. But slateds aren't supposed to have memories. And the only explanation she can come up with is that she's different. 

Overall I really liked all the character. I think that characters are the most important part of a book. Yeah the plot is important. And yeah having good writing is important. But in the end if I don't care about the character than the book isn't worth reading. I do have a problem with Kyla's name though. Throughout the whole book I kept reading it as Kayla despite being fully aware that it's not her name. I felt like I could connect with most, if not all, of the characters. Ben was one of my favorites because he was just so adorable and simple minded. I just wanted to give him a hug. I liked how some of the characters started out mean and ended up being great and how some started out being great and ended up being mean. Very impressed with some of the character development. 

However I was not completely impressed with the writing. At points it was easy to tell that this was Terry's first novel, especially at the beginning. I found she used the same description words a lot. Like Scowl. I probably read that a character scowled at least thirty times. It was noticeable and a little distracting but I found it to get better as the book went on.

The book is fairly slow paced but when you get to the good parts it's worth it. It really is. The ending took my breath away. It was just so good. I'm already recommending this book to all of my friends. It's soooo good. You have to read it. I am looking forward to reading the second one. 

I give this book four and half stars