Review: Chosen Ones by Tiffany Truitt

Title: Chosen Ones
Author: Tiffany Truitt
Series: The Lost Souls #1
Goodreads Summary:
"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?"

Main character: 4/5
Tess was an interesting main character. A lot of the book deals with Tess' interior struggle over what the government has told her and what she learns to be true through her father's letters and her time with James, one of the genetically engineered chosen ones. Tess' character development was well-paced (not too slow and not too fast) and I loved the fact that she could still question herself and people around her even late in the book. She was a believable heroine whose strengths and weaknesses were clearly outlined.

Secondary characters: 3/5
One downside of Tess' attempts to alienate herself from others is that we don't get a very broad or well developed secondary cast. Obviously James is the most important one and he is a fantastically developed romantic interest. His personal reflections about what it means to be "soulless" or to be created for a specific purpose were thought-provoking and gave so many more layers to his character than your average run-of-the-mill love interest. I wish I had seen more development of other secondary characters including James' creator, Tess' sisters, Robert, etc.

Writing style: 3/5
Nothing particularly special, but it got the job done and was interesting enough to hold my attention. As I've said before, I feel like a writer's skill is directly tied to how believable they make the plot line and Truitt's writing made the plot incredibly believable. Her pacing was also impeccably done.

Plot: 4/5
I know that the genetically engineered human plot has been done before, but Truitt's world is beautifully crafted and believable. The interactions between chosen ones and naturals was so interesting and subplots with Robert and Emma, Tess' father, etc. also kept my attention.

Ending: 2.5/5
Not as satisfying as I would have liked, but adequate. I was a little disappointed by the pacing; it felt like Truitt was trying to wrap everything up so quickly that things were moving by like flashes of scenes from a movie. Truitt also threw a couple plot points on us in the last few pages that I felt deserved more time to be tasted and understood.

Cover: Everyone probably knows now that I love the pretty dresses on covers. The cover was definitely pretty, but I didn't like the tagline or the series information in the middle of the page.

Rating: 6.6 / 10 (4 stars)