Impostor

Title: Impostor
Author: Susanne Winnacker
Format: e-book provided by Net Galley
Release Date: for this edition, 1/7/14
Pages: Around 320
Rating: 3 stars out of five
Additional Information: First book in a series, already published under a different cover in hardcover by Razorbill, this edition will be published by Hodder Children's Books

Summary (taken from Goodreads)
Tessa is a Variant with extraordinary abilities. She could be a hero, but all she wants to do is fall in love ...

Tessa is a Variant, able to absorb the DNA of anyone she touches and mimic their appearance. Shunned by her family, she's spent the last two years with the Forces with Extraordinary Abilities, a secret branch of the FBI. There she trains with other Variants, such as long-term crush Alec, who each have their own extraordinary ability.

When a serial killer rocks a small town in Oregon, Tessa is given a mission: she must impersonate Madison, a local teen, to find the killer before he strikes again. Tessa hates everything about being an impostor - the stress, the danger, the deceit - but loves playing the role of a normal girl. As Madison, she finds friends, romance, and the kind of loving family she'd do anything to keep.

Amid action, suspense, and a ticking clock, this super-human comes to a very human conclusion: even a girl who can look like anyone struggles the most with being herself.
Tessa is a Variant with extraordinary abilities. She could be a hero, but all she wants to do is fall in love ...


I had been interested in this book since the first time I had heard of it, when it was published by Razorbill back in May. However, I had too many books higher on my TBR pile and never ended up getting to it, so when I saw it on Net Galley, I figured it would be my chance to finally read it. They accepted by request, and I am glad that I got a free copy of this book.
This probably would have been a four star rating if it was not for the beginning. We have our main character Tessa, who can shift into different people (like from the Infernal Devises trilogy, but that Tessa's powers were stronger) and who was helplessly in love with her friend Alec (a character from The Mortal Instruments, noticing a theme?), who had a girlfriend, Kate.
I do not understand why Tess and her friend Holly hate her so much. So what, she is dating Alec? She is referred to as the "bitch" several times, and yet Tessa gets offended when Kate says one mean thing to her. Also, when she first starts this mission, she whines and sulks, which I can understand to a point, but she also finds a way to draw everything back to herself, which I found annoying.
Okay. Once we got further into the story and Tessa got over herself, I found myself starting to like it. Sure, it was easy enough for me to guess all the big surprises in this book, but I thought that the plot was interesting and some of the struggles Tessa had with her ability and the fact that she is lying to a dead girl's family was interesting. I also liked the relationship she adopted with some of the people Madison knew in her life.
Overall, I am not extremely excited for the sequel, but I would read it given the opportunity.  I am not a big fan of the main character being this different and super valuable she just does not know it kind of thing, but there are cases where it is played out beautifully, and I would like to see how that turns out in the next book. If you are considering reading it, I recommend at least making it to the second half of the book before deciding to put it down.