55. The Diamond of Freedom by Lorena Angell

#3 Unaltered

Read on Kindle

2013

264 pgs.
YA Paranormal Fantasy
Finished 5/24/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.08 - 554 ratings
My rating: 3.5/4

First line/s: "He stands by the river, his black leather duster setting him apart."

My comments: Lots happens in this one, and although it's left at a cliffhanger, it's a different kind of cliffhanger than in book two.  In that one, Chris and Calli are off to Miami and we know it.  In this book, there is a definite ending with uncertainty of what will happen next.  Is Chris a traitor?  What's going on between him and Deus Ex?  You had to think harder to follow everything  that happened in this book, what the obsidian was doing and how it changed the powers.  Also, following the "repeating" and trying to understand how it worked was a bit confusing.  It's fascinating to consider how minds can think up this stuff.  So here's the ultimate spoiler:  the books ends with Calli in Maine with her parents, Chris has taken of with Deus Ex as her supposed hostage, Jonas and Cali have joined the ranks of the diamond bearers although Calli still has a fragment of Jonas's diamond in her own heart.  Crazy

Goodreads synopsis:  The Diamond of Freedom, book three in The Unaltered, melds together history, geology, metaphysics, science, and fantasy in this non-stop nail biter. Calli and Chris race against the clock to identify the power-neutralizing stone that prevents Calli from healing her life-threatening injuries. She must also learn how to counter its effects before she can fight against the rogue Diamond Bearer named Freedom to save the boy she loves and the world of her friends.

          In the epic battle between extreme cosmic-power holders, weaknesses are exploited and lifetime relationships shattered to gain the upper-hand. Sometimes having no special abilities is what makes someone the most powerful. General Harding, Chris's father, has made it his life's mission to eradicate all people with powers. Believing the lies fed to him, and misusing his status with the U.S. government, General Harding nears completion of a weapon designed to destroy cosmic-energy individuals.
          Calli meets Brand Safferson's half-sister, self-named Deus Ex, and proclaimed mercenary. Her repeating abilities are necessary to rescue Brand from General Harding's compound, but the risks of recruiting her to abandon Freedom's side and join Maetha's may be deadly.
          Maetha provides proof that she's figured out how to heal the DNA of an altered human, creating an Unaltered individual.