The brokenhearted by Amelia Kahaney

Anthem Fleet lives a life of privilege in the family penthouse, far above Bedlam city and blocks away from the dangers of the South Side.  She spends time with her best friend Zahra and practices ballet for hours everyday to reach her dream of being a prima ballerina - and she has just dumped her boyfriend Will.  Feeling a little adrift she finds herself drawn towards a South Side boy named Gavin, a boy unlike any she has ever known before.  But in a moment her new found love is swept away by kidnappers who demand money in exchange for Gavin - and on the way home Anthem has an accident and wakes up in a strange lab and learns that because they could not get her heart to start she now has an illegal biomechanical heart.

Back in the safety of her penthouse Anthem keeps her new heart a secret from everyone around her, and each day she learns more about what the heart will allow her to do, and each day she becomes more determined to find the people who took Gavin.  But Anthem is playing a game where she doesn't know all the rules and where some of the players are playing for keeps - even if that means leaving a few dead bodies in their wake.  While Anthem is closing in on the bad guys, she is also having to deal with the unwanted attentions of her ex-boyfriend Will and the confusion of her best friend who can't understand why Anthem has changed so much.  Anthem is going through some huge changes, but are they worth it?

The brokenhearted was one of those books that grabbed my attention because of the somewhat sinister and mysterious cover, and then the blurb sucked me into the story.  I wasn't expecting a lot from this story and was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the characters and the underlying plot (which emerges over the course of the novel) - I may have guessed most of the ending during the course of the novel, but it wasn't a disappointment to be proved right, more satisfying that I was right.  Anthem and her world are not described in deep and intimate detail, but her world is very real and absorbing just the same.  There are some interesting elements blended together into this story with touches of romance, drama, conspiracy, thriller, and a smidge of the dystopian.  

There is a hint that this may be the first book in a series, but that could be a misleading hint - you can decide for yourself.  A fun and absorbing read that kept drawing me away from other tasks until I finished the book in one final rush.

If you like this book then try:

• When we wake by Karen Healey
• The limit by Kristin Landon
• Breathe by Sarah Crossan
• Legend by Marie Lu
• Slated by Teri Terry
• XVI by Julia Karr
• Article 5 by Kristin Simmons
• Proxy by Alex London
• Don't turn around by Michelle Gagnon
• Altered by Jennifer Rush
• Mila 2.0 by Debra Drizer
• Reboot by Amy Tintera
• Arrival by Chris Morphew
• Subject Seven by James A. Moore
• Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
• Variant by Robison Wells
• Numbers by Rachel Ward
• Agent 21 by Chris Ryan
• The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau
• In the after by Demitria Lunetta
• The industry by Rose Foster
• Jimmy Coates by Joe Craig
• The hunt by Andrew Fukuda

Reviewed by Brilla