Concealed

Katrina and her parents have once again relocated to a new hiding place, this time in Georgia. Her parents have told her that being in the Witness Protection Program is tough, and they have to be very careful about blending in. When her mom is suddenly taken and her dad disappears, Katrina fears the worst and embarks on a rescue mission with her new friend, Parker. Along the way, Katrina realizes they are in more danger than she ever expected, and the secret her parents have been hiding has nothing to do with the Witness Protection Program. If she wants everyone to make it out alive, she will have to learn and accept the truth.

Christina Diaz Gonzalez has a stupendous gift for writing middle grade thrillers. Just like in Gonzalez's MOVING TARGET series, the plot is fast paced and involves travel (though not as international as MOVING TARGET). The reader immediately feels how high the stakes are with Katrina's parents and herself being at life or death risk if/when they are discovered. Even though Katrina knows how serious the situation is, she also feels a natural push back to all of the rules and wants to keep her name longer than a few months and make friends.

Katrina is a wonderful protagonist that I was rooting for from the first page. She's clever and loyal, and even though she knows that the truth might be painful, she still tries to uncover it anyway. I like her growing friendship with Parker as well. He understands what it feels like to be alone and uncertain, and together, they make a great team.

Readers looking for an action-packed, high stakes thriller with a memorable protagonist will find a great read in CONCEALED.

Katrina is used to being on the run and operating under an assumed identity; Katrina is just the lastest in an alphabetical march through various names. Her father was a scientist who ran afoul of a drug cartel, so the family is in the witness protection program, and gets help only from a man going by X. They've been living in cities, because it's easier to disappear in a crowd, but their latest placement is an RV in the country. Katrina is homeschooled and the family shies away from technology, but the only other teen in the area is Parker. He's living with a relative after his mother died of a drug overdose, and is an excellent computer hacker. Katrina has no memory of her life before an accident a few years previously, when she almost died. When her father is arrested, she and Parker go on the run to a safe house in Georgia, and try to investigate her past along the way. She does find X, but his recounting of her past doesn't line up with her father's, so she is leery of his help. The mystery gets deeper and deeper as Katrina and Parker uncover the company behind her father's research, are reunited with her father and mother, and find out secrets about her own past and the families involvement with scientific experimentation. I don't want to give away too many details and spoil the twists and turns!