I wasn't quite sure if this was going to be an angel story or something, because of the cover. I like the cover, hot guy, who wouldn't, but on my ARC, the title Altered is in black on a neon green background. So you can see how it looks it different on this cover picture from Goodreads. But, cover misleading or not, I did really like the book. In fact, it was one I could barely put down to do anything else. It really kept me turning pages!!
The main character is Anna. Her father works for the Branch. And so in her basement are 4 genetically altered boys. Sam, the one Anna seems the most drawn to, Trev who is really smart and seems to really like and care about Anna, Cas who is very funny and lots of fun to talk to, and Nick who seems to hate Anna for some reason that she doesn't even know. At a certain age Anna gets to go down and start helping her father with running the tests on the boys. Her mother died when she was young, so it is just Anna and her father in the farmhouse. She is home-schooled, because it wouldn't do for any word of these boys in the basement to get out. The boys have been altered to be stronger, better fighters, as well as something that keeps them young. But, they all have amnesia, have no idea who they were before. One day the Branch comes to take them away, saying that all the research that can be done in the lab is done, and they need them. But Anna doesn't believe they should go yet, and it turns out that Sam and the boys don't want to go either. Turns out they've been planning to escape. And when they kill the agents, Anna's father tells her to go with the boys to be safe. As they go place to place following the clues they find, in letters, pictures, and even in Sam and the other boys' tattoos, Anna also learns more about her past, and that her whole life is not as she remembers, and she learns what the connection to Sam is.
Really, really good book. As a science person, I kind of wished for a bit more science details, but maybe that's too much for a YA novel, and would be more of an adult sci-fi novel. I loved Cas, so much fun! hated Nick, don't like the "reason" for him being such a meanie. And Sam, well, Sam was a good love interest. And then there was Trev, also a fun guy, loved his quotes, and then seemed to be such a good friend. Good book. Glad that on Goodreads it is listed as a #1, because I want to know what happens AFTER the end!
