"Altered" by Kimberly Montague

From Goodreads: "Deep in the Sierra Nevada mountains there lies a cave that has been the source of local legends for centuries. Purported to be the home of an ancient deranged and vicious animal, many have gone in seek of it, but what lies within is far more dangerous than a mere creature.

17 year-old Piper “Evie” Kenley’s life has been anything but calm, however, the turmoil of losing almost her entire family is nothing compared to the difficulties she is about to face.

Robbed of all other alternatives, she moves in with her boyfriend of seven years and his family only to find that she has an intensely electric connection with the handsome and popular Devlin Vaughn- Captain of the football team. Try as she might, she cannot avoid this connection they share leaving her with a choice to make. But just as she begins to feel her life is in order, one camping trip and a testosterone-driven dare involving a cave with a deadly and contagious secret will send her entire world into complete chaos."

Move aside all book boys I have deemed swoon-worthy in the past! Dev may seriously be the most swoon-worthy boy I have ever read of before (save for Jace Lightwood, but he is another story as he is in a category all of his own). I think that Dev possess all of the best characteristics of all of my favourite book boys- Jay Heaton's super caring nature (from Kimberly Derting's "The Body Finder" series), Marc Ramos' over-protectiveness (from Rachel Vincent's "Shifters" series), and Jace Lightwood's arrogance/ cockiness (from Cassie Clare's "Mortal Instruments" series).

Aside from Dev, the other characters were all really great and loveable too! Even the parents! I feel that a lot of the time in YA the parents of the kids never really get mentioned (they just kinda randomly show up and say something like, "Oooohhhh, your boyfriend is a vampire? That's cool!", never to be seen again). Gabriel and Evelyn? Yeah, Sonya and Evie were extremely lucky to have them. My only complaint about the characters was Harm (Evie's older brother), she mentioned him so many times throughout the book and while I got a sense of who he was, I just would have liked to have actually seen him in the flesh (well as 'in the flesh' as you can get while reading a book), rather than just hearing about him.

I think that if Kimerbly Derting's aforementioned "The Body Finder" series and the recent film "The Crazies" were to have a baby (and maybe throw in a bit of Julia Karr's "XVI" or Lauren Oliver's "Delirium"), this book would be the result. On the one hand there is such a cute and totally SQUEE worthy romance aspect to it, but on the other hand there is an apocalyptic/ 'end of the world because the zombies are going to eat your brain' feel to it. That being said however, sometimes I felt that there was a disconnect between the two genres- it was so easy to get swept up in the romance, forgetting all about the sci-fi element and when the sci-fi element was once again introduced you couldn't help but be kinda grumpy because at that point you didn't care about it, all you cared about was seeing Evie and Dev's relationship continue to grow and develop.

All in all, I think that Beth Revis' description of her book "Across the Universe", "A sci fi for teens who don't like sci fi", fits this book perfectly! There is a nice medium between the genres, keeping the romance junkies like myself happy, and the hardcore sci-fi readers entertained as well! I cannot wait to see what Kimberly has in store for us in the next installment of her series, the "Setenid Blight" series!

Rating: 10/10

I received this book from the author to read and honestly review. I was not compensated in any way for said review.