Book Review: Loop (loop #1) by Karen Akins

Loop (Loop #1) 

by 

Karen Akins 

Pub October 21st 2014 

by 

St. Martin's Griffin 

ARC for Review 

Summary
At a school where Quantum Paradox 101 is a required course and history field trips are literal, sixteen year-old time traveler Bree Bennis excels... at screwing up.

After Bree botches a solo midterm to the 21st century by accidentally taking a boy hostage (a teensy snafu), she stands to lose her scholarship. But when Bree sneaks back to talk the kid into keeping his yap shut, she doesn't go back far enough. The boy, Finn, now three years older and hot as a solar flare, is convinced he’s in love with Bree, or rather, a future version of her that doesn't think he’s a complete pain in the arse. To make matters worse, she inadvertently transports him back to the 23rd century with her.

Once home, Bree discovers that a recent rash of accidents at her school are anything but accidental. Someone is attacking time travelers. As Bree and her temporal tag-along uncover seemingly unconnected clues—a broken bracelet, a missing data file, the art heist of the millennium—that lead to the person responsible, she alone has the knowledge to piece the puzzle together. Knowledge only one other person has. Her future self.

But when those closest to her become the next victims, Bree realizes the attacker is willing to do anything to stop her. In the past, present, or future.

There is no Time Like the Present, Oops I Mean the Past or WAIT! The Future?

Loop was an interesting read but boy oh boy was it busy. What I mean by that is sometimes I got tangled in the time period and who was who. The writing was good and it kept me interested jumping from one place to another, one time to another. Bree and Finn are the main characters and future Bree has set off a chain of events from past Bree’s life aka present Bree. Lol, are you following along? Any who Bree travels some 200 years back for an exam and this exam sets off said crazy chain of events. What no one realizes is this Loop is all planned out by Bree herself!! Yikes are you lost yet? No lie folks I was like what…

a few times and there were quite a few times that Bree said “chicken egg.” I was like is that some way of putting a band-aid on my brain so it doesn’t explode? I’m a huge fan of timelines, reading Loop defied all logic but explained it well enough, maybe this is why sci-fi and I aren’t like biffs’? I don’t know a lick about quantum physics/ mechanics/ theory/ tendrils/ biology so I won’t comment on the scientific accuracy of this read(with it being for pure entertainment and all there probably isn’t much) but it sure was entertaining. At the end the reader realizes why future Bree does what she did so yay for that! Seriously this book was so different from what I’m used to reading and that is probably why I enjoyed it so much.

I mentioned Finn earlier he is Bree’s love interest. They kiss a couple of times but aside from that and a promise here or there the chemistry wasn’t a focus of the story for me. Throughout the book present/past Bree is running through a timeline maze there are clues everywhere but nothing is clear. What does that have to do with Finn? No one knows all we know is he has to protect her somehow. Although Bree openly admits this older version of Finn is easy on the eyes that is just about where the interest ends. I’m with Bree on this though, when posed with wtf is going on in your life or fall for the sexy dude standing next to you promising protection, I would probably go with the first. Find out answers, get stuff together, save my dying mother…THEN and only then see what’s up with Mr. Hottie 200 years removed.

There were several other characters that added several dimensions to this story that I quite enjoyed. Even the bad guy/ people had redeeming qualities there wasn’t a single person that I wanted to burn…well I take that back, but for now those people are faceless and nameless. The ending was pretty dang cliffy! Don’t get me wrong a lot of questions were answered but at the same time a whole slew of new questions pop up. I definitely recommend this for those looking for a good mind maze and enjoyable characters! I look forward to reading the next book in this duology I can’t wait to see what happens with all of the time jumps and aftermaths.

My Rating

4.0 Yikes I don’t know a lick about Quantum anything but I do know I enjoyed this read filled stars!!

Purchase Through

✿ Amazon ✿ B&N ✿

About the Author

Karen Akins writes humorous, light sci-fi for young adults and the young in spirit. When not writing or reading, she loves lightsaber dueling with her two sons and forcing her husband to watch BBC shows with her.

Karen has been many things in her life: an archery instructor, drummer for the shortest-lived garage band in history, and a shockingly bad tic-tac-toe player.