Book Review: Loop by Karen Akins

Loop (Loop #1)
Author:  Karen Akins
Publisher:  St. Martin's Griffin, 336 pages
Expected Publication Date:  October 21, 2014
*ARC received form publisher via NetGalley

From Goodreads:
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 tagalong 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.

Review:
Loop was AMAZING!!!  It had it all.  A ton of action and adventure, a strong, feisty heroine, mind-bendy time travel, romance, and humor.  I laughed out loud so many times, but at the same time the stakes in this book were high.  

The world-building was fascinating, with the Shifters (those who genetically could time travel) going to school to learn the ins and outs of time travel, and non-Shifters, who found out about Shifters about fifty years before and now there are all sorts of laws about time travel.  Shifters can't change the past (literally can't change the past), but they study history, go back in time to a crime scene, etc.  They have a chip in their head that controls where they go and they can be tracked and yanked back to the present at any time.  

The book starts with Bree on a school assignment where she goes back in time and meets Finn.  Oh...Finn.  I loved him and their relationship.  He's such a good guy.  Apparently Future Bree knows Finn and he's in love with her, but this Bree doesn't even know him.  And Finn quickly finds out that this Bree is not his Bree (yet), which leads to a lot of tension between the two of them.  Loved loved loved how this played out.  Their bickering and bantering was one of my favorite parts about this book.

Loop is a fun and compelling must read, one of the best time travel books I've read. Highly recommend.

Posted by:  Pam