Karen Akins lives in the MidSouth where she writes humorous, light YA sci-fi. When not writing or reading, she loves lightsaber dueling with her two sons and forcing her husband to watch BBC shows with her. 
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
I love time travel books and when I saw the summary of Loop by Karen Akins I admit, I got a bit excited to read it. I mean, there is time travel, a girl in school just trying to pass her midterm, and of course a boy. Don’t get me wrong, there is also a larger story that I have to admit, I may not do it justice but trust me…I really enjoyed this book!
We are introduced to Bree when she is completing her midterm…it just happens to be 200 (or so) years in the past and she has to figure out what to do. On top of that, due to some personal issues, she has decided to take on a side job for someone that might just be a bit questionable….ok, it really is.
Bree is great. I thought she was a solid character and Akins did a great job developing her story and revealing bits and pieces along the way. Things haven’t been easy for her and they definitely are not getting better. What she has going for her is that she is smart…clearly. As the story is rolled out, it is clear that although she doesn’t always have a plan, she can usually figure things out fairly quickly and I appreciate the fact that she can think on her feet.
The world that Akins has developed here has only added to the story. The characters live in a place where people are born with genes that allow them to time travel. Because of the politics of this, the government has implanted chips in those individuals to ensure they aren’t doing anything people think they shouldn’t. The chip allows the jumpers to be tracked and pulled back if necessary. We find out that Bree’s mother is fairly well known…mostly because people believe she messed with her chip and now she is in a coma. This is what really fuels Bree to do most of the things she does as she works to find out what really happened to her mom and then ultimately, how can she fix her.
The government has also created rules to time travel and one of them happens to be that travelers can’t bring anything back with them…imagine the trouble that Bree will be in if/when anyone finds out she ends up bringing another person back with her. This, of course, leads me to Finn. He is introduced to us twice and I thought this part was well done. Finn knows things about Bree but only what she has told him. Where things get confusing is what he knows from future Bree vs. what current Bree tells him. We get a brief glimpse of him initially but don’t really get to know him until the second time around and after he better understands the whole time travel thing. See, Finn also comes from a family of time travelers and is only told about it after Bree’s initial visit.
This story is full of action and is definitely fast paced. There are a number of secondary characters that help drive the story forward and I really did like all of them. The twists and turns that Akins creates as well of the mystery of who is really the bad guy here is what kept me turning the pages of this book. If you are looking for an interesting time travel story, definitely check this one out. I myself can’t wait to see where Akins takes these characters in the rest of the series.
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for the review copy.
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