Loop

Mind. Blown. Can that be my review for Loop? No seriously, can I just say ‘mind blown, read it’ and be done with it? Really that is all I want to say.I wanted to tell people to read Loop when I was 4% done with the book. I wanted to tell people when I was 18% done. I just wanted to tell all the people to read it as soon as the possible can. Because Loop, is 100% fantastic!Loop is a fantastic time travel story about Bree, a 16 year old girl, living in the 23rd century where Time Travel is a part of everyday life. To complete a midterm, Bree is sent to the 21st century and ends up on a path she never expected when she takes a teenage boy hostage (sort of by accident). On the verge of losing her scholarship at the Institute she has no choice but to sneak back to talk to the kid. The only problem is he is convinced he knows her and they are in love. Not knowing what to do and what is actually going on Bree returns home, but inadvertently ends up taking him with her. Now stuck in the 23rd century with a boy she doesn’t know that knows her and a pile of odd occurrences, Bree has to figure out just what is exactly happening and who it is she is supposed to trust.There was a lot I loved about this book. I loved Bree’s voice, Finn’s adorableness, the humor, the writing. I even liked all of the side characters. But the one thing I loved the most (the humor and Finn are tied for a close second) was the mystery you read without knowing you are reading it. There is a very intricate story woven into the pages of Loop and as a reader you don’t really even know that’s what is happening. Every single thing that Akins’ wrote was written for the purpose of moving the story along. Time travel and parallel life stories are hard. There is a lot of planning and plotting involved to not confuse the reader and to make the plot flow seamlessly. And when all is said and done you can tell Akins put the time and energy in it for her readers. I wasn’t left feeling confused or like something was missing. I left Loop just wanting the story to go on forever.I could go on and on, as I said there was so much I loved about this book, but I feel like I may have said too much already. I feel like the best thing I can do for you is to just tell you to read it and enjoy. To take it all in. To be left dying for more. To just read a great book with some great writing. If you love parallel life/time travel stories, then DO NOT MISS this book. It is a must.Now give me the sequel Twist!!!

4.5 stars!"Umm, because you smell like a wad of yummy wrapped in a layer of delicious?" -BreeLOOP was such a great, fun book, with an amusing character and intriguing take on time travel! I was actually given an eARC of this, but didn't realize that it expired by a certain date (boo), so... I had to buy my own version so I could read it in time for the review/giveaway on my blog. Which is fine, and totally worth it! (I've actually now ordered a hard copy--that's how much I loved it!)LOOP starts out with Bree being given an assignment to go to a particular place in time. There's a whole other thing going on that you don't fully understand until quite a bit further into the book, but let's just say that she is also trying to sneak in an "off the record" assignment at the same time, to benefit her family. Problem is, pretty much everything goes wrong, which starts a long twist of things getting more funny and wonky and confusing as she learns nothing at all is really as it seems and this might not be the first time she's been at this particular point in time.I don't want to say much because there are layers to the plot and I might give something away, but I will say that not reading the blurb actually benefitted me a lot, because I had no idea what to expect and that made the read more exciting.I also loved Karen's voice. She gave Bree, her best friend, Mimi, and the rest of the characters such great dialogue, and her descriptions were seamless. I'm one of those readers who doesn't always want long descriptive parts when I'm really enjoying a book (get me to the action!), and this fit the bill with perfect laughs, set-ups, and surprises. Another quote:Finn stared at me like I'd sprouted a third eyeball. He waited until I was done before he sat up and clapped his hands together. Again. And again. "Bravo! Did they serve a helping of brainwashing with the twigs this morning or was it beamed directly into your brain via your microchip?"There are so many elements to LOOP that time travel really is just a part of it. Even if that's not normally your "thing", I guarantee you'll enjoy LOOP anyway. I love love loved book one, and can't wait to read the next in the series!

In An Oyster Shell-This book was super fun and well written. I would recommend it to anyone. I am looking forward to the sequel.The Pearls –This book has it all; great characterization, an enticing plot, and suck you in setting. This book will definitely take you places all over time nonetheless. My favorite part of the book was Bree’s affinity for fun words. Her little sayings were very cute and added to her fun quirky personality. Though don’t let her sparkling personality diminish that this girl gets down to business. Present Bree and Future Bree who poses to be a bit of an enigma. Splitting a character over time to where you’ve got two different characters really was impressive.

This book really did it for me. Lately, so many books have the same plot redone over and over again. This is fresh faced and beautiful. I love the time traveller paradoxes and idea of the "tendrils". This book was clean and fun, good for any ages. It does take some thinking to follow along (which I love), it almost reminded me of inception. Not gonna give too much away but once you read it......you'll fall in love. Especially with Finn ;). *swoon* seriously give this book a try!! Even though it didn't fully end (there's defs gonna be a sequel) I didn't feel incomplete after it ended. I thought it wrapped up beautifully, which is also rare lately in all the book series that are out. I can't wait to see more of Finn!

You had me at time travel academy! I had to struggle through some university books before I finally got around to this one, but it didn’t disappoint! Loop is an entertaining, fast-paced read that contains a lot of action and wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first: the plot can be very predictable at times. If you’ve read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone, you’ll immediately know who ISN’T the villain. It’s also clear who the actual villain is from, like, chapter 3, but I still wanted to know what happens because I DIDN'T know the how and why of it.Great, now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s move on to the strong sides of this book. It’s not necessarily a deeply profound book that will change the way of how I perceive the world forever, but it’s entertaining and that was exactly what I was looking for. Let’s have a list of what I liked about it!- The world-building was very pleasant. I really appreciated that the reader gets enough information to imagine the world without being underestimated. I always feel like an author is patronizing me when there’s too much information on how everything works, and this wasn’t the case with this book at all. (On a side note, I totally want a pegamoo.)- The Romance is sort of cute and not annoying. Bree’s love interest basically just tags along for most of the book while she slowly falls in love with him, but their dynamic is a little off because he already knows and is in love with her, while she’s just meeting him for the first time. Oh, the woes of time travel. Unlike other protagonists, they don’t neglect everything else to make out, but actually focus on all the important things that are happening (and then make out).- The action kept me reading until well into the night because there was always something happening and it never really got boring.The timeline was all over the place in a good way. Bree is constantly struggling with the frustration of her future-self dominating her actions. In that sense, it reminded me a little of Trial by Fire, in which Lily is facing her parallel universe version of an evil twin. Bree never really comes into contact with her future-self, but other characters in the novel do and boy, does it piss her off.I loved trying to figure out when what happened and how it’s all connected. The book heavily hints at the overall series arc, but still has a more-or-less satisfying ending itself. I didn’t know this would be a series when I started it, but I’m definitely going to check out the sequel whenever it comes out!(This review first appeared in a slightly different version on my blog Reviews and Cake here: [...])

Great series