I’ve been a Mike Chen ever since his debut and A Quantum Love Story is a fun timey wimey love story. There’s this signature character detail and development I’ve come to associate with Chen. I loved reading this one on vacation! Keep reading this book review of A Quantum Love Story for my full thoughts.
Summary
The only thing harder than finding someone in a time loop is losing them.
Grieving her best friend’s recent death, neuroscientist Mariana Pineda’s ready to give up everything to start anew. Even her career— after one last week consulting at a top secret particle accelerator.
Except the strangest thing a man stops her…and claims they’ve met before. Carter Cho knows who she is, why she’s mourning, why she’s there. And he needs Mariana to remember everything he’s saying.
Because time is about to loop.
In a flash of energy, it’s Monday morning. Again. Together, Mariana and Carter enter an inevitable life, four days at a time, over and over, without permanence except for what they share. With everything resetting—even bank accounts—joy comes in the little a delicious (and expensive) meal, a tennis match, giving a dog his favorite treat.
In some ways, those are all that matter.
But just as they figure out this new life, everything changes. Because Carter’s memories of the time loop are slowly disappearing. And their only chance at happiness is breaking out of the loop—forever.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
A Quantum Love Story has all my favorite elements: time loops, science timey wimey goodness, and opposites attract. I was always going to love this because I love the world building and story ideas from Chen, but this one is so fun! It’s delightful and heartwarming. I love how A Quantum Love Story explores both Mariana and Carter. These two opposites attract dynamics. Throughout A Quantum Love Story we’re absorbed into their character dynamics. How, even though there’s very much this broad story of time loops and the end of the world it’s centered in characters.
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I loved how we witness Mariana’s grief, her past which is slowly introduced to us. It makes me think about the time loops we’re stuck in. All the days which end up feeling the same, the routines we become stuck in, and the ruts we cannot escape. A Quantum Love Story illustrates how someone can do something which forces us to think, to choose, to change. It manages to balance a story about sacrifice and the impact of the individual – a theme I really needed to read – and a character driven love story.
Find A Quantum Love Story on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, & Blackwells.