A Quantum Love Story

October 9, 2023
Chen notes that this tender combination of romance and science is a “bit of a bookend” to his second novel, A Beginning at the End, albeit with “more semireal-but-mostly-fake science.” Carter Cho, a quantum mechanics technician working on the top secret Hawke Particle Accelerator, and Mariana Pineda, a neuroscientist touring the facility with her company, ReLive, makers of a new memory-enhancing drug, meet just before the accelerator explodes. The duo wind up trapped together in a time loop, repeatedly reliving the four days leading up to the explosion. As they try to break free, they gradually fall in love. Then Mariana discovers the accelerator can be used as a time machine, and sets out to save the life of her late best friend, Shay, even if she has to “break time and space”—and sacrifice her relationship with Carter—to do so. Despite the stress of their predicament, Chen’s charming young lovers find time to share some exquisite meals and tactfully presented love scenes. Frequent flashbacks to Mariana’s friendship with Shay provide sound motivation for her heroic action. This unusual and satisfying near-future time-travel adventure fires on all cylinders. [Agent: Eric Smith, P.S. Literary.

November 1, 2023

Neither Carter Cho nor Mariana Pineda knows exactly what the Hawke accelerator is accelerating. But whatever it is, it shakes the whole universe apart every four days and resets. Initially, Carter is alone in his awareness of the looping, and he's bored with it all. Until he manages to pull Mariana into his awareness of the loop. As history repeats all around them, Carter and Mariana occupy a little bubble of two, a bubble that explores what's gone wrong and how to fix it, even as they tentatively reach towards a relationship that neither of them could have expected. Just as they near a solution, Carter slips out of their bubble. Mariana chooses to sacrifice everything to get him back--hopefully saving the world along the way. VERDICT Combining the sweet redemption and understated romance of Groundhog Day with the multiple explosive resets of Edge of Tomorrow, this novel from Chen (Vampire Weekend) loops its way through a charming story about opposites attracting, the human ability to reset expectations and emotions against all the odds, and the power of one woman willing to make a big sacrifice for a small change that might just save the universe.--Marlene Harris

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2023
A woman's business trip turns into a journey of scientific and self-discovery after she gets caught in a time loop. Neuroscientist Mariana Pineda is ready to quit her job. Her heart hasn't been in it ever since Shay Freeman, her best friend, went missing and probably died three months ago. But the offer of a last-minute business trip to the Hawke Accelerator, the place Shay has always wanted to work, is too good to pass up, and she decides she'll quit when she gets back. While at Hawke, she runs into Carter Cho, a technician who seems to always be in the background of things. Then he asks if she remembers their last conversation--she doesn't think she's ever spoken to him before--and tells her they're stuck in a time loop that's going to be set off when the accelerator blows up in a few minutes. At the last moment, he pushes her in front of a green beam of energy, and she wakes up in her bed, four days earlier. Now aware that she's caught in the time loop with Carter, she realizes the two of them must find a way to break the cycle before losing their minds. With a puzzle box of a plot, the novel has an interesting assortment of twists and turns, but that's also one of its weaknesses, because it doesn't seem to know what kind of story it wants to tell. The characters lack depth; only Mariana gets any shading beyond a surface level, mainly because the story is told from her point of view. Despite the title, the characters bond more over their plight than over any feelings. A great mix of ideas that can't ultimately coalesce into one story.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2023
Carter Cho is trying to solve a mystery. Specifically: why is he stuck in a four-day time loop that always ends in the Hawke particle accelerator exploding? When he pulls scientist Mariana Pineda into the green arc of light that seemed to throw him into the loop, neither of them knows how much they'll change the other, as they alternate trying to change the future and taking breaks where they use their regenerating bank accounts to cross off bucket list items and confront their darker fears. But when time itself starts to buck apart, Carter starts slipping out of the loop--and it falls on Mariana to save both the world and their chance at happiness. As always, Chen's novel roots its sf premise in the strong characters and their relationships. At times, the plot feels a bit scattered, but Chen draws on the isolation of the pandemic and the time-travel narrative tradition to create a riveting climax. The novel's easy but intricate world building and exciting twists make it one that fans of soft or character-based sf will really enjoy.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.