Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

This was my first Mike Chen book and I really enjoyed it! Honestly, it went beyond what I was expecting for a sci-fi, romance. I should mention there was only a glimmer of romance in the storyline (one kiss!) but the potential of a great love story was there for the taking. Our main characters, Mariana and Carter were endearing and quirky. I was so caught up in the storyline with the two of them becoming a team to figure out the time loop, but at the same time, I adored the two just living day to day together simply being. I would have been satisfied with them staying in an endless loop if it wasn't for the fact of Carter losing his memories. Bah humbug! There is plenty of sci-fi jargon, but it didn't detract from the story for a non-science person. While there are plenty of cute, sweet moments, there are also a lot of emotional situations dealing with grief, loss and sacrifice...

There were a few things that stopped this being a perfect 5 star read. I still had some questions at the end of the book. And while there is a hopeful ending, I just wanted a little more confirmation that YES, our couple would get a HEA. An additional epilogue besides the given one would have been a lovely bonus!

4.5 stars

The title is a little misleading, because I didn’t find this book to be a love story at all. While there was maybe a sprinkle of romance in it, A Quantum Love Story was primarily a time loop book. So if you’re looking for a romance sci-fi book, this is probably not it.

I really enjoyed the story. It was fast paced and engaging, quirky at times, and it was not as predictable as I thought it would be. As someone who has a very technical and fact based mind, I liked the characters, but I wish that they had more depth. Both Mariana and Carter felt very one dimensional. They each had two or three traits that kept repeating, and that was their entire personality. It also made the (tiny bit of) romance feel kind of awkward and forced.

Overall it was a lovely time loop book that I had fun reading, and I would recommend it to those that enjoy that kind of time travel story.

Title Vs Genre Will Cause A War In Booklandia. This is a book where the title will quell any riots over the story... and yet so many places (perhaps because of the publisher? unclear there) classifying this as a "romance" for genre purposes... is going to spark those very riots. To be clear, this book does NOT meet RWA qualifications for a "romance novel" - and is actually all the stronger for it. (As is generally the case, fwiw.) Which is why the title is correct and speaks to exactly what you can expect here: a scifi love story, both with the characters and from the writer to the audience. This is a quirky, funny, heart bursting, extremely cloudy room kind of scifi tale that is going to take you less on a rollercoaster of emotion and more through a multiverse of various combinations of emotions.

Yes, at its base this is a Groundhog Day/ Edge Of Tomorrow kind of time looping tale. Which then builds into almost Terminator level time looping. Even certain elements of a Michael Crichton TIMELINE or a Randall Ingermanson TRANSGRESSION or even a Jeremy Robinson THE DIDYMUS CONTINGENCY. All while based in and around a "super-LHC" - which reminds me, make sure to check hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com a few times while reading this book, just to be sure - and its experiments.

Overall this book really was quite good and quite a ride - one of the very few where I knew I had to immediately begin writing the review as soon as I finished the book itself. That, to me over the course of *so very many* books and Advance Review Copies over the last several years, is one of the marks of a particularly good book - you're just left in such emotional upheaval that you *have* to write to get the thoughts out of your own head. But don't go into this book expecting a romance - it does NOT meet those "official" guidelines - and, again, is stronger for it. It absolutely IS a love story (and yes, "clean"/ "sweet" crowd, you'll find this one perfectly acceptable), and honestly one of the better ones I've read in the last several years.

Very much recommended.

I enjoyed the idea of this, and the prose moved along, and the characters were engaging, but every time I put it down, I had no interest in picking it back up.

fun, light, cute love story! i would recommend it, especially with the initial time traveling love premise and how it changes. thanks for the arc.

I really enjoyed this unique story! A bit of Groundhog Day with a Blake Crouch time travel edge, mixed with a “love story” stuck in a time loop!

Part of wanted a bit more of the “love” in the love story but I also appreciated the constant pull and tug of the time constraints they faced and enjoyed the conclusion!

Carter Cho is a simple man. He's a technician at Hawke, has an eidetic memory, and loves good food and knows where to find it. Problem is, he's stuck in a time loop - that ends in Hawke's explosion and, presumably, everyone's demise. But on one loop he meets Mariana, manages to pull her into the chaos with him, and everything changes for them both.

This starts as Carter's story, then becomes all about teamwork and hope, and then ends (and is more powerful for it) with Mariana taking anchor, risking everything to end the time loop. There is a love story here, but not really of romance novel quality - this is definitely a story about a time loop, even if the two stuck in it eventually realize they've met for a reason. This is a story about time travel, a mystery, love, and learning to savour life, bit by bit. Definitely a worthwhile journey for those who like their sci-fi with a slight dose of nonsense technobabble and a bigger serving of emotional resonance.

Mike Chen mentions in the author's notes that this is his pandemic book (despite releasing a book in 2020, coincidentally, about an actual pandemic), and as a reader you can feel that influence throughout. A time loop is just another form of isolation, another pause in your everyday life. Carter and Mariana, like all of us, find new hobbies, new experiences, new connections, and muse on the things that matter, while battling a sense of impending doom. This book resonates more now, in the aftermath, than it ever could have if it had existed pre-2020.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mira (Harlequin Trade Publishing) for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

I didn't realize that this was more cute romance than (almost, but not really) contemporary sci-fi. I also didn't think that I'd like this that much. Guess I'm open to new experiences in the Year of Our Lord 2024.

I think I liked this arc because the romance wasn't too in-your-face and this is something I prefer. The author did mention in the acknowledgements that the romance in this novel was front and center. Surprisingly, it didn't feel that way to me.

I liked that this was more of a slowburn and coworkers(?)/friends to lovers. And if you like the forced proximity trope and the opposites attract trope, then this might be for you.

I requested this arc more for the sci-fi portion and that part didn't disappoint at all! I love anything to do with time travel, time loops, time travel paradoxes, etc. This delivered on that front. A lot of the reviews did mention that it got really repetitive with the Groundhog Day time loop stuff, but surprisingly, it didn't feel that way to me. Each iteration had a new revelation (whether with the characters figuring out how to resolve their situation, or how their relationship slowly moved forward), which kept things fresh and not too stale.

Overall, this was a quick read and a very cute book that dealt with loss, grief, and second chances.

Thank you to MIRA and NetGalley for this arc.

Thank you to Harlequin for the opportunity to review this and thank you to Mike Chen for his writing and creativity!

I really enjoyed this. I'm trying to read more sci fi type work this year. This scratched that itch for me.

Carter and Mariana are in a bit of a repetitive problem. They relive the same 4 days over and over and each time it all ends in a big boom. How can they both piece this together when everything just starts over? Can they?

Thanks to Carter's photographic memory, they make great progress...until Carter has trouble remembering and Mariana is on her own. Can Mariana figure this out? Can she find her way back to Carter?

This book kept me guessing. Right up until the last page, I had no idea if any of this could be fixed. I enjoyed Mariana's and Carter's story and how they taught each other to be better people. Mariana was so goal focused she forgot to see the world around her and Carter reminded her that there's a world to be explored. Mariana encouraged Carter to take control of things he had just accepted as uncontrollable events in his life.

The love story wasn't in your face. It was a nice addition to a mystery that needed to be solved.

There were a few times where I did get annoyed that certain characters just accepted what was going on and divulged all sorts of info but I wasn't too upset about it. I'll take a point off for some actions taken being more ex machina in nature. But I was so eager to see what was going to happen I was pretty forgiving of it.

I cried for Buddy Ed. If you know, you know. Dogs always get to me.

And Maggie was a goofy lil feline companion.

4 out of 5 stars, a great time!

Thank you to Netgalley, publisher Harlequin Trade Publishing/MIRA, and author Mike Chen for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for a review. All thoughts are my own.
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"A Quantum Love Story" has been on my TBR for a while; the eARC was granted to me literal months ago, but since I'm a mood reader, it sat. And sat. And sat. I knew I'd need to be in the mood for sci-fi romance that would probably be a little bittersweet before I picked this up. I managed to time my readthrough almost perfectly: I was ready for a meet-cute, I was ready for sci-fi, I was ready for time travel, for donuts (just a simple glazed /sob), I was ready to get my heart ripped out and put back together.

Time travel stories are so often done badly, or done cheap. Consider "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" which breaks established lore and creates paradoxes willy-nilly, or "The Tomorrow War" which somehow tries to shoehorn both fixed-timeline theory and branching theory together, when it should be one or the other. In what I consider to be a stroke of genius, although may have been a stroke of cowardice, Chen chooses his flavor of time travel to be both and neither fixed-timeline theory or branching theory: the characters are exploring if time travel is even possible, and if so, trying to learn how it works, and so frankly, they don't know if they'll experience fixed-timeline or branching theory, so they take every precaution for either possibility. And now I have a horrible sense of deju vu that I've written this review before. Help?

I'll be real honest: I don't read a lot of male authors. I read a lot of romance, which tends to be written by women, for women. I admit I was concerned how Chen would write a POV character who was a woman, but I didn't need to be worried in the slightest. Mariana was a perfectly normal character, with perfectly normal physics and thoughts and behaviors. She was calm, cool, logical, and when the occasion called for it, emotional without being insufferable. I actually found myself identifying with Mariana a lot, which surprised me. The book does have some chapters from Carter's perspective, but most of the book is through Mariana's viewpoint. Carter is delightful and his zeal for good food is infectious. His attitude is much more blasé than Mariana's, he's very much a "what will be, will be" type of person, which makes them such a cute foil for each other. Other reviewers stated the romance fell flat in their opinion, and I can appreciate that, although I felt it didn't so much fall flat as it was just underdeveloped due to Carter slowly losing this memories with each time loop the pair goes through (not a spoiler, it's in the blurb!). For me, the romance aspect was more the allure of what could be, if given a chance.

If you're worried about this being too sciency, don't be. Both FMC and MMC repeatedly state they have no idea how any of this timey-wimey stuff works. Mariana is a neuroscientist, so yeah, she's a smart lady, but we're not working with brain stuff now are we? Carter reminds Mariana (and therefore the reader) he flunked out of school and only has two years of higher learning, so he's more or less at a loss, too. The pair work together, grasping at straws and finding variables they can tweak in an effort to escape their time loop. They are aided, of course, by the definitely-not-Amazon's-Alexa AI assistant. The AI assistant, David, is a character unto himself, full of sass and snark, and AI David does a lot of the heavy lifting with number crunching and simulation running.

This just barely missed the mark for being a five-star read for me. There were a few questions I had at the end of the book that weren't answered, and it really, really bothered me. Actually, still bothers me. Present tense bothers me. I'm actively bothered. If we had learned how the hell the prehistoric animals were showing up (we get a theory but... I want more), why Carter's memories were fading, and why only Mariana seemingly escaped the time loop, I would have been much more satisfied.

Nonetheless, once I was a few chapters in, I was met with the bizarre sensation that I was holding a bestseller in my hands. With "A Quantum Love Story" releasing in a few weeks, I'll guess we'll find out if I'm a time traveler or not. I almost hope I am, because this is a title I would absolutely love to go back and read again for the first time.

I do really love a knotty time travel story, and this delivers beautifully. Mariana and Carter are caught in a time loop and become close while they try to solve it. It's an interesting premise that is executed very well. I have a massive amount of respect for this being *hard* sci-fi. The science is there and it makes for a big part of the story. This is not timey-wimey time travel (which I also like) but the type of time travel that has extensive protocols for avoiding paradoxes. The romance is both at the front of the story and slow burn. You get to know both Mariana and Carter as people, as friends, and watch them slowly make each other better people. Definitely the type of couple you cheer along.

Mike Chen's "A Quantum Love Story" is a captivating blend of science fiction and romance. The integration of quantum physics adds a unique and intellectually stimulating dimension to the heartfelt narrative. Well-developed characters, a seamless plot, and Chen's skillful balance between scientific concepts and emotional depth make this a standout read. Beautifully crafted prose and a well-managed pace ensure an engaging experience. This novel offers a memorable journey through love and the mysteries of the universe, making it a must-read for both sci-fi enthusiasts and those who appreciate a well-told love story.

This is a heartfelt, engaging story, the wonderful amalgamation of whimsy and creativity, with just that tinge of melancholy, that Mike Chen does so well. Considering the structure and plotting of this story, the heft of the novel has to be carried by the characters, and our two primary leads are more than up for it. They are both interesting, quirky, and feel genuine. Plus, we get to see them grow and evolve in believable ways, and I really enjoyed spending time with both of them.

The story was very readable, I didn’t want to put it down and it read very quickly. But, that said, there is something to be said about whether we really need another time-loop story. There are various deviations of that plot device which have been explored over and again, and while this one did it expertly I am not sure how much it moved the needle, in any way. Two-thirds into the story Chen smartly takes some surprising swerves that keeps the story interesting, and I had fun the whole time. I actually wish I could have spent more time with the characters, and fallen deeper into their relationship. For plot reasons we only got to see little glimpses of their relationship as it grew and developed, and I do wish there could have been a little more, there, that’s where I felt coziest. And this story is definitely a cozy love story at heart, disguised as a near-future sci-fi romp. Not everything needs to shape the cultural zeitgeist, I suppose. The characters and story are fun, the homage to the many time-loop and time-travel stories of the past very firmly in place, and while it wasn’t very surprising I also never felt like it was derivative or repetitive. It was uplifting, entertaining, and I’m glad I had the chance to read it.

(Rounded up from 3.5)

I want to thank the author, the publisher Harlequin Trade Publishing, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a fun love story. I liked the new direction Chen took the whole novel. Around 60-75% it slowed down a bit, with Carter's memory lapsing. I thought Chen wrote Mariana's character well, after she got over some of her initial trauma. The concept of the 'time' travel being memory based was interesting. I will keep reading Chen.

Mike Chen does it again! Every one of his books I have read so far I have highly enjoyed! Such a fun and enjoyable story to read! Mariana and Carter were fun main characters to follow along to on this time loop tale! I really like how friendship centered this story remained until closer to the end. The story really was also a great example as how human beings even if we want to be alone, we still also crave that interaction with others.

Through the novel, we see Mariana and Carter face many challenges and master the art of patience. Their strategizing for each time loop by mental memory is crazy! It shows how powerful our mind is and what we can remember if we need to.

Mariana and her sacrifice to go back in time to stop the loop is such a powerful part to this story and one of my favorites. She risked everything to save her younger self's, Carter's, and everyone else's futures. I really like how the story ended and seeing she made it possible for Carter and her to cross paths and begin a hopefully long life together.

3.75 - There were parts of A Quantum Love Story that I thoroughly enjoyed, but it ultimately left me feeling dissatisfied and unconvinced.

There were some pacing issues early on — Carter talks about food SO MUCH when there was a mystery we could have been solving.

The middle section had me hooked.

The end just left me with a lot of questions and a skeptical frown.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin for providing an advanced copy for me to review.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I have really enjoyed every previous book by Mike Chen. Looking back, they have all either received a 4 or 5 star rating from me. One thing that he really does wonderfully well is to take an interesting sci-fi concept (time travel, post-apocalypse, vampires, etc.) and creates realistic characters that live within these worlds. This book fell short in my opinion in one of those aspects.

While the concept of a time loop is something I immensely enjoy, I do think the concept can become stale quickly. To keep things from getting too repetitive (which is difficult in a time loop), the characters have to be compelling. Neither of the leads in this book, unfortunately, were very compelling. Carter didn't really do much but take notes and eat, and Mariana kept reminiscing about her dead friend. Nothing really stood out about either of them, and I thought it was strange how Carter basically forced her into the time loop with him. The romantic aspect between the two didn't ever click with me either. It felt more like a relationship built out of convenience than compatibility.

I'll definitely give Mike Chen another chance as this was the first out of six books that I haven't liked.

Carter Cho is trapped in a 4 day time loop, he can eat whatever he wants and has been taking copious notes to help him figure out an escape. He finally realizes that the best way out is to bring someone else in - enter Mariana. The two spend endless loops figuring out how to fix the issue which caused the loop while enjoying the benefits of resets to life every four days (i.e., no ramifications). At some point Carter begins to lose his memory and Mariana is on her own to save the world.

While some stories gloss over the time travel aspects a bit for the sake of the story and so you have to just go with it, this novel does the opposite and goes so deep into it I almost missed the gloss over. The story and characters were sweet and I personally really enjoyed how much Carter relished the fact that if you are in a time loop you can eat whatever you want (because that’s what I would do) - but in general the novel never really drew me in like I would have liked and I’m not sure why. The characters were cute but since all relationships remained at a distance so did my interest.

3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and MIRA for the ARC for review

What would you do if you were trapped in a four day time loop? Eat anything you want, spend anything you want? How much of life resets every four days? How long does it take you to get bored or break out?

Carter Cho is stuck in a time loop, so he does the best thing he can think of and traps Marianna in it with him. What could go wrong trapping a near total stranger in a time loop with you?

I love a Groundhog’s Day scenario and Mike Chen delivers a delightful tale with Quantum Love Story. There’s science, there’s time loops, there’s cooking, there’s questioning what we choose to do with our lives. It’s a charming tale of missing loved ones, estranged relationships with family, not living the life you thought you would, and how to start over. And over. And over. Four days at a time.

It’s not too heavy on the science, and it’s a fun caper.

(Transcribed from video)

I enjoyed this book! In fact, I enjoyed it a lot. This novel is like a four-way cross between Groundhog Day, Maniac (that Netflix show with Jonah Hill and Emma Stone), Palm Springs (that Adam Sandberg movie), and that one episode of Futurama (you know the one). Time travely goodness with bonus time loopery! Oh, I love me a story with a time loop. I want to see all the little differences that happen each time through, how stuff gets memorized and planned out and perfected.

I absolutely poured through the first 25% of it, though it slowed a bit for me around 25-50% of the way through. It got a little repetitive, what with the time loops and everything, though that’s probably to be expected. The story follows Carter and Mariana. Carter gets stuck in a time loop, drags Mariana in. Mariana, meanwhile, is still getting over the death (possibly…missing person…body never found) of her best friend and new sister, Shay. So, lots going on.

It hits that 50% mark right when you think it’s going to become romantic and then, suddenly, complications arrive. Thankfully, not one of those annoying miscommunication tropes that could easily be solved by having a conversation, but memory loss! And not like an amnesia thing, dragged straight out of a K-drama (although I would have enjoyed that immensely), but science! Memory regression! It actually makes sense if you know what’s going on in the story. The science was science-ing. I don’t know anything about science but it felt good and science-y. You know how Star Trek is good about making stuff sound like it makes sense even when you don’t know what they’re talking about? It all sounded like it made sense, even when I didn’t really know what was going on.

And then stuff starts getting dragged out of the past and into the future, things start going awry, actual time travel occurs inside of the time loop; so much good stuff going on. Carter is using most of the time loop to eat all kinds of food, Mariana has this obsession with Tennis and the US Open and Wimbledon that I don’t personally understand, but everybody’s got to have a thing, right? They’re both kind of neurodivergent, which I appreciate, as a neurospicy person myself.

It really picked up about halfway through and then I couldn’t put it down again. It was crazy. Two things I will mention: a dog does die in the book, and although it’s natural causes and expected and the dog was only in the book for like 5 pages, I cried like a baby (it was sad and pathetic and I am unashamed); also, the ending… Did I like the ending? Yes, I did. Was I satisfied with the epilogue? No. No, I was not. I wanted *more*. I wanted *specifics*. I’m *selfish*.

Overall, though, I give the book: 7½ glazed donuts because it was a pretty sweet read. I enjoyed it very, very much. It was…outside of my expectations, in a good way. It was unpredictable, which I adore. I highly recommend that you read this book and, if you don’t, time travel back and make a better choice.