Entangled( Ages of Invention: Book 1) by S. B. K. Burns

Title: Entangled

Author: S. B. K. Burns

Publisher: Self-published

Date of publication: December 6th, 2016

Genre: Paranormal, Time Travel, Science Fiction, Romance, Steampunk, Women’s Fiction

POV: 3rd person

Number of pages: 277

Series: Ages of Invention

Entangled – Book 1

Can be read out-of-order from series: Yes, the first book in series

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Goodreads synopsis:

She’s Hume’n, a member of the lower class, with one chance to change her life… In an alternate, twenty-first century Boston, Dawn Jamison is a hair’s breadth away from earning her doctorate—a degree that would allow her entrance into the upper class, to become the unemotional and self-disciplined Cartesian she is now only pretending to be. To reach her goal, all Dawn must do is overcome her forbidden attraction to the Olympic-class weightlifter Taylor Stephenson who’s just crashed her lectures on past life regression. She must also teach her group of misfit students how to travel back into their past lives—and, oh, of course, figure out how to save the great scientists of the early eighteenth century before they’re inextricably caught up in a time loop.

He’s Cartesian, a member of the upper class, and supposed to know better… Coerced by his politically powerful, wheelchair-bound brother into spying on Dawn’s past-life regression classes, Taylor knows better than to give in to his desire to claim Dawn as his own. But his past-life entity, eighteenth-century Colin, has no such inhibitions. When Taylor and Dawn meet up in Scotland in the 1700s, all the discipline he’s forced on his twenty-first-century self disintegrates in the past, leaving only his overwhelming lust for Dawn’s past-life double, Lily. Unable to escape their sexually obsessive past, Dawn and Taylor find themselves in a race against the clock at the epicenter of a world-altering time quake of their own making.

My review:

Entangled is a fast-paced science fiction/steampunk romance. Told in 3rd person, the reader gets to follow Dawn Jamison, a bright young woman, in the lower class caste called the Hume’n, who is on the verge of getting her doctorate degree. By getting that degree, Dawn will be allowed into the upper class, a caste called the Cartesian. Her mentor is a brilliant scientist, Richard Stephenson, who is suspicious of her caste and asks his brother, Taylor, to spy on her. Taylor, an Olympic athlete who is questioning if he really is a Cartesian, agrees….only find out that he is immensely attracted to Dawn.

But Taylor is hiding his own secret….from Dawn and his brother. See, Taylor is able to travel back in time through lucid dreaming and he always ends up in the body of Colin, a brilliant young mathematician in the 1700’s. What he doesn’t know is that Dawn is able to go back in time too and she is Lily, a young female alchemist (aka scientist) and that both he/Colin and Dawn/Lily are going to be caught up in a time vortex brought on by their time traveling….as well as other factors.

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I really enjoyed reading Entangled. It is the type of book that is slow going, and it was for the first two chapters, but once it gets going, it really captures your attention and imagination. I mean, this world is separated into two castes….the Humens and the Cartesians. The Humens are considered a lower caste, the poor, and they make their life decisions on what can be derived through their senses and emotions and not just their rational minds. Because of their beliefs, the Humens are not allowed to get advanced degrees in anything. Meanwhile, the Cartesians believe that rational thinking and stoic detachment is the only way to get ahead in life and for the most part, they are successful. They are the upper class, the higher caste.

Dawn was one of my favorite characters. She was dedicated to keeping her Cartesian disguise so she could get an advanced degree, something that Humens are not allowed to do. She is a devoted sister to her twin brother, Max and a devoted friend to Naomi, a brilliant young hacker. She also is an expert on past lives and has been chosen to teach a class about them to a bunch of students who are on the verge of failing out but what Naomi is convinced is a think tank of some sort.

Taylor, I was kinda “eh” on at first. I don’t know why I was “eh” on him but I was. It wasn’t until the scenes with his brother that I started liking him and then when he got involved with Dawn, that I really started liking him. I also like that he questioned if the caste he was born into was really for him. I mean, he was an Olympic athlete but he was questioning why he didn’t like looking at himself flexing in the mirror.

The time travel scenes were very interesting in the fact that they took over the body of the person they were supposed to be. Like Dawn was Lily, an alchemist (aka scientist) who really liked the guys and was a witch and Taylor was Colin, who was a brilliant mathematician and who had the hots for Lily. But as soon as they started interacting with other people, the timeline got screwed up…badly. To the point where certain events in history never happened and were replaced with other events….if that makes sense.

The sex scenes between Dawn and Taylor were very steamy. Of course, the first sex scene between them was a little awkward and that was only because they were in Lily and Colin’s body. The second time was the same thing except they were at Taylor’s house and they ended up breaking the sexual curse by having sex and achieving orgasm. Every time after that, though, was very hot and very steamy.

What I really liked, though, was that girl power prevailed throughout the entire book. When one of the secondary storylines went haywire (the Q computer and that’s all I am saying about it), it was Naomi and Rasana, a preteen form Dawn’s class that she was teaching, that made it right. I also like the different spin on the witch burnings and how they were “saved”. (read the book).

The storylines were all merged and ended by the end of the book. They were all pretty much ended on a good note. What I did like was that the author left the book open for book 2.

How many stars will I give Entangled: 4

Why: What I liked the most about this book was the time travel and the steampunk elements in it. The romance was pretty good too.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Explicit sex and some mild violence

**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**