A review by booksfortheliving
Laws of Physics: Motion by Penny Reid

4.0

First of all, you should know that Penny was not kidding. This book ends on a DOOZY of a cliffhanger. Maybe one of the worst (obviously making it the best) cliffhanger I’ve ever read in a book.

But let’s back up a minute. What’s the book about? Put simply, Mona pretends to be her identical twin sister Lisa, so their parents don’t find out that Lisa messed up, big time. Lisa and Mona are not very close as they spent their later childhood years separately due to their schooling. Mona was a highly gifted student while Lisa on the other hand, well, made less than stellar choices. So it’s a little messy as Mona doesn’t really know Lisa all that well, and therefore isn’t quite sure how to act like her. Not to mention the fact that Mona is not a trained actress and therefore, isn’t a great one.

So, wanting to be a supportive and helpful sister, Mona agrees to pretend to be Lisa for a week. Their parents are out of town, but their brother’s bandmate Abram is watching the house for them. The only person Mona has to fool is Abram — which shouldn’t be too difficult considering Lisa and Abram have only met once and Abram has never met Mona. Should be a piece of cake, right? Maybe not…

This book has a lot of physics in it. If you’re put off by internal dialogues of characters who are obviously way smarter than you, you may not like this book. It was a little slow at first, but I had to remind myself that this is only part one of a trilogy. So book one was a bit more setting everything up. Starting the fire before letting it rage in book two (I can only assume it will, as I haven’t read book 2 yet).

Both Mona and Abram are highly likable characters in my opinion. I warmed up to Abram a lot faster than I thought I would considering what I remembered of him from his little cameo in the Elements of Chemistry series. He is the definition of a sensitive musician but seems as though he tries to hide it. Mona is a bit socially awkward, but only in the most lovable and charming of ways.

Penny does a great job building the chemistry with these two, which only makes the cliffhanger that much worse (and by worse, of course I mean better). Penny is an evil genius, and I can’t wait to read what she’s written for Mona and Abram in book two, Space, coming March 11th.

I voluntarily read an early copy of this title.