Review: Loophole by Alex Hugie

 

Title Of Book: Loophole

Author: Alex Hugie

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

Rating - 5 Stars

Level – Adult, New Adult

Genre – Urban Fantasy

Source – e-book 

Review copy from Henry Roi PR

Summary – From Goodreads

Imagine a world where all your crimes are written on your face.

In Alannah's world, every moral choice she makes changes her physical appearance-for better or worse. Any good deed increases beauty, while any misdeed leaves an immediate, ugly mark. Naturally, she wants to be as good and beautiful as possible-until her habit of finding ways around the rules leads her to discover that people have found devious ways to abuse this system.

When she leaves home for a magazine internship in Colorado Springs, Alannah finds her desire to be good challenged in unexpected ways. Over the course of her internship, she has surprising encounters with homeless people, gangsters, politicians, policemen, cute coworkers, illegal makeup traffickers, and more. Before she knows it, she's drawn into a social conflict that endangers not only her entire concept of what it means to be good but also the lives of those she cares about.

My Review

Loophole is a fast paced story that will keep you laughing, being on the edge of your seat and not knowing what is going to happen next. I enjoyed reading it and found the characters and the plot entertaining.

The story is very realistic, modern and is set Colorado Springs, Colorado. The difference is visage. It makes a ugly gray mark on your face every time you commit a crime or do something bad. There are things like giving someone a compliment that will make a mark go away. There is also illegal makeup to cover up spots. However there is so much more to visage than anyone knows.

Alannah leaves home for an internship with a magazine that her brother Tuck works for in Colorado Springs. She is going to work there before she starts college. She is an office assistant/secretary. She spends most of her days answering the phone and making comic strips. It's when her boss lets her start putting some of her comic strips in the magazine that everything starts going bad. She has no idea that her funny comics are will get her involved in some very bad things. While trying to help the specks, the homeless people that are covered in visage spots. Some of them are criminals and others do bad things to bad people to help good people. Alannah gets caught up in way more that she ever imagined. She will be dealing with gangs, politicians, illegal makeup and so much more. Her life seems to be in danger at every turn.

But there is also her cute coworker Jordan who she has an interest in too. He is smart, nice, sweet, funny and goofy at the same time. I really liked Alannah, Jordan, Tuck, Val, Kasper and even Scott at times. The plot is fast paced with lots of twists and turns. Every time I thought I knew what was going on or who someone was the author switched it up. It kept me guessing the whole time. We never really learned about Alannah and Tuck's lives before the story begins. We are left with some questions about the story leading up to where this starts. The ending and epilogue was shocking to me. The ending leaves us with closure but also leaves me wanting more from the story. I am hoping that there is going to be a sequel! This e-book was provided to me for review. This did not affect my review in any way.

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