I read and enjoyed the first two books in this series, but it’s been so long and I’m no longer interested in continuing it. This series is best read back-to-back!

AW Teen and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Future Lost. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion was freely given.

Readers of the first two books of the trilogy, Future Shock and Future Threat, will have few surprises regarding the plot of Future Lost. With the exception of one little plot twist that some may not have seen coming, the story is basically a repeat of the previous novels. Elena and Adam, along with the rest of the time travelers, have no choice but to put their future lives on the line to save humanity. Complete with paradoxes and shifting realities, Future Lost does not deliver any revelations worthy of a conclusion to a trilogy. This short read does tie the story into a nice, neat package, but it was hardly worth the effort. Having liked the characters from the previous novels, I wanted to see more development and new possibilities. As science fiction is a rich environment for speculation, I wanted the author to branch out more and surprise the reader with far reaching possibilities. For these reasons, I would be hesitant to recommend Future Lost. I would recommend Future Shock to readers new to the series, however, as the book was much more interesting than this conclusion.

I have not read the first two books in this series. But I didn't feel too bad, because I didn't feel too lost. I think I would've benefited from reading the first two books first, though. I don't usually like a lot of time travel and Sci-fi but this book not bad. Elena and Adam were characters I liked so I think that helped. *This book was given to me for free at my request from Netgalley and I provided this voluntary review.*

Elena and Adam have traveled to the future several times, initially as part of a team hired by a tech firm, Aether Corporation. Each time they have traveled, they have seen different visions of what their future would be like, and those future’s keep getting more and more grim. After things went wrong in the previous novel, Future Threat, Elena and Adam and their friends are determined to never make that trip to the future again, but Adams search for the cure to cancer becomes and obsession. When he disappears one day, Elena finds out that he took a trip back to the future again, alone.

Future Lost does a great job of subtly recapping the previous two novels into the plot, so I could quickly become engrossed in the plot and root for Elena to finally find security and happiness in her life. When Adam goes missing I knew where he went and eagerly looked forward to seeing what their future world looked like now. Without getting into the intricacies of the plot, I’ll just say “Apocalyptic” would be a good description.

Elena is an easy character to root for. She’s led a tough life and has found happiness with Adam and seen a future that she is willing to fight towards. Hope is one of Elena’s greatest characteristics, but unfortunately she has to set it aside and go back to a darker place using some of her darker skills to fight the Aether Corporation and save her future. Adam starts off this novel in a darker place than Elena and it’s interesting to see how her initial hopefulness and his desperation to find the cure for cancer seem to run on a parallel path to each other, only meeting when her hope turns to desperation and his desperation to hope.

Future Lost was the darkest of the three novels but that glimmer of hope ran through the story like a grain of gold waiting to be mined. The plot took me on a journey of feelings, despair, desperation, sadness, love and most importantly that hope. On any other novel I may have felt the conclusion was a little too perfectly wrapped, but I think the feeling of calmness I felt was a kind of conviction that the characters finally found themselves in the right place, at the right time. Their happily ever after stretching out in front of them. ❤❤❤❤

It’s been a full year since Elena first got involved with the Aether Corporation and agreed to go into the future under the guise of bringing back useful technology. It’s been six months since Elena and the survivors from the first trip were sent again into the future to bring back another time traveling team and barely escaped with their lives…again.

Now, Elena and her boyfriend Adam, along with the other travelers, just want to move on and lead normal lives. Which is easier said than done with Elena looking over her shoulder waiting for the Aether Corporation to make another appearance. It doesn’t help matters that Adam is acting increasingly guarded and strange. Ever since bringing back Genicote—his future cure for cancer—Adam has become increasingly withdrawn into his research trying, and failing, at making the cure viable. When Adam goes missing one day, Elena knows who to point the finger at: Aether.

Elena will once again be sent into the future, this time to save Adam, but once she gets there she discovers a world ravaged by a deadly virus. A virus most likely originating from Genicote. They’ll have just one last chance to save the future, and they better make it count because there’s someone in the present who doesn’t want them to live to see the future.

Here we are at the end of the trilogy, and I feel like we’ve been here before. I don’t really know if that’s fair considering this is a book about time travel. Maybe it’s better to say that I feel as though the reasons the characters keep going back again and again were getting a bit taxing. I kinda wanted to scream at them: STOP GOING TO THE FUTURE!!! Because every time they do something bad happens, and it becomes a rinse-repeat scenario of them either trying to fix it in the present, or go back to a different future and fix the problems there. Part of me wonders if this was a conscious decision on Elizabeth Briggs’s part. There’s definitely a feeling of finality in everything that transpires in Future Lost.

I do give Elizabeth Briggs major props for keeping each travel sequence unique, showcasing all the varied ways the future can come to fruition. They all seemed plausible and most had both their good and bad parts (except maybe this last iteration). I like how the future sequences are always quick and pulse-pounding whereas the present is more evenly paced, and oftentimes drawn out, that is, until we get to the ending where all bets are off.

Elena is still at the center of our story of course, and she leads us out the same way. I like how much she’s grown from impulsivity to actually taking the time to consider her actions, and when they’re not necessarily the best, taking full responsibility.

Elizabeth Briggs brings a satisfying end to the trilogy with Future Lost. I liked the clever way she ties everything back to the first book where all the action started. Despite the feelings of repetition, overall, this is an entertaining trilogy that does a great job with all the twists and turns that are encased within time travel.

Future Lost, by author Elizabeth Briggs, is the third and final installment in the author's Future Shock trilogy. Elena Martinez thought she was done with time traveling, Aether Corp., and Project Chronos. She thought she and Adam could finally settle down and live an ordinary life. Well, not so ordinary when Adam is supposed to be the one whose Genicote will eventually cure cancer if it doesn't kill people who don't have the dreaded disease first.

Genicote has become Adam's obsession to the point where it has become an addiction which leads to him doing really stupid things and hoping Elena won't figure out what really happened. Elena always knows when something is wrong. She's been to the future 4 times. She has seen 4 different paths her life might take. She has lost friends (Trent & Zoe) and she has made new friends with Zahra, Paige, and Ken who were Team Echo. Does she always make the right choices? No, but what's the fun of having a character who is perfect all the time?

When Adam goes missing, Elena realizes that he’s done the unthinkable: he went to Aether, Vincent Sharp, for help developing his cure for cancer. The same Vincent who promised that Elena's slate was clean and they wouldn't be used by Aether again. Adam, however, persuades Vincent to send him to the future so he can figure out how to make his genicote safe. Adam betrayed her trust and has traveled into the future.

But, after not returning when he was supposed to, Elena decides to risk future shock, and time travels one more time into the future. This future is nothing like they’ve seen before. The future has literally become a dystopian nightmare with infected people acting like zombies. Here there are infected cities, & militias, & quarantine zones. Here Elena learns from future Paige that Adams's so called cure has been turned into a nightmare called the Black Friday Virus.

I won't mention those who were responsible for the virus release or what happens to certain characters in this dystopian future. You can find out for yourselves by reading the book. As the global pandemic spread, some people have found that they are immune to the virus. But, if Elena can’t find Adam and stop this pandemic from happening, everyone is at risk. For readers, this means a whole helluva lot of time traveling from various points in the future and the present. Literally, ever other part is either from the present, or the future.

This means that Elena has to once again put her life on the line because Adam does things that you want to kick him in the balls for and leave him on the side of the road. But, for the first time, Elena realizes she's not a superwoman who can do everything all at once. She needs her friends. She also needs to be able to trust Adam won't continue to betray her and go out and cause even more problems. I'm going to explain my rating briefly. It's all about the ending. An ending that left me barely able to write a review, let alone express my opinion over how the author ends this series. Let's just say that beware reader for surprising and shocking twists!

This is just my opinion.
I was stoked when I got this book and I think that my expectations were just too high. I don’t really know what to say about this book.
The plot is solid with the Black Friday virus but see my mini rant below. It is well written but there was too much time travel going on. Less in this case would have been more. But the author does a great job of portraying an awful future with dire consequences.
The main characters were difficult to stomach because they did such idiotic things. I really didn’t like Elena in this book and Adam with his obsession wasn’t much better. It was fast paced and when I’d thought we’d finally be getting somewhere the pace would slow down to a crawl.
Mini rant here.
In this day and age, I am fed up of Nazi’s being a reoccurring trope as the bad guys. I mean for Christ sakes do you really know the meaning of the word and how much pain, sorry and hatred is connected to this word. These types of organizations in America cannot be considered as Nazi’s they are white supremist. Consider the culprits in the book to be something else I mean I don’t know how about inland terrorism.

Really great conclusion to this amazing series! I actually felt really close to the characters, and the ending was so amazing

The final book in the trilogy has Elana and Adam once again going to the future and finding out terrible things. Can they finally stop it once and for all? ARC from NetGalley.