Thank you to NetGalley in exchange for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This was an enjoyable sci-fi read heavily focused on time travel. I went in not knowing what to expect, but loving every second of it.

I couldn't get through this title. It ended up not being for me, but I hope it finds a hope with other readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This was a surprisingly poignant read. I believe plenty of us have had regrets or been in positions where we wish we could've done things differently, and this book does an excellent job of playing on that theme. There's a lot going on - dinosaurs in the hotel lobby! - that at first seems kind of disconnected, but in the end it all comes together really nicely. There are a couple of mysteries that haunt the pages of this book - finding out what really happened to January's love, who is targeting the bidders and why, and who can really be trusted. All-in-all. it was an engrossing fast-paced read that had a lovely ending. I know it's a standalone novel, but I'd be happy to see the author write more in that particular universe. That said, I'm definitely going to check out their other works now too.

This one was definitely more Sci-fi than thriller. For me, it had great potential, but it fell a little flat. I found myself rooting for January and her toughness and also laughing out loud at unexpected times. At times, it did remind me a bit of Recursion by Blake Crouch.

The Paradox Hotel, by Rob Hart is the story of January Cole’s job at the Hotel. And her job as head of security just got harder. The hotel offers portals to the past and only the very rich stay here. They all have dreams of heading back to the past and to experience it. There are ghosts, costumed guests and a body in room 526, which only January can see, sometimes. There are time spots that cause glitches and people are in different stages of time travel. Then, the US government decides it’s going to privatize time travel and it seems like all hell is breaking loose. January’s reality starts to get wacky and she is losing her grip on reality. How can she can protect something she can’t comprehend? Who can she trust to help her? Who is doing what to make things worse? And why is her girlfriend, who has passed away coming back to speak with her? This story was good but it had so many moving parts it was hard to keep up. I get it, the hotel was in chaos but I didn’t like the way it was chaotic to read. Maybe it was just me but it just wasn’t my thing. I want to thank Netgalley and the author for my copy for an honest review. It was my pleasure to read and review this one. I am a reader and just love the opportunity to read different kinds of stories by new authors.

Immersive and wholly original. A recommended purchase for collections where offbeat sci fi is popular.

I love science fiction movies yet I do not read much of it. Books like The Paradox Hotel make me want to change that. Time travel, admittedly, makes my head want to explode but this book presents it in such a way I could understand it (mostly). Plus January is such an awesomely sarcastic and tough ass kicking main character that she, the other characters, and the hotel itself made me overlook any problems I have understanding time travel. Highly recommend this book. I don’t fully understand the end but that’s on me not the author.

I read and listened to this book. Emily Woo Zeller does a fantastic job.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc I received in exchange for my honest review.

This is an exciting, twisty, complex Sci-Fi novel. The characters are well-developed, the pacing is good, and the resolution is fun. There were a couple of places where I got lost, some things towards the end that I didn’t follow, but none of that took away from my enjoyment of the story overall.

THE PARADOX HOTEL – by Rod Hart

My Heart! –

‘Did you know love could reach inside a person? I didn’t. Not until her. It probes your skin until it finds a crack. Then it pours into you, liquid gold that hardens and makes you stronger. That’s what Mena told me we were for each other. Kintsugi. The Japanese art of using lacquer dusted with gold to mend broken pottery.’

‘So that those cracks are still there, but now they’re features. Celebrations of strength.’

THE PARADOX HOTEL was a blast to read—laugh-out-loud funny moments (The Benny Hill reference had me rolling for days) blended in a who-done-it spliced with a heartbreaking love story, friendship, forgiveness, self-discovery, family, and greed, centered around our protagonist, January Cole, in a world of time travel via the Paradox Hotel at the core of it all.

The one misgiven I had with the book has to do with time travel and the perceived inability to go forward regarding how certain scenes play out.

Perhaps something I missed along the way?

Possible.

Overall, THE PARADOX HOTEL—Recommend!

Thank You, NetGalley and Ballantine Books (Penguin Random House LLC), for providing me with an eBook of THE PARADOX HOTEL at the request of an honest review.

The Paradox Hotel houses Einstein, a machine that allows patrons to time travel to visit any time of the past they choose. January Cole works security at the hotel, where part of her job is to enforce time’s biggest rule: change nothing. But January is also battling her own problem - overexposure to the time stream has caused her to experience slips in time, where events happen out of order and she occasionally sees dead people. Add in a summit where the hotel will go to the highest bidder, misbehaving time, and a dead body only January can see, and she’s having one hell of a day.

I loved the premise of the book but the actual execution left me feeling meh. The time slips were sometimes confusing, and the overall plot to figure out who was messing with Einstein didn’t come together for me.

Overall I found this book to be fine, but not great.

This is not really my type of book, but for the book that Hart obviously set out to write, it is an excellent one. The strength of the story is the focus on January and her personal relationships and also her special place as the mediator and guardian of what goes on in the Hotel. I imagine this was a deliciously fun novel to write, since the entirety of history is the tableau upon which the trillionaire travelers could act. There are funny moments, but overall I would classify this as a dark novel--living in a newly created space somewhere between the real (real crime, murder) and sci-fi (time travel).

DNF at 10%

Time travel is a buzz word for me, so I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me. I found myself bored throughout, and it took me over a month to make it 10% through this one.

This was not a book for me. There were way too many characters and everything felt very disconnected throughout the time streams. Sadly, I ended up dnfing The Paradox Hotel at around the 20% mark because I did not care for any of the characters or the supposed mystery simply because I could not keep track of all the moving parts Rob Hart had going on.

As I’ve gotten older I kind of like sci-fi and futuristic books more than I did before. This one was a little confusing at parts because it had a lot going on. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for review

A fun, sci-fi, time travel lite read that was not at all hard for me to understand, like tile travel stories usually are.

There was a lot of sarcastic humor in this one. It reminded me a lot of the Martha Wells Robot series.

I listened to the audio and it had great narration.

Loved it!

The Paradox Hotel is an outstanding thriller that blends science fiction, a locked room murder mystery, romance, noir, and so many genres, it'll make your head spin. This is a very high-concept novel done brilliantly. Fans of Blake Crouch will be thrilled to get their hands on this gem of a novel. The hotel is where wealthy people go to travel through time. The plot will keep readers hooked from start to finish. Highly recommended! Looking forward to reading what Rob Hart comes out with next. Be sure to check out The Paradox Hotel today.

DNF 40%
I tried but I found myself confused alot of the time and not wanting to go back. the premise is great and reminds me of the rich in Westworld but I don't feel smart enough for this

When first emailed about The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart, it was in the context of “if you liked The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson, this is for you!” I jumped at the opportunity and I can easily say, it did not disappoint! You’ve got time travel, Alice in Wonderland, murder, dinosaurs, what else could you want?

Characters

Hart creates in The Paradox Hotel characters that are very well thought out and well developed throughout the book. I felt that I knew all of the characters and easily understood (most of) their motivations and personalities. None of the characters seemed flat to me. I also loved the diversity and growth of so many of these characters.

Plus, I always enjoy a sassy person and android combo, which we get here with January and Ruby.

Plot
I thought the premise of The Paradox Hotel was very interesting. Hart did a great job of creating tension for the reader. We see everything through the eyes of January who sees the immediate dangers of the wider situation. There is a large number of prominent guests, a snowstorm, a bunch of angry customers whose time travel vacations have been canceled without explanation, OH and a murder… which only January can see. On top of this, January has her own problems, progressing through the stages of being “Unstuck” due to her past as a time cop. As a reader, you feel the urgency of what January is doing, while also seeing the need for her to address and slow her progression to stage three.

Being an Unstuck, slipping back and forth in time, you will eventually become stuck in your mind. Once reaching the third stage, the Unstuck is in a coma in reality, while inside their brain they are continuously slipping. Since January is Unstuck, the reader is thrown back and forth in January’s life from one paragraph to the next. While that may seem difficult as a reader, it helps with that sense of urgency and builds complexity.

I thought it was really powerful as a narrative device eventually creating a somewhat unreliable narrator. One of the main conflicts in The Paradox Hotel is the fact that there is a murder that has occurred – in the future, past, present? Who knows? We know that January has some sort of her own time conflict going on. It leaves you unsure of how to solve the problem at hand (namely, murder) if it has even happened.

Time Travel
One thing I could point to that was a letdown, was how the time travel actually functioned. In The Paradox Hotel we do not learn about how it all worked. We know that the hotel serves the customers who use the nearby time port, but that is about all we get to know. While that may have been swept to the side since January does not actually travel through time via the time port, I can excuse this oversight.

Overall
I really enjoyed The Paradox Hotel. Some readers may dislike it because of the nature of January’s Unstuck status. I just think that added another level of complexity to the issues at hand. You will certainly not want to try to skim parts of this book due to the slips in time! The premise is very complex in this, as is expected with time-y things, but is well worth the read.

A book about time travel and love. Evil ne’er do wells breaking the rules. Overly long in places - seems that’s true of just about every novel I read these days.

I don't know exactly what it was about this book, but I couldn't make it past the first couple of chapters.