I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher.

I had read the Ash McKenna series and really enjoyed it but wasn't sure how the foray into sci fi would go. I'm also not the biggest fan of non-linear stories as a rule.

I was surprised how much I liked this one given then above. I think this might be one of the first books I've read that really used the "moving time" well in the story, which makes sense because it's a mystery and the "time slips" are critical part of it!

January Cole is the main character and she's prickly and interesting. The cast of characters are very engaging, I would read a whole story about Cameo if that was an option. I like how the mystery is solved but the ending of the mystery story is a bit ambiguous and I loved the final chapter and scenes. All in all, for me this was an enjoyable and fun diversion.

This novel involves an investigation and subsequent fallout set within a busy time-travel destination hotel. The author bravely ventures to capture and put into play the old adage “If only these walls could talk.”

Ambitiously and with a unique blend of elements—stylistic flavors somewhat reminiscent of The Matrix, The Time Machine, The Sixth Sense, and dare I say The Shining—this book brings a story filled with science fiction, mystery, love, and the philosophical quandaries of human existentialism.

I did not always enjoy the narrative, but the overall storyline and diverse characters were quite interesting and the messages woven within still resonate.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Ballantine—Penguin—Random House for an advanced copy of The Paradox Hotel for my unbiased evaluation.  3.5 stars

This is a sci-fi mystery set in a hotel for time travel tourism. The concept is really cool and I had a lot of fun reading it.

You follow the perspective of the protagonist, January, who works as an agent for the hotel. She is investigating some suspicious activity and possible crime. It's also important to note that she has some psychological trauma caused by personal losses and too much exposure to time travel. This makes her a little bit of an unreliable narrator because she experiences a lot of flashbacks and glimpses of future events. There are lots of secondary characters, mainly January's coworkers and some guests at the hotel.

This core of this story is a mystery about a unsolved death, but it has a lot more going on. There are conflicts about the complications of time travel, business deals, and interpersonal issues. It's twisty and at times hard to follow.
I'd recommend this book to fans of sci-fi thrillers, especially those who like time travel.

Overall, I had some minor issues with pacing and plot but enjoyed my experience reading this. I would definitely check out more by the author.
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC to read and review!

The Paradox Hotel is a challenging book to review. I sort of enjoyed it, but... I was eager to read the climax, but...

It might be helpful to set your expectations a bit. Do not go into this expecting sci-fi or time travel. They're there, but only in a superficial way. This book is a psychological thriller based on Eastern mysticism and in-your-face sexual political correctness. If you go into it with that expectation you won't be disappointed.

I found myself hoping for the redemption of the anti-hero, yet frustrated by her (gee, I sure hope that's the right pronoun) insistence on being a royal pain to everyone. The story was a bit hard to follow at times, but that's an expected part of psychological thrillers and helps keep the right mood. There were a couple of really good surprises about characters. If you're a fan of Eastern mysticism you'll like the ending. If not...

The author has a great way with words, and I would love to see Hart's talents in other contexts. This one, though, just didn't resonate with me like I think Hart can.

(Full disclosure: I received an advance copy at no charge for review purposes.)

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart is an original blend of Sci-fi and mystery.  It is a fast paced and thrilling read.  January Cole is a bitingly sarcastic time travel cop turned head of security.  Set in a time travel hotel our main protagonist and her robot companion have to keep on top of hotel security amidst strange goings on, dinosaur escapes and assassination attempts. Full of political maneuverings, time travel related mysteries this story gets you hooked.  This book has a cast of lovable and diverse characters and has a great deal of warmth and heart. I felt like it represented LGBTQ issues well and was touched by the exploration of grief throughout.  I would highly recommend this book.

When I first noticed this book, I was drawn to the time travel element and that it was based in the nearer future. The premise of the book was quite interesting, however the main character was just completely unlikable for most of the book. There were many moments with her bot assistant Ruby that I enjoyed, but otherwise I found her to be overly nasty to those she worked with and just completely insufferable in her demeanor. It was near impossible to understand the Unstuck scenario that she was struck down with and how this affected her. She was experiencing montages of the past and a body that only she could see. The characters were really hard to follow because other than the manager I could not really understand the scope of their responsibility in relation to the hotel and January. I really wish that the author would have stuck with one storyline and brought more character development and humor into the novel. This element worked extremely well for him. I would have liked to see more of the interplay between the past travels and what these would entail. It just seemed that the hotel was full of no one really doing anything and in a hurry. This just fell flat. Overall, I found a lot of promise in this book but a failure in the delivery with many of the elements. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

Reader be warned. If you decide to snag Rob Hart’s latest book, “The Paradox Hotel” you have to pay attention. Like, really pay attention. Quit honestly I haven’t read a sci-fi thriller where you didn’t have to pay attention but I’m just throwing it out there to anyone thinking you’re going to skim through this one or be hopping in and out of it and not get lost. I definitely had to reread certain portions or double back to make sure I was fully grasping everything going on—and there is A LOT going on. This is complex book. I’m still not sure my mind totally grasped all the concepts, but it was a dynamite rabbit hole to fall down, action packed, and thrilling with an underlying commentary on social classes and privilege.

Hart’s picture of time travel, how it worked and being “unstuck” immediately intrigued me. He does a great job of explaining his concepts and the future he created (and dumbing it down for a reader like myself). There is just a lot going on in the book and I think sometimes I was slightly overwhelmed. I had to really focus to keep up with January’s “slips” and deciding what was or wasn’t current reality, as well as grasp the whole notion of time travel presented. That alone was enough of a stretch for my brain, but then there was a locked-room murder mystery, rogue dinosaurs and a tragic love story mixed into it all and sometimes it was a bit too much. Our anti-hero, January, is incredibly flawed and while we can understand why to a certain extent, she was still fairly unlikable. I think if we had more of her background from childhood we could be more forgiving but she was a tough one to warm up to. This was fast paced, fascinating and Hart definitely kept you guessing up until the end—in a how the heck is this mess of events going to tie together sort of way. I wish we would’ve had a little more time with the ending scenes but the epilogue gives us some much needed closure.

I was so hyped for this one! I’m not huge into this genre, but sometimes I get lucky and find a hidden gem! This was one of them! The concept of time travel is so cool and this story takes a unique twist on it.

January Cole is the head of security for the elegant Paradox Hotel. At the Paradox Hotel the mega rich are given the opportunity to time travel. Sounds pretty cool. The timestream starts acting strange, a with a blizzard rolling in, the hotel to goes into a sort of lockdown.

To add fuel to the fire, there is a murderer running around and only January can see the dead body. The past and present collide as January starts to question her sanity.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4.8/5 stars
This book was great for so many reasons, definitely recommend if you are interested in a scifi standalone that has a time detective!

The book starts out with our main character, January Cole she is an agent of the TEA(time enforcement agency). She works at the Paradox Hotel, where the government schedules trips for filthy rich people the ability to go back in time. She ensures no one tries to mess with the past, smugglers, zealots or otherwise. January is getting ready for the Summit, an auction for the hotel itself. All of the guests at the Paradox are insanely rich but the people bidding for the hotel are on a whole other level. And with all that money and rivalry under one roof already means trouble but even more of an issue is the way time seems to be acting within the hotel.

I really loved the classic noir detective with a twist that we got in January Cole's character. She's badass but isn't perfect, she has trauma and repressed feelings that she struggles with that causes tension with others. The banter that goes on with her and her A.I. sidekick Ruby is fantastic! Also her relationship with Mena is precious! This was a fun fast paced read and I definitely recommend checking it out!

I’ve become a little dubious of NetGalley emails suggesting I request a certain book; the last few have been poor. I’m glad to report this book reversed the trend dramatically!

For the first 10 minutes of reading I was totally lost and then suddenly everything started to make sense. Not the entire story; that didn’t happen until the very end… But enough of what was going on to start getting really interested. That feeling stuck it through the rest of the book.

The staff who inhabit the hotel, the wealthy patrons who come to explore time at the site next-door, The members of the TEA (Time Enforcement Agency) and the 4 trillionaires, who are here to buy the whole set up, are set inside a fabulous hotel where time is coming unstuck. The characters are unique and by the end have become your friends and what happens to them that matters!

The painting “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” will now always represent the best explanation of time I have come across in the many books on the subject I have enjoyed. The author has really come across a most unique perspective.

Enjoy! I certainly did!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC!
This book was recommended to me as a fan of THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS, and at a surface level, some of the comparisons are apt. There's a sapphic main relationship, and twisty dimensions, as well as an organization that breaks through what we know.
Unlike Cara's world(s), January's job isn't one that only a certain few can do. Like Cara, her job is poisoning her, but January needs to stick around it-- it's the only chance she'd ever see her dead girlfriend again. January's sense of time is extremely distorted-- sometimes she's in the future, sometimes the past. The future can be altered around, the past hurts.

It certainly was twisty-- a good book to read while there's enough time and concentration, and I did enjoy seeing January face herself, her actions, and others. She's not particularly a kind person, and this is made eminently clear in her responses to her coworkers. She's hurting, grieving, a wound that refuses to scab over in hopes (and fear) of the healing. As January falls deeper into her mind, out of time, and uncertainties, the feeling of being watched, of not being able to judge reality deepens.

Buddhist koans and Buddhism also play a significant role in this book, but I am too ignorant to know about the accuracy of their portrayal.

In this episode, I went on a wild mind-bending adventure from one of the more surprising books in a while…
Friends, friends, friends.

Welcome back to Teatime Reading where there are books in progress.

When I received an email from a marketing person at Random House describing The Paradox Hotel as a book I might enjoy, I was intrigued. I had reviewed another mind-bending adventure called Rabbits a few months ago and that had been a wild ride.

If the publisher was comparing The Paradox Hotel to that book, I was in.

I’m very glad that I read it, because it was even more wild and intense. The main protagonist January Cole truly lived on the razor-edge of sanity and madness and I was fascinated by the world that had invented time-travel, only to reserve it for the ultra-rich.

This book felt futuristic yet very pertinent to our present, where wealth dictates all. The politics of this world felt eerily familiar while feeling just slightly off, if that makes sense.

January Cole made this book much more emotional than I expected and her struggles made this book more than just a fascinating adventure with a complex and challenging plot. She added a desperately welcome heartbeat to this mystery thriller.

It isn’t a perfect book. I wish that I’d experienced some of the climax of this story on the page rather than as a recap after the fact. The plot is very complicated and the logic of time-travel took a while to understand. These complexities made the mystery slightly overwrought, but that is my personal take here

Despite those quibbles, this world felt vivid and real, the characters were compelling, and I enjoyed the political commentary. I’m curious to see if there are more stories in this world.

The Paradox Hotel is a great way to start my 2022 slate, and I’m looking forward to everyone getting to read it when it comes out in mid-February.

Until next time, keep your bookmarks close.

Peace, Love, Pages.

A unique and appealing take on time travel and how humans would interact with it. The characters are entertaining and the protagonist is immediately accessible to inhabit. The story line is completely unpredictable and makes this very much a page turner. Unfortunately, the ending doesn't leave much room for a sequel, so this appears to be a standalone volume. This is a world that would have been very interesting to continue exploring with the same characters in subsequent volumes.

Suppose you were the head of security at a major hotel. Now suppose the hotel was part of a time travel resort. Suppose further that four trillionaires were about to submit bids to buy the complex. Keep supposing - strange things keep happening that only you can see, you keep encountering the image of your dead girlfriend, there are dead bodies in rooms that are not supposed to exist. Oh, just one more thing, the hotel is haunted. Welcome to the Wonderful World of January Cole. And, as if all this weren't enough, January's mind is slowly coming apart and her bosses all want her to leave.
This book was a bit surreal but I actually liked it. There are plenty of subplots to keep the reader's interest and I just plain like the character of January Cole. She was able to maintain her sense of duty and right despite all her challenges. Plus she has a touch of snarkiness that amused me. If she was a real person, I'd seek her out for a friend.
I will read more from this author if his other work is anything like this one.

I have always enjoyed the concept of time travel and the implementation of it in various forms of media. The Paradox Hotel does a wonderful job of presenting time travel in a new manner with a diverse cast of characters. Intrigue, romance, action, intelligence,...all of them are present and make the novel a book worth reading.

A great page turner in the covid era... a great escape for an afternoon, a day at the beach, a vacation or plane read to divert ones thoughts from everyday life.

Ahoy there me mateys!  This book lured me in with its promise of a closed room (erm hotel) murder mystery in the year 2072.  This hotel is for rich guests who time travel but time has begun behaving strangely.  And only one person can see the dead body - January Cole.  Can she solve the murder? Or better yet stop it from happening?  This should have been a recipe for love.  Instead, I sadly got an abandoned ship at 58%.

To be fair, I loved the set up and the beginning of the novel.  I really enjoyed the idea of time slipping and how January dealt with it.  Her grief was palpable and I did sympathize with her.  I loved her AI.  The main issue with this book is that I just got too confused.  As the book progressed I wasn't sure what was happening in terms of the mystery or subplot of the rich investors.  The reader is also left in the dark about January's hunches about what might be going on.  So this book slowly became less appealing and I struggled to pick it back up.  After the fifth attempt to read to the end, I gave up.

This book ended up not to me taste but I seem to be in the minority.  Arrr!

So lastly . . .

Thank you Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine Del Ray!

One trope I dislike in sci-fi is when a story is when an ostensibly sci-fi novel is really just a detective/mystery story, complete with noir gumshoes and sarcastic heroes (think Blade Runner, Fatherland, etc.). The snark got to me in John Scalzi's Interdependency series and it didn't make the story here any better for me.

I once asked a coworker if "The Man in the High Castle" was a good read if I liked alternate history. He thought a moment and said "No, but it's great if you like Phillip K. Dick" I kept thinking of that when I was reading "The Paradox Hotel". I didn't think it was great sci-fi, but if you like complex mysteries, you'll like this book.

From the first page, I loved the main character's voice. January Cole is amazing and I couldn't wait for every break to come back and read more of this story. Both enchanting and exhilarating, this action thriller brings all the feels. A murder mystery, science, romance, and more. But mostly, it just reminds us that we are human with flaws and maybe someone can love us anyway. More please. Now I am going to read the Warehouse. Love it!!!!!

Rob Hart is courageous for taking on time travel. Always a subject of spirited debate among science fiction fans. Specifically, what happens if you change the time stream? If you can even change the time stream. I fall on the side of never changing the past, the only credible story lines always channeling you to immutable history.

Hart cites the box universe theory of time that says past, present, and future exist at the same time, always. But in Paradox Hotel, this remains just a theory, leaving room for changes in the time line. Which is why there are time cops who make sure people don't change the past.

Paradox Hotel is told from the point of view of January Cole, once a time cop, now head of security in the titular establishment, a way station for tours to the past. She herself has come "unstuck" in time (would have been nice to give a hat tip to Vonnegut for that terminology). So she "slips" into the past, allowing her to relive moments with her deceased lover.

She can also slip into the future, witnessing murders she hopes to stop, including her own. Meanwhile, she has to facilitate a summit of trillionaires hoping to buy the hotel and time travel tech, and find whoever is trying to sabotage the summit by messing with the time stream by (among other things) bringing dinosaurs out of the past.

January Cole is a great character, a strong woman dealing with craziness (including her own) that spirals increasingly out of control. As our narrator, she is snarky and sarcastic, a master of the smack-down, wearing a world-weary world-view worthy of every literary gumshoe regardless of genre. Seeing this world through her eyes is a real treat, as are her interactions with her AI drone.

Much of the subtext, as in Hart's great dystopian novel The Warehouse, about a world taken over by an Amazon-like corporate entity, has to do with income inequality, politics, privilege, corporate greed, and the like, and of course it helps if one's own views align with Hart's (mine do).

But then there is the issue of time that Hart has chosen as his primary literary device. Does it hold water? I honestly can't say -- and that alone undermines my ability to find it credible.

Hart doesn't examine time travel closely enough. There is only one example of travel into the past. Yes, I know, this is what all time travel stories focus on, actually going into the past or future and changing things (or not), and I didn't expect (nor would I necessarily want) Hart to focus on that.

But it was one of my favorite passages of the book, even though it was too short. I wish there was more. But more than that, as much as I liked it, it did not demonstrate one way or the other whether the past could be changed or what the consequences would be -- I would have liked to see that part of the story resolved by the time stream itself, not by the intervention of the time cops.

But this story is less about time travel and more about January slipping in and out of the past and future and her ability to deal with that. I reached a point where the proof would be in the pudding -- in the ending. The middle section was a bit of rinse and repeat -- did we really need a second dinosaur action sequence, even if the first was such good fun? So the whole thing hinged on how things wrapped up.

That was a problem. Indeed, with too few pages left to find closure, I suddenly got the feeling that we were being set up for a sequel. That proved to not be the case, but that meant that the ending came upon us in a rush, not a euphoric rush, a too-hurried rush. Just like that it was over, and though I generally prize ambiguous endings that leave room for interpretation, this one just left me confused.

So really a 3.5 star read, losing points for not really holding water in its time theory and ending too quickly after spinning its wheels. But rounding up to 4 stars because it's a great idea, well written, and starring a memorable first person protagonist who is quite entertaining despite being quite unreliable.