This was a very light and fun read with a time travel plot. It was entertaining, if very light on the sci-fi aspect--which isn't a bad thing. Personally, I would have liked a bit more of the time travel logistics than the rom-com aspects, Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

4.5 ⭐️

I really enjoyed this book! As someone who loves magical realism, this book really hit the mark for me. The blend of time travel and romance was so well done, and the way it explored the tension between fate and free will was both thought-provoking and fun.

The plot revolves around Joe Greene, a struggling poet at Cambridge, who meets Esi, a time traveler from the future, sent to help him find his muse. But when things go off-script, Esi’s attempt to change Joe’s destiny leads to some unexpected twists and a romance that neither of them planned.

The magical realism in this book is fantastic. The time-travel element felt grounded in a way that made it believable, and the chemistry between Joe and Esi felt so real and definitely had be giggling. I really enjoyed how the story unfolded, especially the plot twists—I never quite knew where things were going next, which made it a fun and unpredictable read.

I gave it 4.5 stars instead of 5 because at times, the pacing felt like it was dragging a bit. There were moments where I wanted things to pick up, but overall, this book kept me hooked. It’s heartwarming, thought-provoking, and packed with enough twists to keep you guessing. If you’re a fan of magical realism or love stories with a bit of a time-bending twist, this book is definitely worth picking up!

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the eARC!

A time travel and love triangle romance for fans of Ashley Poston and Christina Lauren, with two 21 year old students in Cambridge, England — one from 2044 and the other from 2005. Joe Greene is not doing well in school, his real passion is with his terrible poetry. His roommate Rob is a physics major whose real passion is playing the game Assassins. This is a live action game where you are hunting other players to surprise them and get them eliminated from the game. Joe has a meet cute with Esi at the coffee shop, and they have some interesting chemistry. He just doesn’t know what it is about her.

Then as she is walking away she drops a book of poetry. Written by him! It turns out she is on a "time travel trip" where people who are fans of someone famous can travel back in time to where they used to live to maybe meet them before they were famous. So everyone on this visit to 2005 is a huge fan of "Joseph Greene the famous poet" except, that is, for Esi. Eli has other plans in mind. Her mother, who tragically died in an accident, was killed returning to Cambridge in celebration of "an award she won in June of 2005." So Esi has an ulterior motive, find her mother and make sure she doesn't win this award.

But will it work? After all, the time travel company says that the Butterfly Effect doesn't apply, there is nothing you can do in the past to ruin the future. So will Esi save her mom, and will Joe and Esi even find her?

This time travel romance is about 30% romance, no spice. Mostly this is heavily plot driven and character-building as Joe and Esi inhabit the world they are in and as Joe get his mind around his supposed future. This book asks the question, what would you do if you knew you were destined to succeed? And it changes all of his decisions. Joe's roommate Rob is a great character, he gets all the best lines. There is plenty of humor. Most of the narrative is Joe's inner dialogue and Esi becoming a sort of Cyrano to him with his "muse" Diana.

If you enjoy time travel romances or romances that embrace magical realism, add this one to your TBR list~!

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC. Book to be published March 11, 2025.

Joe is a young college student and, unbeknownst to him, a future famous poet. He has struggled with channeling his poetic voice while at Cambridge, and he worries that the writing talent he showed in high school is actually unfounded. Little does he know that he's set to meet the muse (Diana) who will lead him to fame. Esi is a time travel tourist on her way to correct a past event from her personal history, when she accidentally knocks Joe off course and must help him to connect with Diana while also correcting the future.

This was an interesting time travel romance, where the reader is asked to engage in a love story while also considering the ethics of changing the future and what constitutes emotional manipulation. I found the main characters to be likable and easy to root for. And the crux of the story kept me guessing as to the final outcome: can we change the future by tinkering with the past, or are our relationships and our future selves inherently unchangeable? I was surprised at the amount of tension I experienced while reading, I expected this to be a bit lighter but the emotional conflicts definitely gave the story depth. The author's descriptive writing style had nice bits of wry humor scattered amongst the more serious issues, although I wouldn't call this a funny book overall. This is a quick read but it's not a superficial read nor is it straightforward. Many of the events in the book seemed to be in flux, which fit the theme of the book, and it made for engaging reading. The book was written in 3rd person POV from Joe's perspective, and while it makes sense since this is essentially Joe's story it's also a nice change of pace to read a romance from the MMC's viewpoint. One final note: I love the idea of time travel tourism, and the fact that random people who stare at you on the street may just be time travel tourists from a future where you're famous! This is a new-to-me author and I look forward to reading more from her. Readers who enjoy books about time travel with a new-adult romance woven in amongst the ethical conundrums will love this book! Publishes March 11, 2025. Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book, all opinions are mine.

This was such a good book. I loved the story and the writing so much. The characters were great and the story flowed smoothly. Will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

This is by far the most unique book I've read this year in all the best ways imaginable. Joe and Esi's story from beginning to end had me hooked. Joe, a student at Cambridge, struggles to find his potential in a sea of people who seem to have it all figured out. Insert Esi, a woman who time travels back to the early 2000s to change the past in order to save her mother's future. The two end up on journey together of self discovery and unexpected love. I won't spoil the ending but I will say that it's a good one.

Such a unique romantic journey. I loved the time travel aspect and adored the main character and all of his personal growth. I don't usually read stories from the male pov so that was a fun thing too. There was one thing I wish had been a little different (more chemistry/romance) but even despite this I really enjoyed the book. It was well written and an interesting plot that kept me turning page after page. It had the most unique thrown in things, like assassins. I have never heard of that. But my nerdy side ate it up.

So if someone is looking for a unique story with more plot and story than spice and romance, I'd recommend this one. It has its own flair of romance that's also unique to the story.

3 stars!

If you’re looking for a light, funny, and cute romance with mild science fiction elements and world-building designed to move the story forward, this book might be perfect for you. While I found the time-travel aspect intriguing—despite not usually being a fan of time-travel storylines—I still enjoyed how it was incorporated here.

That said, I felt both Joe and Esi’s characterizations were somewhat underdeveloped, making it harder to fully connect with them. The book also touches on Esi’s experience as a Black woman navigating predominantly white spaces, which I appreciated. However, while the narrative made an effort to address some of the challenges Black women face, it felt a bit superficial at times. I would have liked to see this explored in greater depth.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read and one I’d recommend to anyone in the mood for a fluffy romance with a dash of time travel.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started to read this ARC. I thought it had an interesting premise and message about fate and destiny. However, I was a little confused about the explanation of the time travel and how they were able to walk around so freely. It also felt like at every chapter, a few weeks or days passed. In my opinion, that took away from the urgency of the characters to solve the problem at hand. While Joe’s POV was okay, I think I would’ve also liked to see the main female character’s perspective. Overall, the story was interesting and follows a lot of the similar tropes we see in time travel stories. There have been a lot of them in the recent year. I wouldn’t say that this is a favorite, but it has its moments.

Very cute time travel love triangle from Catriona Silvey, author of Meet Me in Another Life. Like that novel, this has its fair share of contrivances and works at a pretty breakneck pace. But, despite the fact that most of the plot beats could probably be guessed after the first few pages (almost feels a little meta here: the future of this book feels set in stone when you start reading it!), it's really a joy to see it all come together in the end. It feels like every detail set up in the beginning has a payoff in the conclusion, which is pretty satisfying. This never dragged for me, but I will say that it's often hard to like the protagonist. Yeah, he had to learn his lessons, but it isn't until near the end that I was really rooting for him at all. And even then I think he still needs to prove himself some more for me to not side-eye him a little.

A rather light read, but I'm not complaining. I will read as many unabashedly romantic sci-fi stories from Silvey as she manages to write.

This was a cute quirky read. It didn't wow me too much though. The time travel aspect seemed SO far fetched and weird (especially Vera at the end?! lol). The characters were likable and flawed. I really liked Rob for some reason haha. But it was just okay for me. Too much worrying and focus on changing the future that it took away from enjoying the story for me. I did absolutely love the setting of Cambridge in the early 2000's and a big reason why I added an extra star to my rating.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 -This was a pretty fun and cute read, especially since I’m a sucker for time travel love stories. I would’ve liked to see more indications of the time travel element in the story, but it was quite subdued - very much like in the movie “About Time”; the time travel aspect in both media was more of a catalyst to just set the story in motion and wasn’t the center focus. I did like the messages we got from both despite the minute amount of sci/fi, that your future isn’t predetermined and it’s important to make the most of your time and cherish your loved ones in the present moment.

One issue I did have with the story was the pacing. It felt very off at times, since often throughout the book there were time skips of weeks at a time. With so much time just glossed over, it was quite off putting and disorienting. Because of this, I didn’t feel like I got a good visual of the love story that unfolded between Joe and Esi. There were beautiful moments here and there with heartfelt dialogues, but i didn’t quite see that adding up to the equation of their love story.

Overall I enjoyed this story, and would recommend this book to someone looking for a quick and fun read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I'm very glad I got the opportunity to read this ! I've never read anything quite like it and it was engrossing.
The characters were likeable, witty, and layered.
The time traveling-romance certainly wasn't on my bucket list for 2024- but I flew right through it !

La sinopsis me enganchó: viajes en el tiempo, expediciones a traves del tiempo, romance y comedia, ¡sí, por favor!

Disfruté la primera mitad del libro, pero la otra se me hizo tediosa, ya que la trama se estancó y las escenas con Diana resultaron forzadas y dolorosas.

Me hubiera gustado que Esi tuviera povs para poder conocerla mejor y saber qué pasaba por su cabeza cada vez que ayudaba a Joe con Diana, así como su reacción al enterarse de los multiversos, etc

Espero que la versión final incluya un epílogo.


Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a tough one for me to review. I absolutely loved Catriona Silvey’s debut novel, Meet Me in Another Life, so I was beyond thrilled to receive early access to this. It turned out to not be my cup of tea, but I do think it will have strong appeal to the right audience.

I think this novel may land best for readers who are looking for a light, humorous romance with some mild SF elements, and who will enjoy the mid-2000s Cambridge university setting and characters. I don’t think I’d recommend it to somebody who has read a ton of time travel books like I have, or to someone who is highly invested in how the time travel elements work; that is not the focus in this book, and time travel isn’t really explored beyond causing the event that sets the plot into motion. It’s a quick, breezy read that doesn’t necessarily hold up to a lot of scrutiny.

The thing that surprised me the most about this book was the prose, which was very, very different than in Silvey’s first book. It was fast and easy to read, but didn’t have the beauty or depth that I was anticipating. I’m sure this was a stylistic choice, and certainly it was a fast-paced “beach read” style-romance; assuming that’s what she was intending, she absolutely nailed it! And I think it will work really well for a lot of readers. But for myself, I found that I was missing the more reflective and beautiful style of prose I remembered from her prior novel.

For some readers, how this novel hits may be dependent on how much they connect with lead character Joe, an aimless college student whose greatest dream is to be a famous poet like Lord Byron, as well as how much they connect with the time period the book is set in. I didn’t mind the setting (except occasionally wondering if I was catching anachronisms or just incorrectly remembering when certain aspects of technology happened), but I found Joe to be rather grating and naive, and not in a “well-drawn character” way.

I liked the other main character, Esi, much better in concept, but unfortunately I didn’t think she was very well characterized either. She’s not given that much of an actual personality, and for me, some of the author’s choices didn’t work as I assume they were intended to. Esi is Black, and while I could tell the author was striving to include thoughtful details that centered Esi’s racial identity (such as talking to Joe about her experiences dealing with all-white environments, wearing hair bonnets to bed, spending time in Black spaces, etc), there were other moments that read a bit like “white woman tries to write about racism without fully understanding or engaging with it” to me. I am myself a white woman; I obviously don’t know how this would hit for other readers, but I’m assuming that if some of it made me cringe, others may feel similarly or more so depending on their own identity and experience.

All of that said, I really did appreciate the chance to read this early, and I’ll recommend it to folks I think are the right audience. I’ll definitely pick up Silvey’s next book too. Huge thanks to Catriona Silvey, William Morrow, and NetGalley for generously providing an ARC for review.

This was a great book! I enjoyed reading this book, I loved the time traveling aspect to it, and the romance parts were cheesy but also not overdone. it was a quick book to read, and it was cute! I liked it!!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

This uses the time-traveler element perfectly to tell the story it needed to. The concept worked well in this romantic comedy and was invested in what was going on. The characters had that charm to them and was engaged with their story. Catriona Silvey has a great writing style and am excited to read more.

Oooh a time Jump romcom? Sign me right up! I loved the concept of this and think it was executed so well! I love these characters and they complexities, and their beautiful romance. This was a unique and fun one!

What could be more fun than a good time-travel romcom?

The book begins in 2006. Joe Greene, 20, came from Scotland to study at Cambridge, hoping the experience would “turn me into the poet I’m supposed to be” because of all the great poets who came there in the past, such as Byron. But so far, he has been uninspired to write anything worthwhile.

Then he runs into Esi Campbell.

Esi comes from the future, via a company called Retroflex that runs tourist trips back in time to see famous people when they were young. But Esi’s real motive taking the trip was to find her Mum, who died in a car crash in Cambridge when Esi was eight. Her mother had come back to Cambridge for the 25th anniversary of an award she’d won in 2006 when the fatal accident occurred. Esi is desperate to stop her mom from winning the award so she doesn’t return and doesn’t die.

Joe and Esi were walking together when Esi stumbled, dropping a book Joe immediately retrieved. It was entitled “Meant to Be: Poems for Diana” by Joseph Greene. Above his name was a picture of an older Joe embracing a woman identified as Diana Dartnell, apparently a famous actress and Joe’s great love. The year of publication was 2044, forty years later. Joe knew then Esi was from the future, and he took the book and ran.

What follows has Joe, with Esi’s help, trying to follow the path laid out for him in the book, and Joe helping Esi find her mom. Diana attends Cambridge too, and she is ethereally beautiful. But the connection Joe feels is with Esi, who, it must be said, hasn’t even been born yet.

As everyone involved goes off-script, it raises the inevitable questions that stymy the characters: Can the future change? Is the “butterfly effect” real? Or are there multiple possible futures? And how does time travel fit into the answers?

Evaluation: Thoroughly entertaining!

Tiny spoiler for a paradox, but nothing major. It is a time travel novel, after all, and the title does say paradox.

Ever since I was young, I have always loved ❤️ reading time travel novels. Love and Other Paradoxes is amazing! I remember reading years ago the same paradox (although brought about through different circumstances), and every once in a while, I will think about it. If a time traveler gives you a book of your poems before you write them, did you, in fact, write them?

Anyone who loves time travel romances, or even just cute romances in general, will love this book!

Thanks to NetGalley for the free kindle book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.