I loved the concept of this book, and reading Lisavet’s arc in this story was heartbreaking and beautiful. I also enjoyed the parts where the characters were in memories but I wish the reader got to spend more time in these scenes to learn from the characters, instead of having all of the technical explanations before and after each time someone time walked. I feel like during the time walks was when the reader truly got to know the characters.

★★ ½

I'm finding that I'm such a sucker for time travel fiction. There's so much to say about how we choose what to commit to memory, and how our very selves are formed by it, that there's no shortage of ways it can be explored. The first half of The Book of Lost Hours gave us a set of unforgettable characters and a beautiful, lush time space that explored the idea of the tangibility of memories taken literally—and why those in power may seek to erase what they don't want the world to see. Being able to piece together the mystery of what really happened to Lisavet Levy through the multi-POV format was fun and engaging as a reader, and I loved how the distinct voices of the characters throughout the book went from distinct and bright to more muddied as their histories began to converge on one another. The romance was also spot-on (coming from someone that often doesn't read it!)—not forced, beautiful, and perfectly-devastating as Lisavet's and Ernest's sacrifices for each other only drew them deeper into tragedy.

However, I guessed one of the big twists of the story decently before it happened (which may have been intentional, but it still left me disillusioned), and the second half of the story felt soured to me—by a main antagonist that felt flat andcartoonishly-villainous (made even worse by exactly one [1] sentence of reflection that the author never revisited again), which stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the rich depth of characters that had been exhibited prior. This made me feel uncomfortably disconnected from what should have been a very emotional latter half and climax, and it instantly made the stakes seem fake and exaggerated—which left me waiting for the book to be over rather than able to enjoy an ending that I believe was executed perfectly despite the pitfalls concentrated within the 60-85% portion of the text.

I'll admit I'm not very good at suspending my disbelief, and readers that are able to do so more easily for the central conflict may find more fulfillment from this book. Until then, I will keep looking for a book that knocks the "memory library" concept out of the park—and I am deeply saddened that The Book of Lost Hours is not where my search ends.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I felt so much hope for this book! The premise was great...but it was too slow-paced for me. The reveal halfway through held some power (I wasn't able to guess it! so that was good) but it was the only spike of interest and excitement I felt throughout the entire book. As such, it's a 2.5 stars rounded up for me.

5/5

Wow. Just finished this book by Hayley Gelfuso and have already pre-ordered m a hard copy. Gelfuso seamlessly weaves a tale that defies time as we know it to exist. An unlikely love story, that delves into just how far one is willing to go for those they love.

I could not put this novel down, and found myself deeply invested in the characters and their lives. Gelfuso does an amazing job of invoking feelings in her readers - I loved immersing myself in her pages.

This story is genre-blending, part historical fiction, part speculative fantasy, with a dash of Cold War spy intrigue and a whole lot of emotional depth. It follows two women—Lisavet Levy and Amelia Duquesne—across different timelines (1938 and 1965), both connected by a mysterious place called the time space, a soaring library where memories are stored in books and accessed through special watches. It’s like The Midnight Library meets The Ministry of Time, but with its own haunting, lyrical twists.

What I loved: Lisavet’s arc is heartbreaking and beautiful. Trapped in the time space as a child, she grows up surrounded by other people’s memories instead of her own. Her journey is about reclaiming truth in a world where history is being rewritten by government agents.

Amelia’s storyline adds a layer of mystery and urgency. She’s pulled into the time space decades later to find a book her uncle Ernest once sought, and her discoveries challenge everything she thought she knew.

The writing is lush and immersive. Gelfuso’s prose is poetic without being pretentious, and the emotional beats hit hard. You’ll feel the weight of memory, loss, and love in every chapter.

The concept of timekeepers—agents from different countries manipulating history—is chilling and brilliant. It raises big questions about who gets to decide what’s remembered and what’s erased.
It’s not traditional time travel—it’s more like memory travel, which might surprise folks expecting sci-fi action.

Wonderful read, overall.

I don't believe I have read anything quite like this story. This was a beautifully complicated and heartwarming/heartbreaking tale. It is a true testament to how love can withstand the test of Time, how a mother will forever protect their child no matter the costs & that when governments get their hands on important things they will inevitably abuse it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I have no doubt others will fall in love with the story the same way I did.

The Book of Lost Hours was everything I loved in The Ministry of Time mixed with The Library Trilogy with a splash of unique story telling and an intriguing plot. I loved the nonlinear storytelling that gives the reader breadcrumbs as we learn more about Moira, Amelia, and Ernest so as the big reveals happen, the audience is starting to connect the dots. I loved this story so much! I was enthralled the entire time and almost couldn't put it down. This is a must read for essentially anyone with eyes (or ears) to read with! I don't think I'm going to stop thinking about The Book of Lost Hours for a long time. You can ask my husband, I rambled extensively about it when I finished. The book isn't even out yet and I'm texting friends and family, telling them to buy this ASAP. I can't wait to gush more about this book on social media so please take my word for it, you're going to LOVE The Book of Lost Hours!

Thank you to Atria, NetGalley, and the author for allowing this early copy to be used for Camp NetGalley 2025!

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I have posted the following review to Goodreads as of 07/15/2025 at the link provided below.

DNF at 30%

I immediately couldn't get invested in this book. It reminded me very very heavily of V.E. Schwab's The Dark Vault duology, the magic system is extremely similar. However, even though I adore V.E. Schwab that is my least favorite of her books. I think this set me up from page one of already not wanting to explore this concept, but I still stuck it out.

I just couldn't get into this story, despite my best attempts. I don't like or care about any of the characters, the story is unfolding very predictably and I feel like I could skip forward to the final chapter and find no surprises there.

I have read The Midnight Library and didn't particularly like it, but I don't see the comparison, personally. The themes are extremely different and the story is not the same at all. The only similarities are a library that's neither here nor there.

I think fans of The Dark Vault may enjoy this one since there's such similarities in the concepts of Timekeepers vs Keepers, Memories vs Histories, The Timespace vs The Vault, etc. But that just wasn't me this time.

Best of luck to Hayley Gelfuso and her future books!

A hauntingly atmospheric tale about grief, memory, and the passage of time. Gelfuso’s lyrical prose brings an eerie beauty to the story, perfect for fans of quiet fantasy with emotional depth.

This was an extremely creative and whimsical. A speculative fiction book that accurately compares to books like The Midnight Library, which I also loved, so I had to pick this one up. I am having a hard time avoiding spoilers, but this book is definitely one of those that is not only about the characters, but also about preserving history. I love the dual timeline, the romance, the fantasy of it, the world jumping within memories, really all of it. An excellent debut, and a consistent page turner for me.

During the night of Kristallnacht in 1938, Lisavet is trapped in Timespace, a place filled with books where memories are kept. Her father is a timekeeper and he put her there to keep her safe. He intended to come back for her, but was killed that night. Her dad could make special watches that allowed people to enter Timespace. Time keepers decide what memories are kept and which are burned.

Lisavet doesn't have a watch, so she can't leave. She grows up in that space, never needing to eat or sleep. She quickly decides that memories shouldn't be burned and saves what she can in a book she carries with her. In 1949 she meets Earnest and things begin to change.

Interspersed with Lisavet is the story of Amelia, in the year 1965, an orphan whose uncle, Earnest, has just passed away. He worked for the CIA and was allegedly a communist. At the funeral, she meets Moira, another CIA agent who needs Amelia's help, as Amelia was gifted her uncle's watch...

This is a very clever and unique book. I couldn't put it down starting on page one.

Winston Churchill wrote that history is written by the victors but in Hayley Gelfuso’s debut novel The Book of Lost Hours, it’s not about who writes history but who can access and manipulate it. A cavernous sprawling expanse filled with shelves of books, the Time Space is a place entirely removed from linear time as we know it, full of history and people’s memories stored as books. Referred to as Timekeepers, those that can access this place shape history to match their vision by removing select memories from this space, wiping them from existence. Trapped in this timeless space since 1938, Lisavet Levy tries to save these memories deemed dangerous by salvaging and hiding them within her book until an American timekeeper Ernest Duquesne begins to take notice in 1949. Meanwhile in 1965, mourning the death of her Uncle Ernest, Amelia Duquesne is approached by a mysterious CIA agent named Moira who presents her a Time Space watch and tasks her with finding a mysterious book of memories Ernest had been searching for. Blending elements of speculative fiction, time travel, historical fiction, and romance across time, The Book of Lost Hours is an impressively ambitious story based around memories, love, and nostalgic warmth. Despite a slow start, I thoroughly enjoyed this book’s brilliant story and consistently had no idea where it was going or how it would conclude its expansive narrative.

If the book’s blurb and the brief intro above sounds like a lot, I’ve done my job at conveying the scope of Gelfuso’s grand story. This book caught my eye with its compelling premise, being compared to a cross between The Ministry of Time and the Midnight Library which were both two of my favorite 2024 reads. Unlike many marketing strategies that simply namedrop popular books, this sales pitch is really quite accurate. This novel shares the world-jumping and whimsical, otherworldly book-filled space aspects of The Midnight Library while mirroring The Ministry of Time’s genre-bending time travel romance within an imaginative speculative fiction setup. Yet despite sharing similar aspects to these well-read novels, The Book of Lost Hours sets itself apart and feels completely different and fresh. Unhindered by most typical time traveling restrictions courtesy of its unique concept, this story features countless memories captured across various times and locations. Yet due to setting only going as current as 1965, it retains its historical fiction roots even when it’s set in the book’s “present day”.

This is one of those speculative fiction novels that are hard to talk about without giving away any major spoilers, but at its crux, the story is one of preserving history and an ill-fated romance doomed by both time and political circumstances. The less one knows about the story the better to experience the full effect of Gelfuso’s compelling plot. The story has a bit of a slow and disconnected start as the reader is initially introduced to Lisavet Levy in 1938, followed by Amelia Duquesne in 1965 and alternating back and forth. While these two are considered the main characters of the story which make sense to introduce them early, the tone of their two perspectives swing wildly at each perspective shift. One story has a whimsical and meandering feel while the other is tense, almost like a mystery thriller which can make for an unusual reading experience. Both are good tonal representations of the story yet to come, but the opening can be a bit jarring and hard to follow for some. I personally also didn’t find Amelia particularly interesting to read about until pretty far into the story and even then, felt like her character or perspective could’ve been more distinctive or featured more since you can tell Gelfuso intended for her to be the center of the story (she’s simply a rebellious and stubborn teenager).

However, once the story finds it footing, it’s a consistent page-turner. The novel does a consistently great job with foreshadowing future events via its clever split perspective and timeline presentation. Elements will be introduced in the past years, then the abrupt shift to the future shows what happened to them after. Or in the reverse direction for example, it’s revealed early on that Lisavet vanished from the Time Space at a certain year and it becomes a mystery of what happened to her in the present. Besides Lisavet’s unique timeless situation, there’s also storylines revolving around the mystery of Uncle Ernest’s mysterious covert career, Moira’s connection and assignment with Amelia, a young Russian agent believed to have murdered Ernest, as well as Nazi and KGB time agents for good measure. While there’s a lot of different ideas included and the story frequently jumps around in the past/historic present, part of the fun and excitement is trying to figure out how all these seemingly unrelated events and people are connected in Gelfuso’s master planned sequence of continuity, not to mention her breaking it in the book’s satisfying conclusion. Even though some of the plot twists can be seen coming if you’re intuitive, there’s usually subtle details or aspects to the twist that will likely still be a surprise.

While I found Amelia to be less interesting than Lisavet and many of the other supporting characters, that’s more of a compliment to how good the rest of the characters are. As the scope of the story grows and the complex timeline forms, the book adopts an ensemble cast type of presentation. As the cast of characters grows, so too do conflicting ideologies and theories about the Time Space and Lisavet’s quest which show the level of detail and thought that went into this book; while not particularly deep or the focus, there’s even light political references and commentary of the time. I loved the journey Lisavet’s character goes on over the course of the story and the way Gelfuso plots her shifting ideological changes, personal values, and outlook on life. Similarly, Ernest is also wonderfully written and is impossible not to root for despite already knowing what potentially happens to him as seen through Amelia’s perspective. The only weak spot that I noticed is the young Russian agent Anton Stepanov who largely suffers from simply being underutilized. Not sure if it’s a coincidence or not that both the young characters feel underdeveloped and their motives/feelings to be one-dimensional and typical, but I felt like both he and Amelia were missed opportunities to do more though that likely would’ve required the story to be extended considerably. As currently presented, more time and dramatic moments are wisely spent with Lisavet and Ernest who carry the story and are likely more relatable to the target readership demographics this novel is intended for vs its YA characters.

Regardless of minor nitpicks here and there, overall I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by The Book of Lost Hours and how much narrative content it was able to cover over the course of its four hundred page count. While I loved Gelfuso’s ambitious ideas and concepts, I also noticed how appealing this novel will likely be once it is published. Its speculative fiction premise is genius but it wisely avoids being overly technical or convoluted that would turn off traditional historical fiction or women/literary fiction readers. Its time travel romance is also carefully pitched where it should satisfy lovers of the trope without being overly mushy for speculative fiction fans and keeping all the adult content suggested behind closed doors to avoid cheapening the reading experience. Well-crafted, polished, with a nice dose of whimsy plus books, The Book of Lost Hours is a great all-arounder that I can comfortably recommend to almost anyone for a good time!

this is a debut novel and part dual timeline, romance, fantasy, a little sad at times too. Its part 1930's and 60's I always love the dual time line in books but you have to be able to focus on the dual time lines or you can't keep up. I highly recommend this book it has some sad parts and happy mixed in between as well.
Thank you netgalley for the arc

Truly one of the best books I have read in the last few years. I could not put it down, wanting to know what was happening next. Time travel, spies, romance, history, the love for one’s family, all rolled into one epic journey.

3.5 rounded up the 4 stars!

I enjoyed this book! Gelfuso has such a way with words. This has been compared the The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. I've read Addie Larue, but I haven't read The Midnight Library. I can see similarities to Addie in the different timelines, and following someone over long spans of time. From what I've heard about The Midnight Library, I can guess that they are also slightly similar.

Now, I found this novel to be quite predictable. I didn't guess every plot twist, but I guessed most. I feel like things are laid out almost too plainly for the reader. I guessed one of the main twists about 20-25% before it happened because of the way things were explained. I also feel like things wrapped up too easily. I'm glad the characters got their happy ending, but it felt too simple. This book could have benefitted from more stakes.

One thing I enjoyed a lot about this novel was the Time Space. I found this quite compelling and a really interesting idea. I liked the way it was executed for the most part. I just felt like something was lacking that could have added another layer to the whole story.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the e-ARC of The Book of Lost Hours!

I went into this book expecting a time travel adventure with some emotional weight, but it felt more like literary fiction than a commercial page-turner.

At its core it is not at all about traveling through time—it’s about how memory can be weaponized, manipulated, or quietly saved in the margins. It felt more ethereal and psychological than sci-fi.
Very dystopian isolation. she’s a child left in a timeless place, growing up surrounded by other people’s memories instead of her own.

pacing felt all over the place, especially as the plot got more layered and the timeline twists piled up. The ending just dragged on forever and some characters made emotionally annoying choices.

It wasn't really time travel as much as it was an angsty literary fiction

I started this book with no expectations and was absolutely delighted! It was fantastical without being complicated and hard to understand, it was suspenseful and mysterious without following a lot of the classic formulas, and it had a healthy dose of romance without the entire plot and character hinging on a romantic relationship.

I almost gave it four stars because it didn't completely knock me off my feet, but the more I thought about it, the less critique I was able to come up with so I'm happy to give it 5 stars!

I. HAVE. NO. WORDS. Ok I lied, I have a lot of words about this book. But first off, all the ⭐️ for this book. It had me clutching the rails and holding on for dear life.

Time “travel”, political intrigue, battling between what’s right and what’s wrong, romance, emotional wrenching of the heart?! All of it. It’s in this book and if that’s your vibe, please pick it up!

The story follows Lisavet, Ernest, Moira, and Amelia through the 1940-1965 period and how their journeys intersect/affect one another. The timekeepers from various countries are responsible for curating memories and history to prevent war and catastrophe. But these characters challenge the question - who decides that?

Hayley did an amazing job with demonstrating the duality of emotions that one can face. That the lines can blur between right and wrong and how far will one person go to protect the ones they love? She balanced the emotional pull of the story with the logistical theories of time and space. This story has so many pieces to it and keeps you on the edge. I am not lying when I say I was up until 345am reading this because I. COULD. NOT. STOP.

Well done, Hayley, on an amazing debut novel! I will absolutely be adding this to my physical collection.

** Thank you NetGalley & Atria Books for providing an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review **

Thank you NetGalley & Atria Books
I picked this book as part of Camp NetGalley, I am happy to say for myself that I picked the right book.
You could say Lisavet's and Ernest's love stood the test of time.
As a child Lisavet listened to her fathers stories about time keepers and walking through time. Little did she know that he spoke the truth.
Hidden in time space and growing into a woman Lisavet met Ernest. They courted each other and eventually fell in love. Then Lisavet had to do the unthinkable. She did this to protect Ernest. Fast forward a few years she comes face to face with Ernest again and true enough he didn't know who she was.
This book was riveting. The talk about time and how you could change it in certain ways was interesting. I wish I could read this book again for the first time. Highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Publishing for the free ARC.

In The Book of Lost Hours, I was immediately whisked into the time and place this story begins. I, too, was an 11-year-old girl hanging onto every word of my father's bedtime story. It was effortless to journey alongside Lisavet as her story unfolds and more characters are introduced.

The pacing in this story is so fluid and natural and it's so easy to follow. The characters are unique and relatable. This book is truly a masterpiece that tugs on the heart in both elation and pain in equal measure throughout.

While a few developments are predictable, I found that the ultimate course of the story was delightfully surprising, and of course, the destination was a bittersweet satisfaction.

I cannot recommend this book enough, and will absolutely be picking up a copy when it hits shelves next month!