Lizabet’s father is a Jewish watchmaker in 1940’s Germany. One night, as he is telling her bedtime stories, he hears an encroaching crowd and pushing Lizabet through a doorway. Here she finds herself trapped in the time space, where memories are kept in books and as time goes by, she learns she doesn’t need to eat or drink and she can experience the world through the memories of others.
In 1960’s Boston, Amelia is attending the funeral of the father that raised her, when she is approached by a woman who worked with her uncle. She is quickly recruited to enter the time space to help find a book of secrets.
As Lizabet’s and Amelia’s journeys weave along, the Reuters of memories become what anchors them to those they love, both past and present.

A lovely book with such a fun concept. It is beautifully written and I enjoyed every minute.

I have to admit, I only picked this book up initially because it was part of Camp NetGalley. However, I kept going back and read it in every spare minute because it was so good.

I’m not big on time travel as a concept but this really wasn’t time travel as much as memory visiting and I loved that idea. The connection between WWII and the Cold War was really well done as well as the dual timeline / dual POVs of the main characters. The different times made the big twists that much more unpredictable and interesting.

This book made me feel all the feelings. Please note however, there are some themes / events some readers might find unsettling (including loss of a child and sexual assault) so please keep that in mind while reading. While these events are not in great detail, they are in the story so I wanted to mention it.

Overall, I loved this story. It’s very much a story of all different kinds of love particularly love that transcends everything, even time.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is filled with time travel, and romance with multiple pov’s. I loved the concept of the time space although some of it still confuses me. But having timekeepers is such a great detail to this book. I loved each of these characters, be prepared for having your heart broken a few times but if you’re like me you like that every once in a while from a book. I am so stunned that this is a debut novel! The writing and building of each time line was magnificent.

I couldn’t believe I was reading a book. It felt like I was living it. The Book of Lost Hours completely swept me away. I finished it in one sitting (four hours straight!) because I. Just. Couldn’t. Stop. I forgot to eat, drink, even breathe properly. That’s how deep this story pulled me in. I still can’t believe this is Hayley Gelfuso’s debut story.

Set across the 1940s and 1960s, The Book of Lost Hours follows the lives and experiences of Lisavet Levy and Amelia Duquesne – two fierce, unforgettable women who rise through grief, silence, and uncertainty, each daring to rewrite the fate the world tried to hand them.

The book has everything: romance, historic, and sci-fi elements, and this subtle but powerful war between truth and control. The characters Lisavet, Ernest, Moira, and Amelia were so vivid, it felt like I could see them through the words in the book.

And the writing? Pure magic. My only regret is that I couldn’t slow down and soak in every single word, because the pace and emotional intensity kept pushing me forward.

This book left me breathless. I’m still thinking about it. And I already want to read it again.

If you have read and enjoyed fantasy books of similar concepts, I would highly recommend you buy it as soon as it hits the stands on August 26th, 2025. Believe me, you won’t regret it!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso

Thank you Atria Books for sharing what has become my favorite read of 2025. For years, I searched for a story that could resonate with me as deeply as The Midnight Library—and here it is.

Hayley Gelfuso’s novel is a breathtaking blend of speculative fiction and historical depth, unfolding within the haunting time space—a surreal library where memories live in books and access depends on heirloom watches, now mostly controlled by world governments. Set against the quiet dread of World War II and the paranoia of the Cold War, the book explores the fragile power of memory and the battle to preserve truth in the face of state-sanctioned erasure.

We follow Lisavet Levy, left behind in 1938 and growing up among the ghosts of lost histories, as she begins documenting memories when she realizes they’re being destroyed by those who seek to rewrite the past. Her mission is clear: save the memories, save the truth. But as her world collides with spy Ernest Duquesne in 1949, she’s forced to grapple not only with loss, but with the impossible moral weight of changing memories to save a life.

In 1965, Amelia Duquesne enters the time space searching for answers about her missing uncle and discovers that history isn't nearly as linear—or as trustworthy—as she once believed. The relationship between Lisavet and Amelia, though separated by decades, forms the emotional backbone of a story that asks: What do we owe the past, and what might we sacrifice for the future?

Gelfuso’s writing is lyrical and haunting, folding deep emotion into sweeping mystery. The Book of Lost Hours isn't just a page-turner, it's a meditation on truth, time, and the quiet power of remembrance.

Like all great books, this one doesn’t end when you close the cover—it lingers.

Thank you Atria Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

The concept behind this book is great, and some of the execution was really well done. There are themes of romantic love, familial love, and most importantly in our current times, government overreach and censorship. Where the book fell short for me was in the creation of the “time space.” Maybe it was just me, but I felt as if, rather than creating an alternate world with fixed physical characteristics, the author kept making up rules for that world to fit where she wanted the story to go. I found myself several times asking, “Why can she/he do that?” There was also a major inconsistency having to do with Amelia’s first encounter with Moira.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book could easily be "the next big thing". It feels like a cross between Inception, The Adjustment Bureau, and The Ministry of Time. It really does a good job of capturing the WW2 to Cold War era paranoia of not knowing who you can trust. Characters are forced to make hard decisions between protecting their loved ones or doing what is right. Always there is the possibility of traitors and leaks looming overhead. It's also a story of love, and growth, and finding your way back to each other after time and life have changed you. Plus, time travel and libraries!

What worked really well in this book is the connection you feel to the characters. They are distinct personalities which grow and evolve over time. The concept of changing and erasing memories to influence historical events is really intriguing. I think the author did a great job easing the reader into this, so it didn't feel overwhelming or like an info dump at the beginning, but also the complexities kept presenting themselves more and more as you continued the book.

There were a few things in my opinion which could have been improved on. The book occasionally hinted at its relevance to modern-day censorship, book banning, and inaccuracy issues, but they were just passing phrases said by side characters and then not thoroughly explored. There was a missed opportunity to include the American Civil Rights Movement in this, as the erasure of the true history of the African American experience was mentioned in one sentence and then never addressed again. The other thing that could have been improved on was the time jumps. Most new chapters jump to a different time frame, and after a while that got very hard to keep track of. It made the book more suspenseful to be non-chronological, but it also felt a bit jumbled while reading.

Overall, this is a worthy read for anyone who likes time-travel, espionage, and romance all wrapped up into one. It would make a great mini-series on tv and really have time to explore some subplots of history more in depth.

Wow. This one started out a bit slow for me. Not in a bad way; just slow. Around the 40% mark I thought I had it all figured out but I was wrong. This is a love story and such a poignant one at that. Ernest, Amelia and Lisavet are all such amazing characters and their struggles, frustrations and joys are written so beautifully.

I can see the relation to The Midnight Library and The Ministry of Time (and even a little Quantum Leap) but this one just has more heart and looks more at the sacrifices we make for those we love. By the last 40% of the book, I couldn’t put it down because my heart kept getting broken and reformed again and again.

This is a debut novel—Holy cow. The writing was so good, and I am honestly super grateful I had the chance to read it. I just couldn't put this one down. The whole idea was really interesting— timekeepers, and hello a gigantic library filled with books of memories? Yes please. It took a bit to get into but once you are in, you are in it for the long run. I will be pinning a forget-me-nots on all my clothing after reading this.

The book follows four characters— Livaset, Ernest, Amelia, and Moira. Each of them playing a crucial role in this story. Livaset found herself stuck within the Time Space for years. Ernest is a CIA agent who falls helplessly in love with Lisavet. Then there is Amelia grieving the loss of her uncle Ernest, who had vanished and declared dead. And finally, Moira, who is tasked of watching over Amelia and trying to recruit her for their cause. Beyond the characters, there is also another meaning in this book as it digs into the importance of preserving history—no matter how much the government might want to rewrite it to fit their own narrative.

Thank you Netgalley & Atria Books for the opportunity to read and review this arc.

Super interesting story and character connections delving into the ideas of memories, time, and family. 4.5 stars

Story: 5 Characters: 4 Engagement: 5
Recco: yes

"Living was not the most dangerous thing after all.
Loving was."

Highlights
- Cerebral thought provoking read
- Loved the sci-fi ness of this version of the world
- Very intriguing turns which surprised me and were satisfying
- Felt the strong emotions and internal conflicts
- Not too heavy on historical fiction which isn't my thing--just touches on some earlier on
- 25% in both character storylines are tied together so didn't have to wait til the end to find out
- Some fantastic quotes (many below)

Midlights:
- Complex, mind bending concept can't say I fully understood it all
- Felt kind of like 2 different books: time travelling and establishing the concept at first then morphed into romance
- Wanted more from 2 characters meeting later in the book

Lowlights
- With the time hopping, couldn't keep track of what order things happened in too well.

Quotes I liked
"Time is the axis on which the world spins."

"You are in the space between the past and present.
Everywhere and nowhere at all. This is the place where Time ends."

"Memories are the realest thing any of us have,"

"There is more evil in the world than you've been yet made aware of.""

"She was still processing, caught somewhere between denial and belief."

"It's safer in the past. Everything is already over."

"She wondered what it must be like to see things as they really were, and not reflected in the memory of someone else."

"Lisavet set off in search of other memories of love. And she found them."

"She wanted to be looked at. Seen by someone who wasn't a memory."

"It wasn't death she feared most, but rather the thought of dying without ever having known what it was to be in love."

"A memory, once it's over, is never exactly what it was when it was happening. Whatever comes later changes the meaning of it."

"It all could vanish in a heartbeat, everything we've ever held dear slipping right through our fingers."

This book is incredible. Please please read it. Pre-order it!

A tale between two times in history. A father protecting his child and making a difficult choice. A mother's love and how far it will go. Found family. Found love in every timeline. The power of ideas and doing the right thing.

I loved this story. I will be thinking about it for a very long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC.

<b>An immersive debut!</b>

I'll include a bit of an overview, but <i>The Book of Lost Hours</i> is an intricate story, and if you're interested my advice would be to read the full synopsis. The writing here is excellent with an intelligent plot and characters that are developed. I felt as though I was getting to know them on a deeper level through their actions which is always my favorite.

Welcome to the time space. It holds a vast collection of books containing the memories of the deceased throughout history. It was once only accessible by time keepers who passed the special watches that grant access down from father to son. However, now most of these watches are in the hands of various governments and they burn certain books to rid the world of those memories. Everyone wants to control the narrative. In 1938, Lisavet Levy is placed inside the time space by her father who was a watchmaker in a desperate attempt to save her life. He promises to follow along with her brother, but Lisavet soon finds herself alone in the time space at a mere eleven-years-old. The only contact she has with the outside world is through the books of memories that transport her to places in the past. In 1965, Amelia Duquesne is trying to come to terms with her beloved uncle's disappearance when she's approached to help locate a book of memories her uncle was searching for.

The main weakness in an otherwise wonderful story is uneven pacing. I enjoyed the dual timeline that comes together as one. There are a lot of threads, and the author joins them building a cohesive story. The strong themes of motherhood and selflessness that is woven throughout gave the story a sense of depth. I thought many of these characters displayed bravery in the face of difficult decisions. The last 25% of the novel was unputdownable.

Recommended for fans of <i>Midnight Library</i> and <i>The Ministry of Time.</i>

Thank you to Atria Books for providing an ARC via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for giving me access to this story as part of camp NetGalley.

What do you get when you mix The Midnight Library with Addie LaRue and The Book of Doors.. this book.
The book of lost hours felt like an amalgamation of many other stories that came before it… fitting for a book about memories and time. I’m not sure if you’d classify this as magical realism, historical fiction or romance which is why I think I’m struggling to put my feelings into words. I will say, this book pulled me in so quickly I nearly missed my train stop, multiple times. The story did slow down at points so it felt like it dragged a bit and I was shocked that what I thought would be the climax was just 60% through the book.

I loved the way the story caused me to think about time, and memories. I appreciated the love story that played out I just feel like this book could have soared more without as much focus on the romance. After reading the authors bio and notes I understood the story’s connection to poetry more and can see the poetry of the words in this book. I thought it was going to be quite different than it turned out but as a whole, I enjoyed this one.

The Book of Lost Hours is a fantasy novel that suffers from clunky storytelling, a vaguely contrived magic system, and insubstantial setting. It has a tremendously sad start, and honestly at no point is it especially uplifting either. Comparisons to The Ministry of Time are well drawn. Like that book, there is a ton of cigarette smoking, an increasingly unlikeable main character, and no part of it that I actually enjoyed reading. Roughly half the book is set in Boston, yet it could have easily been interchanged with any place in the world, city or suburban, with zero difference. The choice of Boston felt entirely arbitrary. Further, the library of time (referred to often as just the time space) is non-descript aside from the ceiling. I cannot go much further to explain what I disliked about this book without getting spoilery, so I will leave it at the woman Lisavet grows up to be is not one I want to root for.
TW: SA
Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC. I am genuinely disappointed by my experience.
#campnetgalley

This book totally reads like a cinematic TV or film story. The setting is so darn atmospheric, in a way it reminded me of House of Leaves with how vast and void-like the time space felt.

All the characters, especially Lisavet Levy and Amelia Duquesne, has a distinct voice and feel. Lisavet’s quiet strength and Amelia’s confusion and curiosity carried me through the decades of this book. You really see how life shapes them, and changes them.

The reason I removed one star is because the story hops between timelines and POVs—a clever structure, but it sorta lags in the beginning. Getting used to the setup took time, so it doesn’t catch attention right away. But hang in there, the pace picks up big time in the second half. Everything clicks in the final chapters. The threads tie together, emotions land, and you're left satisfied, not dangling. No unresolved drama, just a thoughtful, well-wrapped finish.

I would highly recommend this book to people that love a book set in our world, but it also contains a speculative, metaphorical twist.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for a copy in exchange for an honest review!

The Book of Lost Hours is the magical story of a watchmaker’s daughter’s journey through time. Lisavet finds herself trapped in time and spends years saving people’s memories from those that wish to erase history. Her journey turns terrifying when timemakers realize she is working against them and it set off a string of events that could endanger all of history.

For the lovers of The Unmaking of June Farrow - this could be for you! This book was both magical and frustrating. I want to both shake Lisavet and hug her.The plot twists were perfectly laid out. And although time hopping books can sometimes get confusing (and the ending wasn’t exactly as I’d hoped) I enjoyed the ride very much!

4.75 stars. What a creative premise and gripping plot. I tore through this book in one evening. This book introduces us to the "time space" where all of human memory is stored, managed by human "timekeepers" who have special watches to access it. We follow multiple characters over the non-linear narrative, including Lisavet, a German Jewish girl trapped in the time space the night of Kristallnacht; Ernest, an American soldier and timekeeper sent to manage the memories; Moira, Director of the American Government's timekeeper organization; and Amelia, a teenage girl who is thrust into a world she doesn't understand. The non-linear narrative works very well to keep the reader on their toes, trying to anticipate what comes next. Some reveals were a little obvious while others were very shocking.

This book explores deep themes of memory, history, and censorship. Memory itself can be fallible; we cannot always trust what someone remembers, and it is important to remember that. History is malleable and is shaped, as the characters often remind us, by either the victors or those with power. Censorship is rampant and does its best to eradicate ideas--but is not always successful. Through masterful use of the wartime backdrops of WW2 and the Cold War, the author leaves a lingering question: are some ideas worth eradicating? Or should we endeavor to preserve them all?

The only place this book felt slightly flat to me were the characters. I loved each of them but would have liked to see more growth for them over the plot. By the end, I couldn't quite tell what each of them had learned or how they had grown and, most importantly, why. There also were a few plot points that seemed a bit glossed over, like one character who had immense power and could have gotten out of a sticky situation multiple times but didn't. The rationale for why they didn't was a quick aside that didn't make sense to me. But these are very minor; the plot and premise of this book is more than strong enough to cover any other area of minor weakness.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this as an ARC!

When advance praise for a book compares it to “The Time Traveler’s Wife”, “The Night Circus”, “The Ministry of Time”, and “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue,” of course I’m immediately intrigued.

The “time-space” is a mystical parallel world library of memories of major historical events, “a place hidden in the folds of Time”. Eleven year old Lisavet Levy, who lives in 1938 Nuremberg, is taken to it by her father, a Jewish clockmaker, as an attempt to hide her from Kristallnacht.

In 1965 Boston, fifteen year old Amelia Duquesne, already an orphan, has recently had her beloved guardian/Uncle, who worked for the State Department, murdered, supposedly because he was a Russian spy or traitor (it’s the height of the US vs Communism). A mysterious woman, Moira, visits Amelia at his gravesite and explains something fantastical.

This is a story that has deep theories about the concept of Time, as something that can be manipulated (“what can be counted can be mastered”). Specially trained “timekeepers” with magical watches can access the time-space that guards the memories of the dead, and now some evil timekeepers are accessing it to wipe out historical events and cautionary stories, like a publicist doing cleanup of internet scandals. After all, the doomsday saying of “those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it,” isn’t as painful when you don’t realize your foolishness.

At its essence, this is a time travel novel (with an embedded tragic romance) — a genre that can be messy since every author gets to create the rules of moving from present to past and back again. But Gelfuso does follow the laws she creates and the reader can eventually follow her time-walking logic.

“The Book of Lost Hours” is richly imagined, but a tad predictable, in terms of the characters’ relationships. Time travel is always confusing, but added bewilderment is about who is on whose side, like spy vs spy in the Cold War (the WWII Germans are clearer cut). There is the glimmer of current events as well — hopefully, we, too, won’t be manipulated to forget the past. It’s an engaging story all the way to the last page — since events can turn by the second once a memory is lost or restored, the ending can’t be predicted.

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO Only Lisavet’s caramel brown eyes are mentioned.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO The forget-me-not plays a significant role.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

This was such an engaging read. A great concept and good characters. I would definitely recommend. I don't want to say too much because what I loved so much about it was discovering things along the way.

3.5 ⭐️ Rounding to 4
Thank you, Atria Books
& NetGalley for my gifted advanced book copy 💕

The captivating summary immediately drew me in, and the beginning held my attention.

We are thrust into the tragic life journal of a 12-year-old girl named Lisavet Levy. We follow her journey and her growth in a unique world where memories of both the living and the dead intertwine. The beautiful writing transported me into the memories alongside Lisavet, making it an immersive experience.

Initially, I found Lisavet’s character endearing. However, by the midpoint of the story, her actions gradually made me dislike her more and more. It was particularly frustrating and incomprehensible considering that she had lived through history memories and possessed the knowledge of the past, and repeated past mistakes. While I understand that love can cloud judgment, I found her rationality at times puzzling.

The romance aspect of the story was also lacking. The switching timelines made it difficult to convey the romance effectively, resulting in an unbelievable and monotonous narrative.

I can’t delve deeply into the other characters, as they felt somewhat secondary. However, I was quite fond of Azrael.

Furthermore, I noticed certain events that were introduced solely for shock value and lacked any meaningful contribution to the overall plot.

All & all, I enjoyed the unique plot and appreciated the fact that it managed to hold my attention throughout the book. The writing style was my cup of tea, and it was hard to believe that this was the debut novel of the author. I can’t wait to read more of her works in the future.

I would recommend this story to anyone who enjoys:
Multiple timelines
Historical romance
Time Keepers
Multiple POVs
Secrets & betrayal
Secret identities
Corrupted agencies
Pregnancy

All my reviews are my own opinion.