I reviewed a sample copy and was lucky enough to be given a full copy from the publisher to review afterwards.

The story follows four pioneers of time travel. The original four friends/pioneers develop a time travel machine. Barbara has a manic episode after several trials and is excluded from the group. The story is multi faceted and has a diverse array of characters.

I really enjoyed following Bea and a Ruby and discovering what happens to all involved. The back and forth through time kept me in my toes and I double checked the dates and years from time to time to ensure I understood what was happening.

The ending was unusual as I didn’t realise it was the ending until I’d read through all the psychometric tests at the end of the book. I felt a little disappointed with this as it felt like there could have been an epilogue to complete the story.

All in all it was a good read and I devoured it in a few days. I just wish the ending was more established.

This a gripping and original novel. It’s interwoven timelines and characters are brilliantly laid out. A wonderful timey-wimey mystery book.

Not usually the kind of book I would choice to read, mostly due to the more sci fi concept of the time travel, but once you become used to the different time lines the book is a fantastic novel, the merging of time travel, love and murder mystery works brilliantly. Devoured the book in one sitting!

This was a good book! about female scientists, time travel and a murder mystery!
would recommend 4/5 stars!

I was extremely excited to be given permission by Head of Zeus to review the full ARC after reading the sampler via NetGalley - partly because the idea of having to wait until August to find out what happens was not nice at all. I was hooked after the first two chapters!

How author Kate Mascarenhas worked out the storyline without her brain just giving up is beyond me, and one day I would very much like to ask how Ms Mascarenhas came up with the idea and the solution without becoming hopelessly confused with paradoxes and other complications arising from time travel being a 'reality'. And yet, the time travel set out in this book makes so much more sense than the 'Back to the Future' franchise ever did.

Without spoiling anything for future readers, one example is the matter-of-fact way the characters approach time. If a time traveller goes into the past, knowing the present state of events means they can use a process of elimination to 'know' what will happen in the past they are currently in. So effectively, one cannot ever truly change the past, as the past has already happened and determined the outcome of the present - and the time traveller already knows the present as that is what they have come from (or at least witnessed). That's just one example that makes my brain go into a spin, but Ms Mascarenhas nailed right on the head!

Readers need not be worried that there will be heavy explanations of time travel and science to wade through, however. The characters explain elements throughout the story, and most of it is relatively easy to understand. I also found the psychology tests in the back of the book interesting and useful after reading about them in the main story. It added an aspect of realism to the story.

And how fantastic it is to discover a book with strong female leads! Most of the characters are quite well fleshed-out as well. I found myself getting mad at Margaret, for example, because her character was multi-dimensional and not flat on the page. It's not common to find a science fiction work that seems so real, much less regarding time travel!

My only criticism is that, from Chapter 38, the tone of the book changed from a naturally flowing story to jumping between listing facts and listing dialogue. It was rather distracting, and disappointing as the rest of the book had flowed nicely, albeit quickly.

One edit could be made (Location 1506 in the ebook) - a name is dropped about 2 pages too early. Fortunately it’s not crucial, but as I was enjoying all the suspense in the book it made me feel a little disappointed as it was a spoiler. Hopefully this gets fixed up in the final published version.

Aside from those two minor hiccups, The Psychology of Time Travel was a fantastic read and one I am looking forward to permanently having on my physical bookshelf come August! And I am possibly already gushing about it to every reader I meet...

(Review also published on GoodReads)