January Cole is having a particularly rough day. The Paradox Hotel, where she runs security, is being inundated with wealthy guests whose “flights” back in time to ancient Egypt, the Triassic Period, the Renaissance and more have been delayed at the timeport next door. They’re demanding suitably upscale accommodations as they wait. On top of that, the government, which has been running the hotel and the timeport, has decided to sell the complex because it’s not been turning a profit. Four trillionaires are now at the hotel, getting ready to bid on the property. Somehow, a few baby dinosaurs are running around, and the cherry on top of it all is that January has found a dead body in one of the guest rooms — but only she can see it.

Underlying the craziness is that January is “Unstuck” — because of the many times she traveled into the past herself to stop people in the present from breaking the time travel rules, her brain is getting unmoored from time. She sees things she’s experienced in the past (in the location they happened, so just in the hotel) as well as some things that are going to happen, whether in five minutes or two hours. Her condition is progressing enough that the medication she takes to alleviate the effects doesn’t work all the time, and she is staring down a near-future where her brain goes to mush. But she is determined to solve the mystery of the murdered man; protect the trillionaires, each of whom is facing death threats, and to help figure out why time is coming unmoored around the whole hotel — and not just for her.

The Paradox Hotel is a pretty cool novel about time travel, with a murder and several other mysteries all mixed together. It’s also quite a bit about love and grief: January stays at her job because it’s the only way for her to have a connection with her dead girlfriend (her time slips give her opportunities to “be with” her again). January is a pretty tough nut to crack; she’s acerbic and mean to everyone, even her friends, and she lets out her pain on others. It’s not a really pleasant narrator to hang out with for a whole book. I was pleasantly surprised, though, at the poignant ending, which made me like the book as a whole more. It made it feel there was a reason for the unpleasantness. I still don't know if I would choose to plow through another book with a similar narrator and often-bitter style, though, if given a heads-up.

The nitty-gritty: A fun mystery with interesting characters and relationships, The Paradox Hotel was full of good ideas but ended up confusing me more than anything.

This was a strange little story, but I ended up really enjoying it after a bit of a rocky start. I thought the book was going to focus more on time travel adventures, but that’s not at all what it’s about. Instead, the story takes place entirely in the Paradox Hotel, which services rich travelers who have booked expensive trips to the past through a time travel hub called the Einstein Intercentury Timeport—kind of like staying at the Disneyland Hotel if you’re spending a long weekend at Disneyland. So, to reiterate: there isn’t really any time travel here, only glimpses of the past seen through the eyes of our main character, January Cole.

January is the house detective-slash-security officer, and she loves her job, which involves keeping track of the many hotel guests, watching out for security breaches and making sure no one breaks the rules of time travel. But January is suffering from a condition known as Unstuck. Before she became head of security, she worked as a timestream agent, accompanying guests on trips back in time. The exposure to time travel messed up her brain, and now she occasionally “slips” into the past, experiencing events and conversations that have already happened. These time slips are becoming more and more frequent, and January is worried that eventually the hotel manager will consider her a liability and will ask her to leave.

But one thing she loves about these slips is that she gets to visit with her dead girlfriend Mena, who was killed in a gas explosion in the hotel’s kitchen. But are those brief moments with Mena simply past memories, or is she actually speaking with Mena’s ghost? January is even more confused when she finds a dead body in one of the hotel rooms—a body only she can see. With her trusty robot assistant Ruby by her side, January decides to investigate. But with the impending sale of the hotel, a fierce winter storm, and increasing time slips into the past, January is having trouble doing her job, especially when it’s hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t.

The overall vibe of The Paradox Hotel is a light, humorous mystery that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I really love Rob Hart’s writing style, and his humor and dialog are so well done. There are some wacky moments in the story, most notably a storyline about three baby dinosaurs that are brought back from a time trip illegally. The dinos end up causing all sorts of havoc in the hotel, attacking guests and running loose through the corridors. The characters are a bit overblown at times, and some of the situations are on the absurd side, but it was all good fun. Even the occasional violent moments didn’t feel very heavy, and I liked the consistent tone throughout.

The story takes place in 2072, so it's plausible that there would be a way to time travel for fun and profit. I loved the idea of the Einstein, a theme park-like business where the rich can go back in time and witness important events throughout history. The travelers even dress up for the particular place and time they're traveling to, and timestream agents accompany them to keep everyone safe. Hart populates his story with quirky hotel employees, each with their own personalities. I especially liked Cameo, a non-binary reservations clerk, and Mbaye, a chef who works in the hotel restaurant.

But there were some negatives for me. Unfortunately, I just didn’t like January at all, and that kept me from completely embracing this story. January is a jerk. She’s rude to everyone she meets, even coworkers she’s known for years. She’s horrible to Ruby, her assistant. At least with Ruby, January feels justified in being rude. It’s only a machine without feelings, right? But my heart wept for poor little Ruby, who did everything January asked it to do and then some. I get it, the love of her life is dead and she can’t move past that. But January’s poor treatment of just about every single character in the story wore on me after a while.

I also found the story to be confusing at times. Not that time travel is easy to understand, but parts of the plot didn’t make much sense to me. For example, if time travel leads to being Unstuck, why is January the only character in the story who suffers from it? Speaking of which, January’s time slips were extremely jarring, and I often lost track of whether we were in the past or the present. Hart jumps in and out of these slips without any warning, and I found myself having to go back and reread pages to figure out where I was in the story. Or maybe that was done deliberately, because January probably didn’t get much warning either. I also found that there were way too many characters to keep track of. In addition to all the hotel employees—and we meet a lot of them—there are the people who are bidding on the hotel, and I’ll admit after a while all their names started to blend together.

But even though I disliked January, I was surprised to discover my favorite element of the story was the relationship between January and Mena. I loved Mena’s ability to see past January’s acerbic personality to the damaged child underneath and actually understand her. Mena was a fascinating character. She seems to pop up just when January needs a pep talk, and because she’s Unstuck, it makes perfect sense to January that she keeps running into past Mena. I also loved the gentle way that Mena is able to coax January into admitting why she is the way she is and why everyone she meets seems to hate her, almost like a therapist. The reason for January’s prickly personality is revealed late in the story, and while I didn’t completely forgive her behavior, at least I was able to finally sympathize with her.

The last twenty percent of the story was fast-paced and exciting, and Hart manages to tie up his many story threads in satisfying and believable ways. The ending surprised me in a good way, and I loved how unexpectedly sweet and emotional it was. The Paradox Hotel might not be perfect, but I’m glad I read it, and I look forward to Rob Hart’s next book.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

This science fiction adventure borrows mystery/thriller elements, exploring a conspiracy that extends outside time. The story starts in a near future world where time travel is controlled and monitored by the US government. It's a source of tourism, but there are set rules to visiting the past so that the timeline isn't altered. Protagonist January was once a law enforcement agent that sussed out criminals trying to bend or break those rules. Her career of moving through the timestream at a high frequency resulted in a condition where she mentally slips through time and will eventually progress to a coma-like state. Benched to run security at the main hotel for time traveling tourists, January is gearing up to host a summit that will finalize the privatization of time travel, auctioned off to one of four self-satisfied trillionaires who each have their own plans for getting their hands on the past.

The elements I loved most in the book were twofold. There's a great cast of queer characters. January's a lesbian, her love interest is a trans woman, and there's a prominent side character who is non-binary. Also, January delivers some really awesome insults, especially hurled at the ultra-wealthy and powerful. I can only aspire to her creativity and wish I had the opportunity and boldness to mimic her in that regard.

Unfortunately, the story didn't grip me to the degree I hope for in the best thrillers. The tension lacked a sense of urgency despite the dinosaurs, assassination attempts, and timey-wimey dangers. Also, the science fiction elements weren't the kind to be fascinating or mind-boggling, but they somehow were still difficult for me to follow in terms of the rules and limitations of time travel for this world. I braced myself each time a new round of explanations was necessary because I didn't get far with them. Finally, there are themes in this story about grief and vulnerability that could have been very powerful. However, I didn't find the story engaged with them on a deep or personal enough level to say something profound or trigger an emotional reaction in me. I think part of the issue was that the characters fell into trope-y roles and stock personalities that prevented me from connecting with them on an empathetic level. In some ways, their actions and emotional trajectories were predictable because they were following a common path.

I don't think this is a book with a bad message or one that I would warn readers away from. It just didn't live up to either of the genres it drew from in my opinion, and I wish the characters were more fully realized. I think readers who enjoy smartass detectives and time travel will enjoy the story if they're content to engage with the tropes at surface level.

At once a dazzlingly time-twisting murder mystery and a story about grief, memory, and what it means to—literally—come face-to-face with our ghosts, The Paradox Hotel is another unforgettable speculative thrill ride from acclaimed author Rob Hart.

This book was so interesting! I have always loved the anything to do with time and time travel. And of course this gave me a West world vibe but with time travel. Instead of robots you actually could pay huge amounts of money to go to a different time period.

January Cole is security for the Paradox Hotel when things go start to go wrong with the timeline and a murder that no one can see.

You have to pay close attention to this one and to the terms of time travel as they are so far into the time stream with different rules than we know.

Thank you randomhouse and netgalley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

Great premise. Unfortunately, one of my least favorite cliches was used throughout the book.

January works at a hotel where wealthy tourists can go back in time. Too much time working there has made her start to see things that have or haven't happened yet. Instead of leaving, as she is supposed to, she stays because Paradox Hotel is the only place where she can see her dead girlfriend.

While some people hate the Stuffed in Fridge trope, I hate The Lost Lenore one. This trope happens when the main character has a dead love interest before the story's start, and the dead love interest is never forgotten throughout the entire story. Because Lenore is dead, she is a saint and, therefore, a flat character.

For the entire book, I kept on hearing about Mena. This character is so flawless and perfect that I don't think she ever had a bad hair day. January would do these stupidest, selfish things to see glimpses of Mena, which made me feel sorry for her coworkers. I understood why Mena is important but was it impossible to show Mena in a bad mood or something? January made her sound pure.

This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided by Netgalley for an honest review.

The Paradox Hotel is a sci-fi thriller about January Cole who is the head of security at a hotel that guests come to to stay at and time travel back in time. It is also a prime location for rich people to visit, since time traveling is quite expensive. If you're at this hotel for too long, or visit the past too many times you become what's called Unstuck. There are three stages and January struggles with being Unstuck through the entire book. She sees things that others cannot see.

The hotel itself feels like its own entity throughout the story. I found it fascinating to learn about the hotel's history and to see how the hotel has changed over time. January also has a drone named Ruby who I adored through the entire book. Their relationship is funny to read about. They are definitely best friends and it is apparent through the book.

During the story, a convention is taking place. This convention brings in four rich people who are bidding to win the hotel. All of them have their own motives as to why they want the hotel, and January cannot stand any of the people or their motives. The rich people also don't care for January either. It is a pretty interesting dynamic because January is a force! She doesn't give a crap about hurting feelings or being "nice" to others. She is just herself, which I really liked!

But, the story was hard to follow at times due to January being Unstuck and seeing scenes that weren't really there. It was chaotic, which I assume was intentionally done. If so, it was done well enough to confuse the crap out of me. I had to go back and re-read several sections. I thought this book was clever and a wild ride from beginning to the end.

I received a free Advanced Reading Copy via NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.

This book had so much potential. It was such an interesting concept and I wish it was executed better. The beginning of the book was very good, I really liked January as a character and her relationship with her boss. I also liked the twist of her finding that guy dead. But then, it just got super weird, there were some things about dinosaurs and it felt like a knock-off Jurassic Park to me. I think this book would have been better if the concept of the paradox hotel was explained better and there was more of an emphasis on finding who the killer is.

Guests at the Paradox Hotel pay a fortune to travel back in time, but head of hotel security January Cole suspects that something is amiss with the timeport...

THE PARADOX HOTEL offers a fresh take on the time travel novel. With its sophisticated plot and large cast of wholly-realized characters, this is a book that requires concentration, but the payoff is huge as all the pieces click into place. Hotel Artemis meets Blake Crouch in this murder mystery/love story/race against time. Speculative thriller fans are sure to enjoy.

There’s a very cinematic quality to this book and it reads like sci do that I have enjoyed though with a new spin. Our MC, January has worked for time travel security for the government and traveled in and out of many different time periods; so much so that her mental state is degrading.

She keeps “skipping” in time which she can’t quite control. She is trying to hide this from her boss in order to stay alive. That is a great premise and throw in a hacked, snarky AI drone and I am here for it. The problem is there are too many characters with too many plot points and problems to keep organized.

I don’t mind an unreliable narrator which January certainly is but I do need to understand what is happening or at least what a character thinks is happening in pivotal scenes. I can’t tell you how this ended or anything about the big bad fight and I don’t know how to make sense of the last of this book.

I wish there was more clarity of what I’m supposed to take away from this and more connections of the plot. 3.5 stars

I was interested in this one when I saw the premise, and am so glad I decided to take a chance on it! I will say this: if you are in it for the time traveling only, you won't really find much of that here. What you will find, though, is an exciting story about the ramifications of time travel, through the eyes of a curmudgeonly but quite sympathetic detective who is feeling those ramifications firsthand, all while trying to save the hotel- and the world- from an utter catastrophe.

January has been a traveler, and it's caused some pretty severe effects on her body and mind. So severe that she's basically on her way out, but she's determined to stay on the job (as a detective at the hotel, rather than a traveler, which would kill her faster) so that she can catch glimpses of her dead partner. It's so heartbreaking, but you also totally feel for her. She doesn't feel like there's anything left for her on the outside, so she's willing to stay until the bitter end.

There is just so much to like here. I will try to note a few things that really pulled me in:

►The characters are fabulous. I loved the gang at the hotel. From January, to her AI (they snark back and forth non-stop and I loved every second), to the other employees who have basically become the closest thing January has to family at this point, I found them all really realistic and flawed but ultimately decent people (you know, except the ones who weren't heh).

►Speaking of characters, there is a ton of character growth. I loved that, seeing as I loved January even when she was acting like an old man yelling "get off my lawn". It was really great though to see how much she grew over the course of the book.

►Mega-rich meet political bigwigs in a power battle? Sounds legit! Obviously, this is exactly how this would go down. Some absolute dolt from congress would be fighting with whatever 2072's TikTok owner is for the rights to be the first douchecanoe in the Mesozoic or whatever. Of course this turns into a pissing contest, and the actual scientific ramifications, needs of the common citizen, and obviously, safety, go right out the window. It is all just so... exhaustingly realistic.

►The humor is fabulous. Over and over in my Kindle, I have highlighted funny passages with just a little "ha!" or whatever- I loved the humor in this book. Small moments that bring some levity to a rough situation- especially when you realize how rough things are for January personally, too.

►Great pacing, and lots of excitement. I just needed to know how it would end! There was a lot of tension, the stakes were sky high, and I could not wait to see how it all played out!

►It was honestly just so heartfelt. Between January's struggles, and some of the things that happened with other characters (purposely being vague, sorry), it just felt like the book had a lot of heart at its core. I love that.

Bottom Line: Loved the concept and the characters, and was hooked from the start!

I don’t usually get too excited about science fiction but was given the opportunity to read this early. This book has a lot of science fiction with time travel concepts in it as well as an intriguing murder to try to solve. This is definitely not a quick read as you need to slow down and figure out where you are in the book but overall it was a book that I enjoyed reading. Looking forward to the next book that Rob puts out!

One day in our world’s future, man will be able to time travel. The source or launching point of that travel will be in one city and the most influential and rich will be the only ones who can afford it. The government regulates the travel and there are many rules to be followed. In addition, there is a place for those travelers to stay before their trips and Rob Hart’s latest novel is centered in this hotel. The problem is, nothing runs smoothly with the time travel and the glitches seem to slide over to the hotel. This novel disappointed me in many ways but in other ways I continue to think about it. I enjoyed that the book was told in first person, and that person is a tough cookie named January who is the security manager at the hotel. She knows her job and she has been working with this group of oddballs for quite a while, but she is a jerk. She is hard to like and makes decisions that aren’t good for her at all. She plows through life with no plan but to figure things out when they hit her. This novel had a great premise that attracted me. However the plot seemed to get lost in the wrong details for my taste. For instance if the time travel can only be afforded by the very rich, why does the hotel seem to be a dump with old carpet and hodgepodge unmodern rooms? There is a lot of detail in the first half of the book to set up many characters, keeping the plot disjointed. There are only small snippets of talk about any time travel other than travel to the recent past. There is a very important place where all of the time time travel takes place, “Einstein”, adjacent to the hotel. Why don’t we hear more about how it works? Why aren’t the travel glitches there and not at the hotel? Such information would be a great prequel to this book. If I am reading about time travel, I want to go back, I want to hear about history. Perhaps I am missing the point, but I felt as if this whole novel had me rushing through the Paradox hotel with blurry goggles on. However I can’t help thinking that it would be better understood as a movie. Thank you to NetGalley for a free ecopy of this book for an honest review.

This a enthralling, and delightful mystery and I enjoyed reading it!!!!!! I usually steer clear of sci fi but I took a chance on this one and I am glad I did. It's nice to go out of your comfort genres every once in a while.

This review is for an ARC copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.
Paradox Hotel is a Sci-Fi/mystery/thriller that is a quick and easily understandable time travel novel. You spend your time following January around as she tries to solve a mystery as she slips in and out of her current timeline.
I enjoyed this novel a lot. The ending could've been a little longer but the epilogue helped cure some of that for me. I have and will continue to recommend people to read this one.

Long time fan, enjoyed his previous book, so I was very happy to receive a review copy. As a mood reader, it took me a moment to get into the book. However, it had nothing to do with how yhe book was written. I had to get into the right head space. However, once I was able to get into the story?!? Honneeeyyy ..... let me tell you I had a ball! Once I tried to STOP figuring out what was going on and sit back and enjoy reading? The story was enjoyable, had me on edge, and I had a wonderful time. I've already recommended this book to several people who I KNOW will enjoy the story! I don't rate many books 4 and above, but this was so good, I had to be fair to the author! Even though we're still in the earlier part of the year, I believe this story can be part of my favorite books for 2022. Congratulations to the author and I look forward to continuing to read his writings. A special thanks to netgalley for allowing me to review this book.

Rob Hart’s The Paradox Hotel takes place in the jumping off point for time travel to the past. Tours go to many different times of interest in human history. Quantum time travel is monitored by the time enforcement agency, which tries to ensure that our own time line is not impacted by the time travelers. But there are glitches if you travel back too many times, and there is only one spot on earth where the technology works – the Paradox Hotel. Now with some murders to be solved, and a bidding war from billionaires for some special trips, it has become a very dangerous place. Worth a read.

I love the premise of this book. How fun would it be to travel to different times to watch the first viewing of "Hamlet" and other fun events? However, I had a hard time connecting and staying focused on the story. It may have been me, it may have been because the storyline was a little confusing and it may have been because the story was a little too drawn out and too repetitive for me.

For some reason it drives me crazy when stories repeat the same part over and over again. I get it, she is struggling with the loss of her girlfriend, but that cannot be brought up constantly.

Also, the cliche manager threatening to pull their badge/role and then downgrading them to a desk position drives me crazy too. So I'm guessing the problem is more me than the book.

Thanks Netgalley and publisher for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

A Time Travel Mystery

January Cole, the chief security officer at the Paradox Hotel, is having health issues related to all the time travel she’s done. She’s starting to get Unstuck experiencing periods of fading out that soon will be permanent. The solution is to get away from the time machine, but that’s not an option for January because being where she is gives her an occasional glimpse of her lost love.

The hotel is also experiencing problems. It’s an ultra luxurious place where the uber-rich come to relax and experience time travel. However, the machinery isn’t working properly, and it’s getting expensive to run, so the government has decided to privatize it. A senator is there with the wealthy bidders to hold an auction to decide the hotel’s fate. However, accidents start to happen and in addition there’s a body in room 526 that comes and goes and only January can see.

This is a book with a lot going on. In addition to the murder mystery, there’s political commentary and the personal story of January. Personally, I thought January’s story was the most compelling part of the novel. The book can be hard to follow. There are a great many characters and the science fiction character of the descriptions can be difficult to grasp immediately.

The book is interesting, but definitely an acquired taste. If you’re into time travel, this may work for you.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart is a trippy science fiction about time travel and how it can easily spiral out of control. Science Fiction Noir is the genre I would classify The Paradox Hotel under. In simplest terms is a murder mystery, but to make things more complex it is a murder that hasn't taken place yet, and is trapped in time. This book is Inception meets Primer an independent time travel movie. This book cleverly looks at time travel and imagines it like space travel is currently going. The US developed NASA for space exploration in the 1960's and now billionaires are privatizing space travel. The Paradox Hotel takes this approach with time travel, and has individuals that want to privatize it and break all the rules. The overall story is great and really clever, the execution of the story was a little bit muddled and all over the place. The pacing is good and for the most part kept my interest. The finale wraps up some but not all of my questions. The Paradox Hotel will make your head hurt at all the back and forth in time, which might throw off some readers but the end of the book most of it makes sense. This book has the strongest LGTBQIA+ characters our main character is a lesbian, January, the femme fatale is trans Mena, and supporting character, Cameo, they're non-binary. This book cares about it's pronouns and representation. I read The Paradox Hotel early thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books. The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart is published on February 22 2022.

The Plot Summary: January work security for the government run Paradox Hotel. The Hotel is a gateway for time travelers to go back to the past. There are rules for time travelers to not alter any thing, January has had to intervene with a person that was going to warn hitler of his death, and another wanted to warn the passengers of the Titanic about the iceberg. January is good at her job but she is one of the unstuck, which is a disease of too much time travel but it allows her to briefly see the future. January takes pills to slow this process. January starts training a new recruit, that could be her replacement. The hotel is gearing up, to be sold to one out of 4 billionaires. But before the building can get sold time starts jumping around and like January the whole hotel becomes unstuck in time. January finds a body that only she can see it. the body is unstuck, January fights against time to find out the killer.

What I Liked: I really liked the disease of being unstuck, I thought that was really clever. I liked the overall plot even though I had problems with how it played out it was a fantastic idea. I like the LGTBQIA+ characters because there background was used to further develop their individual character and did not have anything to do with the plot or a plot twist. I liked the twist at the end I predicted one aspect earl on but there was layers to it. I loved the brief moments of the characters in the past the World War II and Titanic scenes were good but too short.

What I Disliked: That the actual time travel scenes were so short. The plot would have so many starts and stops in momentum. I liked the Mena but it took a little too long for her to serve a purpose. I thought the ending and what exactly happened could have been explained in the epilogue.

Recommendation: For the most part I liked this book and the statement it made about privatizing. Fans of Inception will love the head trippy aspect of the plot. I rated The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart 4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you for the opportunity to read The Paradox Hotel; unfortunately, this book was just not for me and I did not finish it. Because of this, I will not be leaving any reviews on retail websites as I would not be able to give a fair assessment.