An interesting premise isn't enough to save this book from flat characters and an anti-climatic ending. While I am often happy to read books with unlikable narrators, the main character in this is too often grating and utterly unsympathetic. Paired with a one-dimensional supporting cast (including a perfectly saintly and wise dead girlfriend) there's not much to grab onto here. There's an intriguing enough plot going on, but in the end it all seems very rushed and unsatisfying.

Recently I have been reading a Non-Fic masterpiece on Space, Time, Relativity and the whole nine-yards, When Einstein Walked with Godel. So, it was with more than a touch of amusement and curiosity that I began reading this novel about a place that is playing with time and where time travel is possible and then - as expected - something goes wrong.

The book has so much energy packed into its pages that I was actually reading much faster than I normally would, and yet the story was still - literally - moving out of the pages and leaping into my mind, dancing in front of my eyes! Which actually is amazing, considering how little context you as a reader are given as soon as the book starts. You land in the middle of a battle zone, and never stop running. Reminded me somewhat of the start of Saving Private Ryan - where even before you can land on the beach, you must escape flying bullets from all sides just to stay alive long enough to touch land, and then do the same escaping all over again, just much closer to the sources of those bullets!

January Cole, the first person narrator of the novel is a character that will doggedly walk through thick-and-thin with you, as you discover what's happening, why, who're responsible and how to stop it. The energy is effervescent and contagious, and at times I could feel the tingling on my skin as Cole makes her way around the hotel floors doing her job.

There are some very interesting real-world possible applications of theoretical physics time concepts that have been teased in the book, and looking back at what Einstein had demonstrated to be the model of a "block universe" that's been referenced in the book, it single-handedly, IMHO, raised this book up a notch in my estimation. Sure there's some clever literary liberties taken, but there's enough grounding those wild theories that any casual or serious reader won't find many chinks in this armor.

There's still more going on in the book - there's workplace politics, there's the implicit and explicit abuse of the general public by both the Government and the ultra-wealthy, there's a surprisingly deep dive into grief, and finally there are some Buddhist philosophical ideas that help the story move ahead at key junctures.

All in all, an extremely fun, clever, fast and satisfying read!

My thanks for Netgalley, Random House and the author for an eARC of the book.

Now you need to pay a lot of attention as there is a large cast of characters to keep straight, but it is great that the characters are so inclusive even including AI. I really like January and her no holds barred attitude. You get to experience how time travel to past events might work while trying to figure out who is erasing data and attempting to kill.

I’m not sure that this is for everyone, but I liked the quirky premise and the overlapping genres

This is a locked room murder mystery with a significant difference. There is time travel involved, so hotel detective January Cole can't be sure where the clues are coming from. At the beginning of the story she is already Unstuck in time as a result of prior time travel. She keeps seeing her dead lover Mina, an addictive series of past events she cannot admit to, or do without. But then she starts seeing things from the future, and the central one is a murdered corpse that no one else can see (including her AI Ruby). This becomes the focus of the narrative, although when she solves it near the end it is only a prelude to a much larger problem.

In the meantime, there is plenty to keep her occupied. Scheduled time travel has been temporarily suspended, so the hotel is filled with frustrated, entitled travelers. On top of that, preparations continue for a conference that will determine the future ownership of the hotel, adding rich and powerful people to the mix. The three dinosaurs that show up are the first sign that something has gone terribly wrong with time, and the chaos just increases from there. January must solve the mystery to protect the timeline itself.

Fascinating concept, featuring lots of interesting characters. Very exciting conclusion (and a lovely final coda), but before that the pacing felt a little off.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance reader's copy.

3.5 stars rounded down due to the difficulty in keeping track of who/where/when in the book

The Paradox Hotel is where the ultra-wealthy go to wait for their planned excursions into the past, and January Cole is the head of security at the hotel. Things are going well until her "slips" start happening more and more often, and she sees things that nobody else can see. On top of all that, the government is taking bids to privatize the technology that makes time-travel possible, and the trillionaire bidders descend upon the hotel just as a blizzard rolls in, complicating January's attempts to figure out exactly what is going on.

This is the first book I have read by this author, and it won't be the last. It requires the reader's attention to keep track of what is going on, so it's not an easy book to come back to if you've put it down for a bit. Many of the characters seem a bit stereotypical, but that made it easier for me to remember who was who and which group of people they belonged with. As conflicted as she was, I liked January and her struggles to come to terms with her past while at the same time doing her present-day job to the best of her ability. I correctly guessed the identity of the primary troublemaker in the story, and it was good to see them get their comeuppance.

January Cole, despite slowly losing her grip on reality, refuses to give up her security job at the Paradox Hotel. The U.S. Government currently runs the Paradox Hotel, which allows the wealthy to time travel to past eras, and it's about to become privatized. As the wealthy and elite guests arrive to place their bids the hotel begins to experience glitches in security, a dead body only January can see, and the hotel clock running backwards...all pointing to someone trying to sabotage the summit.

The Paradox Hotel is a fast-paced, time-travel, murder mystery that will leave you on the edge of your seat. Rob Hart may be a new to me author but I will definitely be adding his novels to my TBR list. January Cole's character is unique in that she is head of security at the hotel but has an advanced case of a disease (known as being "unstuck"), in which she experiences slips in time, taking her mind to both past and future events. She has to distinguish between slip and reality before events harm guests or get her killed. She refuses to give up her job because the Paradox is the only place she still experiences slips in which see can communicate with "the ghost" of her ex-girlfriend. January's interactions with the other employees of the Paradox showcase a diverse, charming, yet eccentric semblance of a family unit. I wasn't sure what to expect with this novel but I enjoyed it more than I could have imagined. There are several twists and turns which become even more intricate due to the time travel aspect making this novel hard to put down...a must read for 2022!

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine for an ARC of this title.

This was the kind of popcorn-y sci-fi I like to read that does a good job of explaining the rules of its world while also plunging you right into the middle of the action. It's maybe a little shaggy in parts, but that kind of fits in with its main character being slightly "unstuck" in the timestream.

The Paradox Hotel is a strange place. It is a place people go to travel in time and see different events in history. With that comes some different challenges for head of Security, January Cole. People are people and they try to sometimes bring things back with them they shouldn’t. Like raptor eggs because who doesn’t want a little souvenir from their trip. But strange things are happening at the Paradox right now. Clocks sometimes goes backwards, ghosts or afterimages are seen in the halls and the coffee carafe never has coffee in it when January wants some. All the weirdness started when the four buyers for the hotel showed up to bid on it. That is when January found the dead body that isn’t really dead yet.

This is a strange book. I really liked a lot of the concepts in it. January used to be like a time cop going up and down the timestream making sure no one tries to change history. But because she did tha,t now she is unstuck, meaning sometimes she sees moments from the past or the near future like they are happening right now. This is how we learn about the love she lost and why we also know there will be or already has been a murder. I found a lot of this book pretty interesting in general but sometimes difficult to follow in a few places because of the time shuffle stuff.

January is sometimes a hard character to like as she tries to push away anyone who is nice to her. She lost the love of her life at that hotel and now the people who care the most for her are the ones she is trying to make a little bit miserable. Still the timeslip stuff and why it is happening at the hotel is extremely interesting and the who-dun-it and why was a good story. I found the ending fitting to a standalone story.

This is my second Rob Hart novel and won't be my last.  Hart writes near future tales with strong protagonists and doesn't flinch at pointing out the mistakes being made in our world.  This book's January reminded me a lot of Hugh Howey's Jules in Wool.  I loved the inclusion of art, literature, and religion to tell the story.  Highly suggested to fans of Andy Weir and those who like understandable sci-fi.  This is hard science fiction, with a heart and a family of lovable supporting characters.

‘The Paradox Hotel’ by Rob Hart follows January Cole, a detective unstuck in time. That means she can see glimpses of both the future and past, both of which she’ll need to solve the murder mystery going on at the Paradox hotel, the hub of modern-day time travel, on the day its sale. Is a conspiracy afoot?

From the first scene, the story grips your attention by disorienting you, inviting you to, like our protagonist, figure out what’s real and what’s just a vision. It’s a story that reveals itself to you, peeling back layer by layer of its world and asking you to lean forward and engage with it.

And the world itself is magnificently unique and filled with detail and imagination. Paradox Hotel is beautifully envisioned, with its own set of history and world-building, and the concept of time travel in this world, and the way it works, is unlike any other I’ve read about.

The protagonist, January Cole, is sassy, sarcastic and has a bite. She’s filled with personality, and her responses can be so scathing that you can’t help but laugh and root for her. She’s also a badass, and she’s astute and good at her job, which makes her fun to watch in action. Her drone buddy ‘Ruby’, and the dynamic they have together, is my favorite one in the book.

The story is abundant with theme, mainly about grief, and it’s where the story shines best. Because while it could’ve simply been a detective murder mystery, the idea of loss and how it relates to time and the human identity elevates the story to some of its most emotional moments and breathes dimensionality to its protagonist. I enjoyed the facets of the story that just dealt with the character’s psyche even more than the moments where we chase the mystery.

The Story is filled with plot twists and mystery upon mystery, giving the novel significant momentum and ensuring it doesn’t stagnate during the second act.

The downside to this plot-heavy story is that it can be very confusing to follow at times, and I found many of the twists not to be as well set up as they could’ve been so that when the pay-off came, I would try to think back to all the clues leading me to the answer and find that there weren’t many. This made some of the answers less rewarding and was my biggest complaint about the book.

The supporting characters could’ve also been more interesting, as it does feel like a story written around January rather than a rich and diverse world that she occupies.

I would give this book a 4/5 rating.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review!

A mystery wrapped into a story about a time traveling hotel with ghosts and dinosaurs on the loose and a sarcasticly sassy protagonist. The Paradox Hotel is full of non-stop adventure and humor. Rob Hart has a unique way of bringing characters with edge to his stories that you can't help but root for. This was such an enjoyable read. It is not what I expected. I was hoping for more of the time travel elements to take over the story somehow but nonetheless I still enjoyed every moment of this story.

Rob Hart is definitely becoming an author I'm on the look out for. The Warehouse was just as well written and entertaining as The Paradox Hotel. I highly recommend both of these excellent books.

I want to thank Rob Hart, Random House Publishing, Ballentine Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A very original and unusual story involving time travel and unraveling a mystery.

The Paradox Hotel is the stopover destination for the ultra rich who intend to time travel via Einstein Intercentury Timeport to particular historical places. The reason for their choices of where to visit are as individual as they are and accompanied by may different motivations. The rules are that nothing can be changed and people are only able to go into the past.

January Cole is head of security at The Paradox and has recently become aware that she is becoming Unstuck — she’s experiencing ripples in the time paradigm — and is aware that her supervisors and the staff are noticing. And, what a bad time for this to happen. Apparently the time travel complex has come into hard times and is up on the auction block. Four billionaires have come to bid on the enterprise and that is when things start to deteriorate.

Not an expert in physics or really understanding the whole concept presented here, but I felt that there was so much more that could have been done with this idea. January was a very complex character, and not easy to like. Her pet drone, Ruby, was very entertaining and the interaction between the two of them was the most authentic in this large cast. At times a bit confusing, the narrative keeps the reader on their toes as the action and events spiral out of control. Science fiction is always a challenge as we ponder the big question — what if?

I enjoyed this one but honestly had hoped to experience some actual time travel but most of the novel took place within the hotel as we watch January attempt to get things handled while she decompensates. I definitely will be interested to read what other reviewers have to say about it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for this e-book ARC to read and review.

I loved this book! This is a sci-fi book that revolves around time travel but also contains elements of many genres: locked room murder mystery, political thriller, LBGTQ+ romance, a haunted house/hidden room caper, a book about books, espionage and skullduggery, a cautionary tale, an AI buddy story... Something for everyone!

The Paradox Hotel caters to the ultra wealthy and is conveniently located near the Einstein Intercentury Timeport. January, a former federal agent for the Time Enforcement Agency, is the head of security for the hotel. She will be running point for the upcoming summit. The US government will be selling Einstein and Paradox to 1 of 4 billionaires bidding on the properties, each with their own reasons for wanting to own exclusive access to time travel. This would be a challenge for anyone on a good day but January is dealing with the effects of becoming unstuck in time, cancelled "flights" from Einstein, a massive snow storm and some very entitled and dangerous guests. January is also dealing with immense grief as she struggles with trusting her eyes and understanding the flashes of past, present and future. With shifting alliances she leans on Ruby, her constant drone companion but can Ruby keep her secrets?

Thank you to NetGalley for the uncorrected proof. I enjoyed Rob Hart's Warehouse and was excited to read this book as well.

Well, this one is different! I am a great lover of time travel fiction and jumped at the chance to read Rob Hart's latest novel which takes place about 50 years in the future. The US government now runs a time travel program for wealthy vacationers who want to go back in time to experience history first hand. One cardinal rule though is to respect the time line. Nothing about the past can be changed--so no going back with plans to stop Hitler, for instance. That would disrupt the time/space continuum and would be very bad.

Flights leave from the Einstein Intercentury Timeport but on the day this story opens, all flights are being cancelled due to some issues with the system and travelers are needing to be booked into the adjoining Paradox Hotel. With a big snowstorm rolling in, no one is going anywhere, even if they just wanted to go home. The hotel lobby and check-in desk are a scene of utter chaos with all these wealthy and self-important travelers demanding THE best accommodations possible (DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM??!!)

The hotel is already quite busy because it is hosting an important summit between the government and four billionaires. It seems the time travel program has been running in the red (think the post office) so the powers that be, represented by the insufferable Senator Drucker, are hoping to privatize the business with the proviso that they still remain in control of rules and operations. So these people are also arriving with their entourages.

January Cole, the unreliable narrator of the story, is currently head of hotel security. She is tough, irreverent, rude, and quite testy. She's worked for the company for several years and is suffering from a certain degradation of her brain caused by too frequent trips into the timestream for her job. She doesn't mind though when she slips back to be with her deceased lover, Mena, but it's starting to interfere with her job when she blanks out.

Allyn Danbridge, a Time Enforcement Agent, is on scene to help with this big summit and he's hoping to convince Jan to retire. He's brought along a young agent named Nik Moreau, who just might be her replacement.

Some readers might be put off by having an unreliable narrator who experiences time out of sequence and may even be hallucinating at times. But I advise these readers to hang in there--the ending brings some answers and ties the plot together nicely. So when are you booking your trip? Remember: 'The majesty of life can be found only in the present moment.'

Lewis Carol's book Through the Looking Glass and Georges Seurat's painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte both have roles to play in this story. Next time you are in Chicago, make a point of visiting the Art Museum to see that painting in person. It's worth the trip. And ask yourself, What are the people in the painting all looking at?

I received an arc of this new novel from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks for the opportunity.

This book packs a lot into the pages with a diverse character group, addressing issues we see today, and even a little bit of a mystery thrown in to boot.

This book is not one that you will sail through because of the complexity of the plot and the vast amount of characters. However, it is well worth the read especially if you like science fiction and fantasy rolled into one.

January Cole is a whipsmart character that isn't afraid to tell it like it is. Accompanied by a robot/drone that helps keep her in check, these two make the story quite fascinating. They play off of each other and the snarky comments add levity to the situations at hand. January does have an advantage, or perhaps disadvantage, as an Unstuck person. She can see snippets of things to come which aids her in doing her job and what to look for, but at the same time, it hinders her because of the prejudice from those around her.

This story delves into time travel and what it might be like to travel back in time to a historic event and watch it live. Granted, the TEA has to watch out for those that might be trying to alter history or profit for themselves. There is a scene where 3 dinosaurs are caught running around the hotel and the story of how they arrived in the present only adds to the mystery of what is going on at the hotel.

As I mentioned, the characters are diverse and range from LGBTQ+, nonbinary (which is still hard for me to get used to They/Them and not expect it to refer to a group of people vs just one), entitled wealthy individuals, and even some down to earth characters. Each adds something to the storyline even as a minor character.

The mystery comes in trying to find out who is erasing video and other data files, who might be trying to kill some of the super-wealthy, and just creating general havoc that keeps January and the rest of the staff on their toes.

I enjoyed the book and while it might not be for everyone, I think many might just enjoy this book. We give it 4 paws up.

Holy cow, wow. I just knew, when I first read the description of this book, it was going to be special. It sounded like the best kind of “Doctor Who” episode, and it absolutely was that, but it was made even better by a heartbreaking love story, a story of found family, sociopolitical and socioeconomic commentary and barbed jabs, and slick espionage.

Let me put it to you this way: this book cost me sleep, and I love my sleep. I need my sleep. But I started this book almost right after dinner this past evening and then stayed up until almost 2:30 am reading it because I couldn’t put the thing down. I even looked at my phone for the time at about 11:00 pm and contemplated going to sleep before I just gave up and knew I wasn’t going to bed until I had finished the book.

Some books are just worth losing some sleep. This is one of those books. The ones worth a quiet evening staying up and turning pages.

The plot is clever, tight, and so dang interesting. It’s hard to make time travel digestible without plot holes a’ plenty, but the plot devices woven into the narrative account for it! That’s some clever writing and I’m not even ashamed to admit it. The main character, January, is probably one of my favorite FMCs I’ve read in a novel so far this year, and her AI sidekick, Ruby, is so freaking sassy it makes me want one. The writing is sharp, witty, and bright. The narrative is crisp and clear. The prose is beautiful. I even cried toward the end and I’m not one to tear up easily.

If you like time travel, queer love stories, time heist stories, and a whole lot of crazy, I can’t recommend this book enough.

Holy cow, wow. I just knew, when I first read the description of this book, it was going to be special. It sounded like the best kind of “Doctor Who” episode, and it absolutely was that, but it was made even better by a heartbreaking love story, a story of found family, sociopolitical and socioeconomic commentary and barbed jabs, and slick espionage.

Let me put it to you this way: this book cost me sleep, and I love my sleep. I need my sleep. But I started this book almost right after dinner this past evening and then stayed up until almost 2:30 am reading it because I couldn’t put the thing down. I even looked at my phone for the time at about 11:00 pm and contemplated going to sleep before I just gave up and knew I wasn’t going to bed until I had finished the book.

Some books are just worth losing some sleep. This is one of those books. The ones worth a quiet evening staying up and turning pages.

The plot is clever, tight, and so dang interesting. It’s hard to make time travel digestible without plot holes a’ plenty, but the plot devices woven into the narrative account for it! That’s some clever writing and I’m not even ashamed to admit it. The main character, January, is probably one of my favorite FMCs I’ve read in a novel so far this year, and her AI sidekick, Ruby, is so freaking sassy it makes me want one. The writing is sharp, witty, and bright. The narrative is crisp and clear. The prose is beautiful. I even cried toward the end and I’m not one to tear up easily.

If you like time travel, queer love stories, time heist stories, and a whole lot of crazy, I can’t recommend this book enough.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review!

"The Paradox Hotel" is a strange yet interesting book. January Cole is a Time Enforcement Agent (TEA) and head of security at the Paradox Hotel, which is located near the Einstein Intercentury Timeport. This book envisions a world where scientists have figured out the mystery of time travel, allowing people to travel back in time to see events, such as famous battles, or places, like ancient Egypt, that otherwise they could only learn about. Traveling into the future is not possible and traveling into your own past (seeing your younger self) is not allowed (as it can prove fatal). You are also not allowed to alter the past. The main role of TEA agents is to stop people who try to break the rules. However, spending too much time in the timestream, an occupational hazard for some TEA agents, can cause the person to become "unstuck" -- they start experiencing "shifts" where they temporarily go backward or forward in time. Being "unstuck" has three stages, with the third stage essentially leading to death. January is probably in the second stage, but she is doing her best to hide this knowledge from everyone, insisting she is still in the first stage, because she does not want to leave the Paradox Hotel, and her personal ghost, Mena.

The Paradox Hotel and Einstein Intercentury Timeport are owned by the US government but are losing money, so a summit is planned soon with the high-profile bidders who want to buy the property and take it private. The summit was supposed to occur in a week, but it has been abruptly brought forward to tomorrow due to protests about the possible sale of the property to a private buyer. The timing could not be worse, as anomalies at Einstein have caused numerous "flights" to be cancelled, leaving lots of stranded unhappy travelers at the hotel; a snowstorm is coming, which will make it harder for people to leave; someone has managed to sneak baby velociraptors through the timestream, which then become loose in the hotel; and January sees in a dead body in a hotel room that no one can see. The arrival of the bidders and their entourages add to the chaos, especially as someone seems to be trying to harm or kill the bidders. Also, more strange anomalies start occurring at the hotel, with signs that the timestream may be failing. January has to figure out what is happening and why, which involves uncovering secrets about the hotel. Her task is made much harder by her prickly personality (she tends to act like a jerk towards most people, including staff at the hotel who want to her friend) and the problems caused by being "unstuck."

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

I thought this novel had a really cool concept, a hotel where rich guests can time travel. The main character January, who is the head of security at the Paradox, was a tough cookie on the outside and a mess on the inside. I feel like this story delt more with January’s grief and hangups than it did with the really cool aspects of the hotel. She definitely damaged or “unstuck” from frequent time traveling, which causes her to see things that aren’t happening in the present, like a dead body, for instance. But the plot was just all over the place and I couldn’t really get a handle on it.

As a time travel lover, I felt like the hotel itself really wasn’t explored enough or explained to my satisfaction. I would have loved to seen the author delve more into the actual time travel.

I have to give this book points for originality, but it just didn’t come together for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read this arc.

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart is not my usual genre of book, but I really loved the premise, and I was not disappointed. The storyline is a bit complex and hard to follow at times. There are so many characters but many of them have personalities and quirks that make them so relatable. Time travel is an interesting concept, and it was handled well. Many other themes were thrown in – political commentary, grief over losing oneself, friendship, and even social status. All of these human elements made for a difficult book a little easier to read.

***** I received an ARC from NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my honest review. *****

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Paradox Hotel is unlike any other. So close to the government-run Time Travel Tourist station, that is not surprising. But when ghosts start appearing... and dead bodies only she can see, January, the head of security, starts worrying.

Especially as a number of trillionaires descend on the Paradox to bid on the entire time travel complex. January thinks that just beating them is the answer, but she soon realizes that the problems plaguing the hotel may be too much even for her to fix.

A beautiful story of love and family told thru a rough and tumble wisecracking heroine, this story will worm its way into your heart before you know it!