Back when I was a teenager and Jeff Bezos, much less Amazon, wasn't even a gleam in his mother's eye, science fiction was my favorite genre. Dogeared paperbacks by Bradbury, Orwell and Heinlein were all over the house (who could afford hardbacks)? This book, coming to me in the form of a prerelease review copy - thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley - brings back much of that early interest in time wrinkles and such, but with a twist: Even though it's set in 2072, a lot is relevant to today, when Kindles and virtual wallets are taken for granted and billionaires tout cryptocurrency, excursions into outer space and elimination of fossil fuels. In fact, climate change has taken a toll here, obliterating Florida and New Orleans, and there's talk of colonization on other planets. The latter isn't being taken too seriously, even with the prediction of an estimated two generations of life left on earth; instead, guests at the Paradox Hotel enjoy taking trips to long-ago periods using the nearby Timeport. Heck, there's even a shop in the hotel that rents costumes appropriate for the destination.

January Cole used to be a guide on these tours, making sure paying guests follow the rules and don't do anything that could alter something that happens in the future. Now, she's chief of security at the hotel, taken off the job that she loved because she's become an "Unstuck" - the term for a person for whom the present isn't always present. She can see things no one else can, and that's not a good thing; the condition will only get worse, the end stage being an vegetable-like existence until her body gives out. Her big challenge as the story opens is maintaining control over a very important conference; the hotel, owned and managed by the government, is losing money, so the plan is to sell it off. To that end, a group of four trillionaires are gathering to place bids - and not surprisingly, security is a nightmare.

But concurrently, a blizzard is rolling in so time travel bookings, flights and transportation services are shut down; nobody can go anywhere. Worse, January finds a dead man in her room - except no one else can see it, so she's pretty sure he's the victim of a murder that hasn't happened yet. She also sees someone who has died who was once very close to her, but she doesn't dare reveal that lest she be sent away never to see her again. In the midst of all this, clocks start going screwy, electricity flickers, and January's drone, Ruby, gets flustered from time to time (pun intended) for no apparent reason. Something's going very wrong, but no one can, or wants, to believe January because of her shaky mental state. She sets off to investigate, but she can't do it alone so faces still another challenge: Who can she trust when she can't even fully trust herself?

All that said, let the action begin as she fights to keep her job amid a trio of smuggled-in prehistoric critters, fighting among guests who demand only the best accommodations and unsettling visions of the past and future. As I suspected from the beginning, this is a very complex, but thoroughly entertaining, story that's action-packed but requires more than a little concentration to fully comprehend (which, IMHO, is well worth the effort). And if you're like me, strains from "Hotel California" will run through your head almost from the first page. For a big Eagles fan like me, that's not a bad thing, but for others, forewarned is forearmed. And to this very talented author, thanks for rekindling an old passion.

A fun sci-fi book about time travel and memory. It isn't a happy book, but it's so interesting, and the heroine is brave and sarcastic. If you like time travel, you'll probably like this. In this book, time travel is possible and rich people can travel around time for a hefty fee. The MC used to be an agent who worked to prevent them from doing things like smuggling antiquities. Unfortunately, the side-affect of time travel in this book is that the traveler can become unmoored in time. They'll be going about their business and suddenly they are reliving a memory. It would be safer for our MC, January, to leave the Paradox Hotel, where she's the head of security. She needs to be removed from time travel (ambient radiation or something like that) to prevent her condition worsening, but she has an emotional attachment to the place. (This is a big plot point so no details). At the same time that January is facing the deterioration of her health, the government is in the process of selling the hotel and the time travel station nearby, and some trillionaires have come to start bidding. It all hits the fan and January is sure that she's the only one who can figure out what's going on. It reminded me of The Psychology of Time Travel. It isn't similar in tone, but that book also imagines the effect that frequent time travel would have on a person, and it also has a mystery. I liked the mystery element as January tries to figure out if anyone is sabotaging the sale, and if so, who. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes time travel stories.

This book was clever, fast-paced and just so much fun. The story was innovative and intriguing with a captivating cast of characters, especially the main character January. She was great! I really enjoyed the various sides of her personality.

This combination of time travel, murder, family, the uber-rich, and a snarky main character was a real treat.

I went into this book so excited by the premise. "A locked-room murder mystery set at a hotel for time travelers—in which a detective must solve an impossible crime even as her own sanity crumbles." I mean, are you kidding me?! That sounds amazing.

The story centers around January Cole who runs security at the Paradox Hotel, an establishment for the extremely wealthy to be able to time-travel to the past. The plot takes off when January discovers a body in one of the hotel rooms that only she can see.

Within the first 5% I had a strong feeling this book wouldn't be to my liking, but I trudged on because if I am reviewing a novel I feel compelled to read it in its entirety before passing judgement. The opening hits all the major modern points: trans, non-binary, and queer rep, a sarcastic dislike of nearly every white person brought onto the page, and a deep hatred and stereotypical portrayal of the rich. I’m over it. I just can’t stand it anymore. There is absolutely no nuance whatsoever, when there could have been room for some very interesting conversations about wealth and access to technology. But the above criticisms aren’t my reasons for not enjoying the book overall.

So, here are some things, in particular, I really didn’t like:

Characters: About halfway through I started feeling like there were too many characters. Many of them did not have memorable descriptions and I quickly forgot their job titles or reasons for being at the hotel. Oh, and of course, our main character is a complete ball-buster whose defining personality trait is to be a straight-up dick to everyone she meets (even people she supposedly likes). Is this the only way to write a strong female character? Tough exterior but deep down all her bitchiness stems from past trauma, fear of rejection, and utter loneliness? It was very hard to root for her sometimes, which is not a good thing when you’re reading in first person.

Plot: For a book that was described as a locked-room murder mystery, I felt like very little time was spent actually investigating the murder. As the reader, I was expecting to be rooting through suspects among hotel patrons and staff and searching for a motive for the killing. But, none of that really comes together? Maybe this is an issue with the given synopsis, and not the book itself.

The ending just did not feel cohesive enough for me. For a relatively short book with quite a few plot points and characters, the explanation at the end felt glossed over and was practically explained in one paragraph (no, I’m not kidding). At the end of each chapter some new disaster would arise in the hotel and in the subsequent pages it just felt like that newest problem was absorbed into the overall muddy feeling this plot had. I never had an aha! moment where everything clicked in my brain and I could look back and connect the dots myself.

To end on a positive note though, the reason this book is getting two stars instead of one is that I genuinely enjoyed the author’s writing style. I enjoyed his fast-paced and quippy prose. I also think he has a knack for writing action scenes. I could picture fight scenes in my head perfectly, which doesn’t happen for me often in books. And because of that, I think this novel could lend itself really easily to the big screen.

Sad this one didn’t work out for me, because I really wanted to love it. But ultimately, a hard pass.

In the not so distant future, you can time travel during your vacation at the Paradox Hotel, if you’re wealthy enough that is. But what starts as an epic adventure for the 1%, quickly devolves into chaos, as the hotel, and the reality of time travel begins to unravel, leaving guests in mortal danger. Enter January, hotel head of security, who must somehow find a way to keep these people safe across the dimensions of time. A brilliant, sarcastic and enthralling read about the dangers of “having it all”

The Paradox Hotel is the latest sci-fi story by Rob Hart. I really enjoyed this story. Mr Hart gives an interesting take on time travel. I especially enjoyed January, his main character who tells us most of the story. January has a wise cracking mouth which I found myself laughing out loud about more than once. I want to thank NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an early copy to review.

The Paradox Hotel is a locked-room murder mystery set at a hotel for time travelers.

It's the future and time travel is possible, for the wealthy. The government run facility, and control of time travel technology is up for sale, because time travel is expensive, and the cost of operation is higher than the profits. Four of the most elite people in the world are brought together to place their bids. However the hotel quickly descends into chaos. Time is skipping and attempts have been made on the lives of the four guests. January is head of security, and dealing with problems of her own. She is Unstuck, which means her exposure to the timeline has effected her ability to perceive time, and sometimes slips into past or future moments. When she sees a man murdered, that no one else can see, her job gets a whole lot harder.

The premise of this is what got me interested and who doesn't love time travel? But time travel can be extremely hard to pull off, and I have to say that Rob Hart absolutely nailed it! This was intense, heart pounding and faced paced. I couldn't put this down. The characters are unforgettable, especially January. She was such a compelling character to follow. She is, shall we say, quite a prickly person and is constantly pushing people away with her bad attitude. But once you learn the reason why, you can't help but feel for her.

The plot and overall storytelling was immaculate, and I strongly connected to the themes in this book. Love, loneliness, grief, facing the ghosts of your past, both literally and metaphorically. The strong sense of love, friendship and found family among the hotel staff was incredible to see.
I will say that there were times the plot could be a little hard to follow because of the way January experiences time. And January is a character you will either love or hate.

Oh and the dinosaurs. Loved the dinosaurs! This had so many moving parts that all managed to come together in a truly beautiful way. This story is one that i know will stick with me for quite some time. Loved it!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

A time traveling hotel from the future? Yes please. This book describes an impossible circumstance and an impossible murder. It’s a perfect murder mystery for somebody who loves solving them. Highly recommend!

I love me a good ol' speculative fiction novel. Rob Hart's The Paradox Hotel was just the kind of book I was looking for to fill the void both Blake Crouch and Andy Weir left in me with their own spec-fic books. The Paradox Hotel centers around January Cole, a cynical time enforcement agent tasked with running security on an upcoming summit. This summit is a bidding war between 4 potential bidders on the hotel to take it from the public domain into the private sector. While all of that is happening, there are several moments of utter chaos that prevent January from doing her job. Without going into too much detail on the book, I really enjoyed January as a character (I will say that Mena is my favorite character, though). At my current stage in life, I really connected with her negative outlook and how she dealt with all of her problems with humor. It really made her character development that much more impactful for me and, in my opinion, more dynamic.

The whole mystery surrounding the hotel kept me guessing what would happen next for the whole book. I felt like Rob Hart really mastered the plot arcs and tied MOSTLY everything up very well at the end. All in all, I'm going to be rereading this book in the future and I will cry again at the ending.

The Paradox Hotel is a wild ride that part mystery, part thriller, with a side of time travel just to keep things interesting. The main character initially comes off as short, rude, and generally offensive to everyone that she meets, yet the more you read the book the more you understand that it's all just an act to cover up the feeling of loss and grief that she is dealing with, along with the potential of losing her job. At times it can be hard to follow as the author mixes in past events in the middle of the current story but if you push thru you will discover a truly wonderful story.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance copy to read.

I don’t think this is the right book for me. I don’t like being thrown into a story with little background and didn’t have the patience for it. The writing style was good, just wasn’t messing with whatever the storyline is.

Thank you to Yeowen Son from Random House Publishing Group for providing a galley for review.
The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart releases on February 22, 2022.

January Cole and her Alexa-Roomba bot Ruby investigate strange happenings at the Paradox Hotel, where the elite among the elite fulfill their lifelong dreams of time travel. Who brought back the raptor eggs? Who is the phantom dead guy in 527? And which of the four bidders is messing with their surveillance?

Going on a snarky ride as January and her Alexa-Roomba-bot, Ruby, maneuver through the mysteries, and sometimes echoes of the past, reverberations of the future, being Unstuck, and constantly seeing her dead girlfriend.

Could have (should have) been a 4-star, but while January was a thoroughly thought-out character, and the dynamic between her and her flying vacuum-toaster, the remaining characters felt slightly flat. This might be resolved by the time it is released. I really did enjoy this book, though. It was a fun ride.

Snappy 30-40's noir dialogue (January), time travel, mysterious business plottings, blizzard AND dinosaurs...had all of these been more smoothly blended, this novel would have had a higher rating from me. The premise of uber rich time traveling to the past is not an outrageous reach...(think Space X and Virgin space tourism)but the various stories didn't hang together well. Some characters seemed to be after thoughts until they were needed to move the plot forward. Would definitely not recommend as a first foray into this genre.

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart follows January Cole, the head of security at a hotel for time travelers. January is exceptional at thwarting security threats, but she is also experiencing a condition called being 'unstuck' from her previous days as a Time Enforcement Agent. This means her perception of events is altered, and her timeline can get mixed up meaning memories from the past and future events can suddenly feel as if they are the present. When she finds a dead body in one of the hotel rooms and realizes it is a future premonition, she tries to investigate the crime before it happens in order to thwart the murder.

Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, this book didn't work for me. I honestly could not be more disappointed. This was on my most anticipated releases of 2022 list, but I ended up DNF'ing at 43%.

My biggest issue was really the main character. I just couldn't connect with her and honestly found her a bit annoying and immature. Granted, I understand she is dealing with grief and perhaps some other trauma and this is how it is manifesting, but it seemed over the top to the point where she is downright mean to even the people she calls her friends and has zero qualms about being rude in her professional life to customers and other employees. Honestly, if I ever acted like she does at work, I would've been fired ages ago.

While the character is meant to be this rough around the edges woman, I found some of the descriptors used off-color at best and some to be downright problematic. At one point a woman is described as a "bottle blonde in red f***-me pumps." There's no reason for this, and in fact, the woman at that moment is in a bit of trouble in need of help. Wearing pumps does not mean you're looking for sex.

Further, there were some very thinly veiled political statements that just seemed unnecessary and took me out of the story, especially since many were referring to current events of the early 2020's and the story is meant to be taking place years in the future.

Similarly, while there was a wide range of representation in the story, it was so over the top that I felt it almost trivialized it at some parts. It felt like "see here's a nonbinary character", "see here's a Black character", "see here's a lesbian." And, to me, some of the descriptions of these characters seemed to play into stereotypes of these groups. I am not of the LGBTQ+ or BIPOC community so take my opinion here with a grain of salt.

On top of these things, I found I was getting confused easily. Maybe that is partially the point of the story since January is "unstuck" and is dealing with figuring out what's real and what's not for her. So, perhaps you are meant to be confused, but by 43% I realized I didn't really know what was going on, and I didn't really care about the characters or the story so that made my decision to DNF.

I did enjoy the relationship between January and her AI robot Ruby. I actually chuckled at some of those interactions and appreciated that relationship.

I understand the time and effort it takes to write a book and feel awful giving a poor review. However, there is a book for everyone, and I'm sure others will love this one. It just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Ballentine Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The synopsis of this book sounded intriguing to me so I requested a copy to read.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during this 2nd attempt, I have
decided to stop reading this book
and state that this book just wasn't for me.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart is a clever, fast-paced mashup of mystery, crime, intrigue, and time travel.

Welcome to the Paradox Hotel! All destinations throughout time are yours to explore. See the first performance of Hamlet, walk like an Egyptian and see the pyramids being built, or fulfill your prehistoric safari dreams and visit the Triassic. Just don't think about smuggling any dinosaur eggs back with you.

The hotel, currently under government care, is losing money by the trillions. So now, trillionaires by the handful are arriving to purchase the hotel and the Einstein facility where the "flights" back in time take place.

January Cole is a former TEA agent, now head of security at the hotel. She has become unstuck, a disease where your sense of time gets so out of whack and fries your brain, and can no longer police the time flow as she once did, stopping Hitler fanboys or confiscating smuggled goods. January should get as far away from the time port as possible, which is just accelerating her disease. But, grief at the loss of her girlfriend keeps her in the hotel, hoping for time slips of her mind to give her visions and time with the woman she loved.

As the mega-rich assemble, a corpse that doesn't decay shows that only January can see, and time ghosts start trying to off the trillionaires one by one. January can sense something is off, but her unreliable disease, and a touch of espionage, belittle her position. Time within the hotel starts to become unstuck itself, and January tries desperately to piece together clues, lest all of time unravels itself.

Rob Hart has created a wonderful intermixing of genres. The mystery/crime aspect of the story is complex and original. Combining it with the science fiction universe of time travel is a clever juxtaposition to current events, where our own millionaires are all on a race into luxury space travel.

A touch of philosophy weaves its way into The Paradox Hotel. Ideas such as finding nirvana, or more simply, coming to terms with the trauma of one's past, are peppered throughout. The subject matter gives depth to the characters. There are also concepts of the found family versus the one we are born with and the power of letting go.

The pace slows down and gets a tad groggy while January finds her own kind of enlightenment. Where it had elsewhere been a fast read, it gets a little long-winded at the end, but that doesn't detract from the overall quirkiness, mystery, sarcastic characters in The Paradox Hotel.

*3.5 rounded to 4*

A book with time travel, ghosts, hallucinations, and dinosaurs requires some suspension of disbelief, obviously. Just hold on for the ride! I really enjoyed the mix of themes of science fiction/fantasy with mystery and gut wrenching literature fiction. Though I was frustrated with our main detective January Cole because she was so stubbornly rude to just about everyone, you also feel for her as you come to learn of her pain and dealing (not so well) with grief. January is experiencing what we come to know as a "slip", an image or clip of an event in time that is not really happening in the present. These slips would sometimes happen so randomly in the book, it would jolt you out of the narrative and it took a minute to get back into what was happening. It made for a confusing read. I did like the mystery element to the book, finding out the final villain was quite a surprise! When I got to the end of the book I couldn't help but think that if I was rich enough to be visiting the Paradox Hotel and could return to any point in the past, where would I chose to go?

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Maybe The Paradox Hotel is a great book. It was not a great book for me to read right now, two years into a pandemic. I had trouble keeping the characters and the overlapping timelines straight. Main character January is one of those people the author keeps telling you is a terrible person, but you can see that she’s not. I’m sure the author is making Pointed Observations but I didn’t get most of them. (I think some of them have to do with comparing the book’s time travel to the climate crisis? Maybe?) (“It’s the people who don’t do any real work who end up hoarding everything.” Um yes, good point, and…?) I’m just too exhausted mentally to put the time and energy into understanding this book. Or maybe it would read just the same to me even if we weren’t in a pandemic.

The Paradox Hotel has some nice passages, some nice characters, and good representation of LGBTQ people. For example, there’s this passage, about January’s friend Allyn, who makes a pass at her one night after work. “When I told him I was gay, I expected the same reaction you get whenever you’re a woman who says you’re into women - you become repulsive or you become a challenge. Allyn just smiled and apologized, and we carried on after that like it never happened.” Yes, let’s normalize the behavior that when a woman rejects a man’s pass, he accepts it and moves on.

But I thought The Paradox Hotel was trying to be clever more than it was being clever. (I mean, the dinosaurs were fun, but I wanted more somehow.) I really wanted to love it, and maybe I’ll reread it some day. Kudos to anyone who read this book and was able to follow what’s happening. I am just left befuddled. I most likely will read whatever Rob Hart writes next, though.

I read an advance reader copy of The Paradox Hotel from Rob Hart from Netgalley.

The Paradox Hotel is a riff on a classic noir grumpy/cynical detective story, that also has queer people, and dinosaurs, and politicians, and characters to root for that are inherently messy and human. Yes, it's a time travel book, and yes, it's a locked room mystery, and yes, it's great.

I could not stop reading this. It definitely falls into the category of "I'm just going to suspend all logic and known science and go all in on this." It's a near-ish future, sapphic novel with time travel and a "Time Enforcement Agency" agent as the main character. I would SO watch this as a movie.