The Paradox Hotel kept me guessing, and surprised me more than once - something that is not easily done. Rob Hart built a world much different than we know and made me feel at home with relatable characters and vivid descriptions. The story is entertaining while revealing the worst - and best - of human nature, and the cost of tampering with things best left alone. Well done, and highly recommended!

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for an advanced copy of this novel on love grief and time travel.

Science fiction truly works when the human element, no matter if surrounded by aliens, quantum computers, space armadas, is not forgotten, nor downplayed. In The Paradox Hotel, Rob Hart has made a great and exciting story complete with political dystopian, class warfare and dinosaurs, with characters who are both lost and dealing with a grief that unmoors them, as much as the time travel they find themselves surrounded by.

A few days after tomorrow the United States has invested heavily in a form of tourism that involves a luxury hotel to house time travellers, who journey back to the past to see momentous events, or just be tourists. The costs are astronomical, so the decision has been made to auction the place off to the highest bidder, and high stakes meeting that coincides with a blizzard cutting the hotel off from the outside and messing with the ability to time travel. And a murderer, whose victim only one security officer can see, January Cole, who has numerous problems, one being that she has the disease of being Unstuck, a time malady that makes her doubt herself, her environment, her time, and anyone around her.

The idea is interesting and like the plot unfolds gradually, not in one large dump of information. The science is kept easy to follow, most of the people accept time travel, and its risks, causing an entire police force to be started just to stop messing with the past. The supporting characters are all interesting with plenty of backstory, and grow and change as the story continues. The lead January Cole, is very engaging, and very real, who not only grows, but grows on the reader. Cole is a damaged character in every way, including being Unstuck in time. Her complications grow clearer as the story goes on.

Make time for this one. The story is one worth reading and reading carefully. Clues to both the story and characters are there, a phrase or an image spotted by one might take on a larger context later. Time itself can't be trusted, so why should the characters. A very rewarding story, with themes on love, grief, and how we deal with these things ourselves and with others. I have not read anything else by Mr. Hart, something that I will have to change. A very well plotted story with a tremendous amount of heart.

The Paradox Hotel is a competently written time travel noir story, and while it has plenty of neat ideas and time wimey shenangians, it also never really sank its claws into me the way Rob Hart's previous novel, The Warehouse, did.

I had trouble keeping the large cast of shallowly defined characters straight, and oftentimes felt like I was just reading a jumble of names rather than reading about various, interesting, conflicting personalities. Too often I caught myself reading a passage only to mentally wonder, "Wait, who was that again? Is he one of the trillionaires or a TEA [Time Enforcement Agency] agent? Or does he work at the hotel? I can't keep track of all these people..." The story itself felt bloated, the pacing sluggish, which made putting the book down too easy and picking it back up laborious. And when the ending finally came, it proved to be disappointingly anticlimactic, and was then cheapened even further with exposition to tell us what happened, rather than show us.

It's a shame, as I quite liked The Warehouse, as well as his foodie crime story collection, Take-Out. I just couldn't connect with this one...perhaps I was expecting something along the lines of a Blake Crouch book, which operates at an entirely different level and is probably an unfair expectation. And this sure as hell ain't a Blake Crouch book, that's for damn sure. I don't know, maybe it was just the wrong book at the wrong time and I wasn't in the proper mood or frame of mind to dig into this one. I'm eager to see what Hart comes up with next though.

I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher.

I had read the Ash McKenna series and really enjoyed it but wasn't sure how the foray into sci fi would go. I'm also not the biggest fan of non-linear stories as a rule.

I was surprised how much I liked this one given then above. I think this might be one of the first books I've read that really used the "moving time" well in the story, which makes sense because it's a mystery and the "time slips" are critical part of it!

January Cole is the main character and she's prickly and interesting. The cast of characters are very engaging, I would read a whole story about Cameo if that was an option. I like how the mystery is solved but the ending of the mystery story is a bit ambiguous and I loved the final chapter and scenes. All in all, for me this was an enjoyable and fun diversion.

This novel involves an investigation and subsequent fallout set within a busy time-travel destination hotel. The author bravely ventures to capture and put into play the old adage “If only these walls could talk.”

Ambitiously and with a unique blend of elements—stylistic flavors somewhat reminiscent of The Matrix, The Time Machine, The Sixth Sense, and dare I say The Shining—this book brings a story filled with science fiction, mystery, love, and the philosophical quandaries of human existentialism.

I did not always enjoy the narrative, but the overall storyline and diverse characters were quite interesting and the messages woven within still resonate.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Ballantine—Penguin—Random House for an advanced copy of The Paradox Hotel for my unbiased evaluation.  3.5 stars

This is a sci-fi mystery set in a hotel for time travel tourism. The concept is really cool and I had a lot of fun reading it.

You follow the perspective of the protagonist, January, who works as an agent for the hotel. She is investigating some suspicious activity and possible crime. It's also important to note that she has some psychological trauma caused by personal losses and too much exposure to time travel. This makes her a little bit of an unreliable narrator because she experiences a lot of flashbacks and glimpses of future events. There are lots of secondary characters, mainly January's coworkers and some guests at the hotel.

This core of this story is a mystery about a unsolved death, but it has a lot more going on. There are conflicts about the complications of time travel, business deals, and interpersonal issues. It's twisty and at times hard to follow.
I'd recommend this book to fans of sci-fi thrillers, especially those who like time travel.

Overall, I had some minor issues with pacing and plot but enjoyed my experience reading this. I would definitely check out more by the author.
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC to read and review!

The Paradox Hotel is a challenging book to review. I sort of enjoyed it, but... I was eager to read the climax, but...

It might be helpful to set your expectations a bit. Do not go into this expecting sci-fi or time travel. They're there, but only in a superficial way. This book is a psychological thriller based on Eastern mysticism and in-your-face sexual political correctness. If you go into it with that expectation you won't be disappointed.

I found myself hoping for the redemption of the anti-hero, yet frustrated by her (gee, I sure hope that's the right pronoun) insistence on being a royal pain to everyone. The story was a bit hard to follow at times, but that's an expected part of psychological thrillers and helps keep the right mood. There were a couple of really good surprises about characters. If you're a fan of Eastern mysticism you'll like the ending. If not...

The author has a great way with words, and I would love to see Hart's talents in other contexts. This one, though, just didn't resonate with me like I think Hart can.

(Full disclosure: I received an advance copy at no charge for review purposes.)

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart is an original blend of Sci-fi and mystery.  It is a fast paced and thrilling read.  January Cole is a bitingly sarcastic time travel cop turned head of security.  Set in a time travel hotel our main protagonist and her robot companion have to keep on top of hotel security amidst strange goings on, dinosaur escapes and assassination attempts. Full of political maneuverings, time travel related mysteries this story gets you hooked.  This book has a cast of lovable and diverse characters and has a great deal of warmth and heart. I felt like it represented LGBTQ issues well and was touched by the exploration of grief throughout.  I would highly recommend this book.

When I first noticed this book, I was drawn to the time travel element and that it was based in the nearer future. The premise of the book was quite interesting, however the main character was just completely unlikable for most of the book. There were many moments with her bot assistant Ruby that I enjoyed, but otherwise I found her to be overly nasty to those she worked with and just completely insufferable in her demeanor. It was near impossible to understand the Unstuck scenario that she was struck down with and how this affected her. She was experiencing montages of the past and a body that only she could see. The characters were really hard to follow because other than the manager I could not really understand the scope of their responsibility in relation to the hotel and January. I really wish that the author would have stuck with one storyline and brought more character development and humor into the novel. This element worked extremely well for him. I would have liked to see more of the interplay between the past travels and what these would entail. It just seemed that the hotel was full of no one really doing anything and in a hurry. This just fell flat. Overall, I found a lot of promise in this book but a failure in the delivery with many of the elements. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

Reader be warned. If you decide to snag Rob Hart’s latest book, “The Paradox Hotel” you have to pay attention. Like, really pay attention. Quit honestly I haven’t read a sci-fi thriller where you didn’t have to pay attention but I’m just throwing it out there to anyone thinking you’re going to skim through this one or be hopping in and out of it and not get lost. I definitely had to reread certain portions or double back to make sure I was fully grasping everything going on—and there is A LOT going on. This is complex book. I’m still not sure my mind totally grasped all the concepts, but it was a dynamite rabbit hole to fall down, action packed, and thrilling with an underlying commentary on social classes and privilege.

Hart’s picture of time travel, how it worked and being “unstuck” immediately intrigued me. He does a great job of explaining his concepts and the future he created (and dumbing it down for a reader like myself). There is just a lot going on in the book and I think sometimes I was slightly overwhelmed. I had to really focus to keep up with January’s “slips” and deciding what was or wasn’t current reality, as well as grasp the whole notion of time travel presented. That alone was enough of a stretch for my brain, but then there was a locked-room murder mystery, rogue dinosaurs and a tragic love story mixed into it all and sometimes it was a bit too much. Our anti-hero, January, is incredibly flawed and while we can understand why to a certain extent, she was still fairly unlikable. I think if we had more of her background from childhood we could be more forgiving but she was a tough one to warm up to. This was fast paced, fascinating and Hart definitely kept you guessing up until the end—in a how the heck is this mess of events going to tie together sort of way. I wish we would’ve had a little more time with the ending scenes but the epilogue gives us some much needed closure.

I was so hyped for this one! I’m not huge into this genre, but sometimes I get lucky and find a hidden gem! This was one of them! The concept of time travel is so cool and this story takes a unique twist on it.

January Cole is the head of security for the elegant Paradox Hotel. At the Paradox Hotel the mega rich are given the opportunity to time travel. Sounds pretty cool. The timestream starts acting strange, a with a blizzard rolling in, the hotel to goes into a sort of lockdown.

To add fuel to the fire, there is a murderer running around and only January can see the dead body. The past and present collide as January starts to question her sanity.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4.8/5 stars
This book was great for so many reasons, definitely recommend if you are interested in a scifi standalone that has a time detective!

The book starts out with our main character, January Cole she is an agent of the TEA(time enforcement agency). She works at the Paradox Hotel, where the government schedules trips for filthy rich people the ability to go back in time. She ensures no one tries to mess with the past, smugglers, zealots or otherwise. January is getting ready for the Summit, an auction for the hotel itself. All of the guests at the Paradox are insanely rich but the people bidding for the hotel are on a whole other level. And with all that money and rivalry under one roof already means trouble but even more of an issue is the way time seems to be acting within the hotel.

I really loved the classic noir detective with a twist that we got in January Cole's character. She's badass but isn't perfect, she has trauma and repressed feelings that she struggles with that causes tension with others. The banter that goes on with her and her A.I. sidekick Ruby is fantastic! Also her relationship with Mena is precious! This was a fun fast paced read and I definitely recommend checking it out!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC!
This book was recommended to me as a fan of THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS, and at a surface level, some of the comparisons are apt. There's a sapphic main relationship, and twisty dimensions, as well as an organization that breaks through what we know.
Unlike Cara's world(s), January's job isn't one that only a certain few can do. Like Cara, her job is poisoning her, but January needs to stick around it-- it's the only chance she'd ever see her dead girlfriend again. January's sense of time is extremely distorted-- sometimes she's in the future, sometimes the past. The future can be altered around, the past hurts.

It certainly was twisty-- a good book to read while there's enough time and concentration, and I did enjoy seeing January face herself, her actions, and others. She's not particularly a kind person, and this is made eminently clear in her responses to her coworkers. She's hurting, grieving, a wound that refuses to scab over in hopes (and fear) of the healing. As January falls deeper into her mind, out of time, and uncertainties, the feeling of being watched, of not being able to judge reality deepens.

Buddhist koans and Buddhism also play a significant role in this book, but I am too ignorant to know about the accuracy of their portrayal.

In this episode, I went on a wild mind-bending adventure from one of the more surprising books in a while…
Friends, friends, friends.

Welcome back to Teatime Reading where there are books in progress.

When I received an email from a marketing person at Random House describing The Paradox Hotel as a book I might enjoy, I was intrigued. I had reviewed another mind-bending adventure called Rabbits a few months ago and that had been a wild ride.

If the publisher was comparing The Paradox Hotel to that book, I was in.

I’m very glad that I read it, because it was even more wild and intense. The main protagonist January Cole truly lived on the razor-edge of sanity and madness and I was fascinated by the world that had invented time-travel, only to reserve it for the ultra-rich.

This book felt futuristic yet very pertinent to our present, where wealth dictates all. The politics of this world felt eerily familiar while feeling just slightly off, if that makes sense.

January Cole made this book much more emotional than I expected and her struggles made this book more than just a fascinating adventure with a complex and challenging plot. She added a desperately welcome heartbeat to this mystery thriller.

It isn’t a perfect book. I wish that I’d experienced some of the climax of this story on the page rather than as a recap after the fact. The plot is very complicated and the logic of time-travel took a while to understand. These complexities made the mystery slightly overwrought, but that is my personal take here

Despite those quibbles, this world felt vivid and real, the characters were compelling, and I enjoyed the political commentary. I’m curious to see if there are more stories in this world.

The Paradox Hotel is a great way to start my 2022 slate, and I’m looking forward to everyone getting to read it when it comes out in mid-February.

Until next time, keep your bookmarks close.

Peace, Love, Pages.

A unique and appealing take on time travel and how humans would interact with it. The characters are entertaining and the protagonist is immediately accessible to inhabit. The story line is completely unpredictable and makes this very much a page turner. Unfortunately, the ending doesn't leave much room for a sequel, so this appears to be a standalone volume. This is a world that would have been very interesting to continue exploring with the same characters in subsequent volumes.

Suppose you were the head of security at a major hotel. Now suppose the hotel was part of a time travel resort. Suppose further that four trillionaires were about to submit bids to buy the complex. Keep supposing - strange things keep happening that only you can see, you keep encountering the image of your dead girlfriend, there are dead bodies in rooms that are not supposed to exist. Oh, just one more thing, the hotel is haunted. Welcome to the Wonderful World of January Cole. And, as if all this weren't enough, January's mind is slowly coming apart and her bosses all want her to leave.
This book was a bit surreal but I actually liked it. There are plenty of subplots to keep the reader's interest and I just plain like the character of January Cole. She was able to maintain her sense of duty and right despite all her challenges. Plus she has a touch of snarkiness that amused me. If she was a real person, I'd seek her out for a friend.
I will read more from this author if his other work is anything like this one.

I have always enjoyed the concept of time travel and the implementation of it in various forms of media. The Paradox Hotel does a wonderful job of presenting time travel in a new manner with a diverse cast of characters. Intrigue, romance, action, intelligence,...all of them are present and make the novel a book worth reading.

A great page turner in the covid era... a great escape for an afternoon, a day at the beach, a vacation or plane read to divert ones thoughts from everyday life.

Ahoy there me mateys!  This book lured me in with its promise of a closed room (erm hotel) murder mystery in the year 2072.  This hotel is for rich guests who time travel but time has begun behaving strangely.  And only one person can see the dead body - January Cole.  Can she solve the murder? Or better yet stop it from happening?  This should have been a recipe for love.  Instead, I sadly got an abandoned ship at 58%.

To be fair, I loved the set up and the beginning of the novel.  I really enjoyed the idea of time slipping and how January dealt with it.  Her grief was palpable and I did sympathize with her.  I loved her AI.  The main issue with this book is that I just got too confused.  As the book progressed I wasn't sure what was happening in terms of the mystery or subplot of the rich investors.  The reader is also left in the dark about January's hunches about what might be going on.  So this book slowly became less appealing and I struggled to pick it back up.  After the fifth attempt to read to the end, I gave up.

This book ended up not to me taste but I seem to be in the minority.  Arrr!

So lastly . . .

Thank you Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine Del Ray!

One trope I dislike in sci-fi is when a story is when an ostensibly sci-fi novel is really just a detective/mystery story, complete with noir gumshoes and sarcastic heroes (think Blade Runner, Fatherland, etc.). The snark got to me in John Scalzi's Interdependency series and it didn't make the story here any better for me.

I once asked a coworker if "The Man in the High Castle" was a good read if I liked alternate history. He thought a moment and said "No, but it's great if you like Phillip K. Dick" I kept thinking of that when I was reading "The Paradox Hotel". I didn't think it was great sci-fi, but if you like complex mysteries, you'll like this book.