This is one of those books that I like the premise more than the book itself. The Paradox Hotel is a destination hotel where people stay before they time travel adventures. All the action takes place in this unorthodox hotel. There's a summit taking place soon, so lots of people are coming to town. But also some weird activity on the time port made them cancel and reschedule some of the "flights" to the past. So a lot of people end up trapped inside the hotel, and this is where the murder mystery takes place. There's death, there's time travel, there's romance. A bit of everything. I just think that the idea of it was more interesting than the way the actual book took place. I would love to see more stories settled in the same scenery, but with different things happening. I guess I didn't relate so much to the main character, January (though I loved the idea of naming her with a reference related to time).

The Paradox Hotel is where rich tourists come to time travel to the time period of their choice. January is in charge of security, but she is suffering from the affects of having spent too much time traveling herself and is experiencing blackouts and hallucinations. Then, just as a group of bigwigs converge on the hotel, time itself is speeding up and security camera footage is being erased, which seems to be more than a coincidence.

While this is a really cool premise for a novel, the execution was unfortunately not the best. There were way too many characters to keep track of and the main character was so mean and unlikeable it was hard to understand how she inspired so much loyalty and love--I didn't buy how the book tries to explain that.

Not sure why I requested this book. It wasn’t for me at all. I have tried my hand at science fiction before and enjoyed it but this one fell flat for me. It was confusing and hard to follow.

I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

The Paradox Hotel provides temporary lodging to the wealthy patrons who use a U.S. government-operated time travel facility to satisfy their itch for time-travel tourism. January Cole is a Time Enforcement Agency operative who now serves as the hotel’s head of security. Complicating matters is that due to the amount of time traveling she’s done, Cole has now become ‘unstuck’ – she gets random flashes of the past and the future that if untreated will put her in a dissociative state.

The time-travel business is a money-loser, so the government plans to sell it and the hotel to the highest bidder. When four billionaires arrive at the hotel to take part in the auction for the facilities, unusual time glitches and attempts on the lives of all four of the potential bidders put Cole in a very stressful situation.

A lot of time travel stories get bogged down in the details surrounding the science of time travel, but Paradox Hotel mostly minimizes those issues, avoiding a lot of confusion. What does get confusing though is when Cole experiences the forward and backward time shifts – those segments are disorienting as well as confusing.

I gave The Paradox Hotel four stars on Goodreads. I enjoyed it, but not as much as Hart’s prior novel, The Warehouse. I couldn’t help but think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if it featured the adventures of Cole and other TEA agents as they traveled through time working to keep tourists from changing the course of history – one such adventure was covered very briefly and it was the segment I enjoyed most.

I am not entirely sure how I feel about this book. Parts of it I found fascinating and well done and others sort of just felt "off." I think our students will really like it, though, so I have ordered a few copies for the library. Thank you

I took a chance and stepped out of my comfort zone taking this book on. I'm not a fan of science fiction, but wanted to give this one a chance. I just didn't love this one. The time traveling made keeping up with the plot too intense, and you had to really concentrate to keep up. I wanted a book that didn't include a lot of concentration but would kept me interested and quickly turning pages. This one just missed the mark for me.

Time travel books can sometimes be difficult to tie all the pieces together. I enjoyed this book but did have a few sections where I was slightly confused. Overall, the story was engaging and the main character kept me enthralled throughout the book!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy to honestly review.

The concept of the commercialization of time travel as an industry combining with an isolated closed circle mystery is so promising I really thought there was no way The Paradox Hotel wouldn’t at least be a four-star read for me. And while I say I did enjoy this thriller, especially the wise-cracking protagonist January who couldn’t be more fed up with the ultra-wealthy patrons of the hotel, I think the pacing in this story dragged just a little too much for the final payoff.

The sheer ingenuity behind the worldbuilding of this take on a Sci-Fi mystery is something that’s going to stick with me the most here, particularly in the ways people gradually start to experience debilitating effects from prolonged exposure to time travel, like the POV character January. It’s a concept I love seeing explored in Sci-Fi, and the shadowy afterimages of events in time that plague January allows her to be an unreliable narrator in a way that was so totally unique to the thriller genre. I do wish the author did more with the major events he would reference as part of January’s past field assignments - which was entirely limited to easily recognizable tragedies in human history like Nazi Germany and the Titanic. And while this was science fiction and not historical fiction… these low-hanging fruit references did feel a little uninspired sometimes.

January herself was another highlight here however. And while I think some may be bothered by her endless wisecracks and general prickliness, I personally loved it. Her questionable professionalism as the head of the hotel’s security team was just plain fun to watch, even if it's the type of antics you'd think would have gotten her fired long ago. I will say, as more of her troubled past is revealed and the story instead begins to fixate on her relationship with her dead girlfriend and how this physically haunts her every waking moment, the story becomes a lot less fun. Which is where I get into my major hangup with this book.

The Paradox Hotel is absolutely a Sci-Fi thriller - as it is rightly marketed. But it also wants to be a commentary on capitalism and the abuse of the working class, and a character study of a traumatized woman refusing to come to terms with her own grief. Each of these plot points have very different tones that I don’t think ever fully meshed together in the story overall. What I felt was a strong start to the novel eventually petered off into a conclusion that took too many sideroads and tangents to reach an end that was wholly satisfying.

Overall, I think anyone that enjoys a closed circle mystery - especially those set in the backdrop of a hotel - will get some enjoyment out of this. The Sci-Fi twist on the narrative with the time travel aspect thrown in was just an added boon for me. I only wish the Paradox Hotel had a little more of a clear vision in mind when it went this route, even with a strong lead character to carry the story.

Thank you to the publisher Ballantine Books for providing an e-ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

January Cole is the head of security at The Paradox Hotel, where guests wait until they can board their time travel flights to any points in the past. And January is suffering from some sort of affliction that enables her to see glimpses into the future, and right now, she’s glimpsing the corpse of a murder victim. That’s the backdrop for this unique and interesting story that blends science fiction with a murder mystery. The story can get a little confusing, there’s a lot of jumping around time frames, and the scenes sometimes aren’t all that clear to the reader, but there’s a decent plot, and the concept is intriguing enough that you stay with the story, as your interest is definitely piqued. A good genre-crossing book, definitely different. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not really into books about time travel but I wanted to try this one out and it was really good. I highly recommend it especially if you're looking to try something out of your comfort zone.

I liked the premise of this book about a hotel that operates time travel trips for tourists. However, I couldn’t get past my extreme dislike of the house detective January. Do you know what would be original, making the protagonist an even tempered, well adjusted, polite person, rather than a tough-talking asshole who evades the rules and lies to her employer. Don’t look for that in this book. January is a walking cliché. I didn’t like “The Warehouse” either, so I guess I should just avoid this author. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The Paradox Hotel is an exciting new take on time travel. The hotel allows people to travel to other points in time, for a price. The price to keep the hotel, the issues with people getting stuck in time, the ghosts, and the upcoming sale make it a fast-paced story with lots of twists. For me, it was a little hard to keep up with but overall I really enjoyed the story.

3/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Fairly brilliant. I had no idea what to expect going into this book. I loved it! It is fast paced and action packed with time warped twists and turns. The characters are deep and interesting. January is strong willed, stubborn, abrasive, snarky, funny and loving all rolled into one fierce package. The world building and time travel concepts were captivating. I truly enjoyed every minute of this book. A real keep you up at night page turner. Excellent.

Thank you NetGalley for the review copy of this book. It was an outstanding surprise.

The Paradox Hotel was intriguing in a lot of ways. Someone figured out time travel. Those with the means have the ability to time travel for leisure. There is one main rule - look but don't touch. What happens if you disrupt the past too much is still unknown.

The Timetravel Enforcement Agency (TEA) is around to make sure people don't disrupt time too much. January is the main protagonist. She is, frankly, a terrible person. Incapable of love. Mainly because she lost her only love. I really struggled through this book for a lot of reasons, but my dislike for January probably topped it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me an early copy for review purposes.

Paradox Hotel is the first novel by Rob Hart that I have had the pleasure to read. This book was a little more mainstream than some others I have been reading recently, but that in no way detracted from my enjoyment. It was part thriller, part mystery, and part sci-fi. The setting is in the near future, with time travel available to the 1% from a special time port. Travelers depart from and return to the Paradox Hotel before and after their trips. Its an unusual settling for a time travel story! Most people would assume that you would follow characters in their adventures, but the story almost entirely takes place in the hotel. With very strong modern characters, a good mystery, and excellent pacing, the story really keeps you turning pages. Somehow the author managed to work in a very emotional and complicated story about loss and grief into the novel as well.
My expectations were non existent but I wrapped up the story very pleased with the overall experience. If I had to nit pick, I would say that the ending wasn't the strongest, and I found it to be only ok, and not as satisfying as I would have hoped. That being said, the novel is easy to recommend and I will keep an eye out for other work by Rob Hart.

This was a different one for me. I am not quite sure how to review it. The writing was fast paced and exciting. The characters well drawn and intriguing. However, I felt lost. A lot. I never quite knew what was really happening and therefore had a hard time investing in the story. Ruby was hands down the star of the show. I really appreciated the effortless diversity in the characters and the calling out of racism as everyday practice. All in all I would recommend this to my patrons but at the same time I am not quite sure what I am recommending and maybe that isn't such a bad thing?


Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

"“There are a lot of things we still don’t understand about time travel. For example, why we can go backward but not forward. We know time conforms to the block universe model that…” He pauses, sees that he’s losing the room. “Okay, think of it like this. Time is like a pond. When you drop a pebble in a pond it creates ripples. The ripples are temporary . It’s not long before they dissipate. When we move through time, we create some ripples.”"

Our protagonist, January, works with time travel. In the future, time travel is another form of vacation or enjoyment. You can go back to the time of the dinosaurs, as long as you follow the rules. And if you don't, January is there to fix it.

But all that time travel had had consequences, and January has become Unstuck. She finds herself slipping forwards and backwards in time, seeing things others cannot. Alongside January is the snarky drone Ruby.

I was really excited by the premise and by the first few pages, unfortunately I had trouble following this book for most of it.

Thank you NetGalley and random house for giving me an advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review.

In The Paradox Hotel, Rob Hart puts a hotel at the edge if time, specifically two miles from a timeport where its patrons dress in period garb and head off to their favorite places in history; kind of like HBO's Westworld but that its any time period and anywhere in the world. The main rule of time travel, don't leave a mark history and don't bring contraband back with you (i.e. no dinosaur eggs people!). The time stream may support tiny ripples, but for the travelers wanting to break the rules and leave an impact, there are Time Enforcement Agents who go back and fix things. The government is about to auction off the timeport to the highest bidder and the four people interested in purchasing it are staying at the hotel. Weird things start to happen which suggests that someone is messing with time and its January Cole's job, as the head of security, to solve the mystery before it's too late. Just one problem, because of her constant time traveling she is "unstuck" meaning she experiences time slips and is not a very reliable narrator because she can't always differentiate between past/present/future moments.

I loved the snark of the MC, January and the interactions she has with her smart drone, Ruby. The idea for this story is definitely 4 stars, but the execution felt a bit chaotic thus my ultimate rating of 3 stars. With so much going on you definitely have to stay focused while reading. It's definitely more of a speculative fiction murder/mystery than a book about time travel. I think fans of Blake Crouch's stories may enjoy this one. True rating: 3.5 stars.

This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

DNF at 34%. Even the incredible narration of Emily Woo Zeller can’t keep me interested in this one. This is way too confusing and quite frankly just not interesting.