Oh.

Oh YES.

YES, this.

This is the book I have been wanting to read. While it falters a little bit in the ending (there's a twist conceit at the end bit that doesn't quite work until it does), the novel starts off with a lot of handwaving—just sit back and don't think about how time travel works, mkay? Just enjoy it.

Part romance. Part spy thriller. Part time travel. Part anti-colonial. Part generational trauma. Part vertical integration. Part doomed polar exploration. Part locked-room tension between a modern woman and a Victorian-era man. All character study. All cli-fi.

I received an ARC from NetGalley

The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley's debut novel, is built around the premise that in a near-future society the British government has just discovered a way to transport people through time. Given the nascent nature of the technology, they decide to pull a few select "expats" from the past and monitor them to see if time travel is safe, both physiologically and mentally for those involved. As part of this experiment, for the expats are essentially lab rats, they are paired with a "bridge", a government worker who cohabitates with them and acts as their guide to the modern world.

The book was marketed as a spy thriller with bits of time travel, romance and humor, and I agree with some of that, but those components are in relatively short supply. Instead, Bradley uses the arrival of the expats to delve into an abundance of social commentary. The primary expat we focus on is Graham Gore, a polar explorer transported from 1847 just before his expedition perished after being trapped in the Arctic. Gore questions some of the absurdity of modern society, which does add some moments of levity, but more often his questions are used as a prompt for Bradley and her unnamed narrator to flog society over sins of the past.

Gore's confusion on certain topics lead to the narrator's uncomfortable explanations, or apologies, or topic avoidance. British colonialism is at the forefront; Cambodian genocide, race, sexuality, gender, the Holocaust all make an appearance as well If there's something that carries with it some historical shame, it will almost certainly be worked into conversations with the expats. The narrator is a woman of Cambodian and British heritage, and one passage from her is particularly illustrative of what seems to be a good amount of frustration or anger with a wide swath of topics:

"When I first joined the Ministry and they'd pressed me through HR, a woman ran her finger down the column with my family history.

'What was it like growing up with that?' she asked.

She meant it all: Pol Pot Noodle jokes on first dates, my aunt's crying jags, a stupa with no ashes, Gary Glitter, Agent Orange, we loved Angkor Wat, regime change, not knowing where the bodies were, Princess Diana, landmines, the passport in my mother's drawer, my mother's nightmares, fucking chink, you don't look it, dragon ladies, fucking paki, Tuol Sleng was a school, Saloth Sar was a teacher, my grandfather's medals, the firing squad, my uncle's trembling hands, it's on my bucket list, Brother Number One, I've got a thing for Latinas, the killing fields, The Killing Fields (1984), Angelina Jolie, do you mean Cameroonian? do you mean Vietnamese? will you say your name again for me?

I considered. 'I don't know,' I said. 'What was it like growing up without it?'"

That's a lot, and the heavier moments like those above are far more common than the fish-out-of-water moments of levity.

The pacing is slow, especially for the first 50-60% of the novel. Once the basic premise of the novel is established, it's primarily focused on Gore acclimating to modern society, and very little happens in terms of plot development. It's a vehicle for commentary above anything else, which made me consistently think of Stranger in a Strange Land as I was reading it. At one point in the novel, Gore even references that phrase ("There is no one left in the world who has known me for longer than a few months. I am a stranger in a strange land."). The pace does accelerate during the final third, and there are some interesting plot choices that I appreciated, but by that point I was mostly ready to be finished with the story.

I will also say this: on the heels of reading The Book of Doors, which suffered from leaving too many loopholes open regarding time travel, Bradley does a clean job of handling the potential pitfalls. Beyond that, she cheekily (via the narrator) tells the reader not to get hung up on it:

"Anyone who has ever watched a film with time-travel, or read a book with time-travel...will know that the moment you start to think about the physics of it, you are in a crock of shit. How does it work? How can it work?...I'm here to tell you: don't worry about it. All you need to know is that in your near future, the British government developed the means to travel through time but had not yet experimented with doing it."

There were components of The Ministry of Time that I appreciated: it's thoughtful, it's a somewhat-fresh take on a well-trod theme, and it does marry several different elements (social commentary, humor, some bits of sci-fi / mystery, some romance) without losing its overall tone or sense of self. But it certainly dragged for me in the middle third, and I expected something that would be more plot-driven than what was essentially a letter of apology on behalf of the last 200+ years. Approaching with those eyes wide open and clear expectations of what lies ahead will hopefully increase one's enjoyment, but for me it was just so-so.

Somehow (and I’m still trying to wrap my head around HOW exactly) but THE MINISTRY OF TIME by Kaliane Bradley is a romance, spy thriller, cli-fi, lit fic all at once?? I am perplexed. And obsessed.

THE WRITING!!! I’ll never be over how many times I chuckled reading this debut author’s intrinsic wit that was perfectly woven throughout her characters. Other highlights include: The gutting romance lines (that would make Taylor Swift proud), the extremely real observations on race and culture, and more.

I can’t entirely explain what it was about this book but I strongly suspect it was the fact that it was wholly unique and unlike anything I’ve ever read.

Sorry, forgot to mention what it’s even about. Ok so in the near future, the UK has discovered time travel and brought back a handful of people who won’t be missed by history to see how they hold up in the modern world ~for science~. Each one gets a ”bridge” — someone to live with them and educate, support, and guide them through the transition. Commander Graham Gore (cast as Jude Law in my mind) from 1847 is assigned to our unnamed protagonist, who is increasingly more intrigued by him and what exactly the Ministry has asked her to do.

This was a thrilling mix of sci fi and historical romance that I didn’t see coming! The heroine was relatable but still unique and well fleshed out and side characters were quirky but realistic and deep.

In the near future of THE MINISTRY OF TIME, by Kaliane Bradley, a woman is assigned to be a "bridge", kind of like a handler, for Commander Gore, a man rescued from the past in an experiment to see how time travel affects a person. Can a person assimilate, physically and mentally, into a future world. Told from the perspective of the "bridge', the story follows Gore and his fellow time travelers. The travelers all have different levels of understanding and acceptance of their new reality, but the question becomes whether they can make it in the present and is their a larger plot hidden beneath what seems like a straightforward experiment?
There are so many things that Bradley did right in this story. Gore and the bridge have a complicated attraction to each other that is profound and real, yet their vastly different lives that lead to this point often makes it hard to communicate. There is the time travel aspect that brings a fascinating science fiction component that is both unique and feasible. As the novel progresses, a hidden agenda seems to be poking through which grows into compelling plot that takes some surprising twists. There is plenty of humor, mostly from the travelers and how they react to the present that they have been thrust into, Along with that, all of the travelers are entertaining and captivating people that I would happily reader an entire book about each of them. As the end of the book approaches, the story becomes an spy action thriller that keeps the reader on the edge of their seats right up until the very end.
Crossing so many genres, THE MINISTRY OF TIME will appeal to so many different readers that I can' imagine why it won't be successful. Riveting, funny, and thought-provoking, this is a novel I won't soon forget and I look forward to reading another book by Bradley in the future.

THE MINISTRY OF TIME is set in London and follows a civil servant assigned to a time traveler from the 1800s. The unnamed narrator’s subject is Lt. Graham Gore, the charming polar explorer of the doomed Franklin expedition. As the narrator helps Graham acclimate to modern society, she becomes undeniably attracted to him and realizes the time-travel mission is more dangerous than she was led to believe.

This book was an absolute delight and has something in it for everyone; it’s a time-travel mystery, a forced proximity romance, and an espionage thriller. The story merges all of these elements seamlessly and manages to be incredibly funny at the same time. From their hilarious banter to their slow burn chemistry, I fell head over heels for the two perfectly matched protagonists, as well as the endearing side characters. I swooned, laughed, cried, and loved this one-of-a-kind story wholeheartedly.

This gem comes out on 5/7! Thank you so, so much @avidreaderpress for my gifted copy. ⏰

The ministry of time follows a young lady who is a “bridge” to a historic figure, Commander Graham Gore, from 1847. Gore is doing his best to adjust to life in the 21st century. As the days move on and life becomes the new normal, the FMC starts to fall for the historic figure.

Unfortunately, this is the best I can do in a synopsis of this book. I don’t understand what is going on in this story. It feels very clunky. The writing jumps from one spot in time to the next without any real rhyme or reason. After the first 10 pages the book just slogs. I read into the book about 60 pages and decided this wasn’t for me. I was also informed this book may have been plagiarized from a Spanish television show sharing the same title.

I’m stingy with my 5-star reviews. Sometimes, I wonder if I’m too stingy - is there really that much of a difference between a 4.5 and a perfect 5? Such were my thoughts before reading The Ministry of Time, which was, hands down, one of the best books I’ve read in 2024. Tense, action-packed, laugh-out-loud funny, and swooningly romantic, it’s the kind of book that stands a cut above the rest - the kind of book that more than earns that extra 0.5.

This is the story of Bridge, our unnamed narrator, a civil servant tasked with monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. Graham is an “expat” in a heavily metaphorical sense: he’s from the 1840s, and has been brought through time to test the limits of time travel. A repressed Victorian, Graham grapples with the challenges of adjusting to concepts like “ washing machine,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” Over the course of their time together, Graham and Bridge develop a tentative friendship - and, eventually, heartbreakingly, something more.

This book absolutely destroyed me. Bridge has such a compelling and charming narrative voice, and her relationship with the expats was an absolute treasure. I couldn’t put this book down: at one moment, I was laughing out loud over Graham’s discovery of Motown; the next moment, I was sobbing over the expats’ visit to a museum.

The strengths of this book lie both in the writing and the characters. This is a difficult book to quantify: pitched as a science fiction romance, it’s equally a found family spy thriller. Personally, I could take or leave the science fiction/thriller elements. I did, on occasion, skim over a paragraph or two of science so I could get back to the meat and potatoes of it all: the love story.

It’s not a spoiler to say this is a love story. It’s a love story in the Fleabag “this is a love story” kind of way. It’s a love story between Bridge and Graham, but it’s equally a love story between Bridge and Maggie, Maggie and Arthur, the expats and the present, and the expats and their past. This is a book that mulls on what it means to craft a narrative, to live in the shadow of empire, and whether it’s even possible to change history given that history is, after all, a semantic construction. As a historian, I was floored by how much empathy and care was given to these questions, but as a reader, I was equally blown away by how real Graham, Arthur, Maggie, and, of course, Bridge felt.

This is a book that emotionally destroyed me. I laughed, I cried, and the final page left me so emotionally upended that I found myself staring at the cracks in the ceiling. I’ve heard there’s a BBC series (!) produced by A24 (!!), and I cannot wait.

If you’re a fan of history, science fiction, romance, thrillers — any and all of the above, really, I am begging you to read this book. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go listen to some 19th century sea shanties while I stitch my heart back together.

4.5 stars

I loved this book so much. The prose is so well written. The phrases and descriptions used are incredibly unique, but nothing feels out of place or like it's trying too hard, which is really difficult to effectively pull off. The prose was still very easy to read and the plot was interesting. It was well paced and at not point did I feel like it was stagnating.

The characters were all so compelling. Even if I didn't like them, I was still interested in each character. There were tiny little things thrown here and there that were really interesting minor details that gave some of those smaller characters depth. I did wish there was a little but more with the sister but I also think what we were given as so interesting where I'm sort of okay with there not being more?

Some of the plot twists were predicable and some were very unexpected. I thought the themes (memory/knowledge, guilt, power, identity/community) were really interesting. Bradley definitely put time and thought into engaging with these ideas.

The only reason I haven't given it a full five stars is because I have slightly forgotten about it over the past few weeks. It doesn't haunt me in the way a 5 star read should, but I think when I reread it (which I know I will want to soon), I will find more in the novel and it could get a full give stars then.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for the eARC!

The Ministry of Time is thrillingly ambititious; a blazing, inventive, hilarious and heartbreaking novel. I realise that's a lot of descriptors but it really did tick all the boxes for me. Bradley's debut is part time travel romance, part spy thriller and part exploration of the legacy of British Colonialism, and the author somehow manages to blend these disparate elements nearly seamlessly.
A deeply romantic sci-fi that also manages to raise interesting questions about colonialism, The Ministry of Time is achingly slow burn and deliciously satisfying.

The Ministry of Time is light on plot, but big on concepts: set in a near-future (?) Britain, it's a story told to us by The Bridge, a young British-Cambodian woman who works for the aforementioned ministry. The Ministry of Time is a secretive branch of the government that has recently discovered time-travel. They have gathered 5 "expats" from various different time periods and want to see what happens to them. Civil servants, including our narrator, are drafted in - under intensive NDAs - to help the expats adjust to the new time periods that they find themselves in. What nobody really anticipates - least of all the Bridge herself - is a slow-burn and intensive romance to build between herself and Commander Graham Gore, her expat, who is fresh from the Antartic winter of 1847.

This is a really introspective book, a slow-burn romance, and a wild ride. It can be difficult to get your head around - I would have loved a hard copy to annotate and make notes in - as there is a plethora of characters, locations and times to get to know. Different characters have wildly different ways of speaking, and some of the expats have several nicknames that kept me on my toes to keep up with who was who. It's not a perfect book by any means, especially given Bradley's high-wire act to keep all of her genres in the air. But she largely pulls it off, and also does a great job of building the world and its characters so no-one feels one-dimensional. I will say that it is dense, and requires a lot of thought - it's not a difficult read but it did take me a long time to get through as I had so much food for thought.

Dense but never boring, it's also a really, really funny novel! Bradley imbues The Bridge with a dry sense of humour that I couldn't get enough of, and it really made the character sing for me. The expats are funny in a fish-out-of-water way (obsessed with the scenes where Maggie learns about dating apps) but they're sweet, too. Once the slow-burn romance kicked in, it became clear that The Ministry of Time is an unabashedly romantic novel. There were scenes that had me kicking my feet (the christmas telephone call!!!!) and the central couple's chemistry jumps off the page. Obsessed tbh.

I also found the novel's tackling of Britain's colonial legacy really excellent, and biting. Authors of colour are tackling knottier issues of race these days, it seems, and this is the second 2024 debut I've read that carries it off with aplomb. The unpacking doesn't impact on the plot massively, in terms of action, but does massively impact the relationships The Bridge has with others in the novel.

I was blown away by Bradley's mish-mashing of genres: it's audacious, and thrillingly unique, so I am willing to overlook the flaws in the novel. Not perfect, but pretty damn close.

A deeply romantic sci-fi that also manages to raise interesting questions about colonialism, The Ministry of Time is achingly slow burn and deliciously satisfying.

This novel is a Romance in the way Pride & Prejudice is a romance, in that while the romance is a driving force of the story, the novel is also about more than just the love story. The plot itself isn’t the strongest (in fact, for most of the story, the there isn’t really a plot, just on-boarding Lieutenant Gore into modern life and the narrator’s pining for him), but the sub-plot regarding the narrator’s wrestling with her heritage (in that she’s falling for a guy who was part of the colonialist regime, and as she is a mixed-race person of colour, she has to reconcile with that) is compelling and very relevant to today’s world. The romance aspect itself is wonderful.

I will admit, when I first started the book, I was like, “First person? Nooooo,” because I often find first person in Romance to be rather unbearable. I think because I prefer to watch the romance bloom on both sides of the couple, to watch when and how they fall for the other person, rather than someone’s horny thoughts. But, I will say, once I got about ten percent in, the first person tense started working for me, and when I reached the end, first person ended up making perfect sense for the novel.

This is because the book is an epistolary novel. The narrator is writing to someone directly about what happened to her and the reason why she is doing so, and how this plays into the aforementioned plots and subplots is very interesting when you consider this structure as the story begins to wrap up. It also allows for a hopeful yet open-ended ending that, honestly, is kind of perfect. It’s one of those “I heave a great sigh” kind of endings.

In terms of the romance itsel, anyone who loves Mr. Darcy will love this, because Lieutenant Gore is absolutely swoon-worthy because he’s a dude who learns from his mistakes and changes for the better (also, brooding). He’s inherently a “good guy” but obviously has some outdated ideas about society, yet, he adapts and his prudishness is kind of romantic. The love story is amazingly slow burn, but, unlike the classic romance tales, we actually get a few sex scenes (and, quite honestly, one of the best first kisses I’ve read in a long time. I read it like five times) and unlike spicy Romances of today, we’re not subjected to long descriptions of sex that, at least in my opinion, are kind of boring. While I’m not opposed to sex scenes, I’m more into the build-up towards them as opposed to descriptions of the sex itself. This book has the perfect balance of what I prefer and some spice, so in my eyes, it's rather perfect.

Also, this book, rather indirectly, deals with history. Lieutenant Gore is one of the people - a real life person - who died as part of the Franklin Expedition. If you’ve had the pleasure of reading The Terror, are a history buff, or have watched the AMC show The Terror, you’ll know the story. There’s also a subtle reference to Wilfred Owen, one of the WWI poets. I studied them in university and I absolutely love them, so that was a great addition and made perfect sense - it also subtly alluded to Arthur’s own mental state. The inclusion of these aspects was a real treat for me, a history nerd.

If you enjoy “fish out of water” elements, you’ll also get a kick out of this, because most of the novel is acclimatising Gore and a few others from their societies to the modern world. I find this incredibly fun, so if you also like this, you’ll love that aspect.

The writing is also lovely. The narrator herself is a bit of an old soul, so while the writing is contemporary, it retains an almost literary feel at times that reins in the story nicely.

Overall, if you couldn’t tell, I adored The Ministry of Time. If you like time travel stories (in the sense of people from the past being brought into the modern times), romance, and just an engaging story with interesting characters, you will likely enjoy this very much.

This was lovely mix of many genres, I don't know that I've read something that encompassed my favorite elements from historic fiction, spy thriller, romance and time travel so well. It was a wild ride from beginning to end full of twists, unpredictable humor and well rounded characters!

While I started out enjoying this story and the premise was fascinating, the myriad of characters and all the names they went by: first name, last name, year they were pulled from, or even just last two digits of the year they were pulled from became very confusing. So I did struggle to finish it and enjoy it. I did really like some of the characters such as Commander Graham Gore. And the overall story was, as I said, fascinating. Recommended for those who have a lot of time to read and a long attention span.

I was very excited for this book based on the synopsis and some early reviews, but unfortunately it was a bust for me. I was absolutely not meshing with this writing style. It felt clunky and hard to get into. I loved the concept so this was wildly disappointing, but I personally struggled to follow this story.

Thank you to the publisher for granting me access to an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions remain my own.

I have never looked up so many words while reading a book in my life. While I enjoy expanding my vocab, I thought at times that some words were used unnecessarily (hello patella instead of kneecap).

Despite that, I really enjoyed the writing of this book! It was a pretty slow pace and took me longer than it typically would to read a book of this length, but I found the writing compelling. I was fairly engaged the entire time but it could have had a bit more plot earlier on to make the book more interesting. The end by contrast was super fast and I almost felt like I needed to reread it to wrap my head around everything that happened in the last 15% of the book. It got confusing with so much happening after a slower pace for the majority of the book. I felt like it could have been improved by adding in more of the action earlier on.

Overall, this book seemed like something I’d absolutely love but I just ended up feeling a little luke warm about. The ending was alright but I didn’t feel that there was as much of a conclusion as I would have liked.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my review.

Unpopular opinion alert: I don’t understand the hype around this book.

Having nothing to do with the Spanish series of the same name (the title and time travel are literally the only similarities) the genre mash-up of time-travel, historical fiction, and romance is unique to say the least. Set in almost present-day Britian, the Ministry of Time is tasked with exploring how adjusting small events in history impact out timelines. When the Ministry begins to gather ‘Expats’ from various time periods, civil servants are assigned as ‘bridges’ to help them adjust to the new time period by assisting, living, and monitoring them. So, what happens when we take people out of their intended time periods? The Ministry is here to find out.

The majority of the story is more an introspective look into the year a Bridge spends working and living with the Ministry and their Bridge. We also get some narrative flashbacks to our main Expat – Commander Graham Core, who died on Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition to the Arctic. We spend the majority of the book getting a look into the lives of the pair, and how they’re forced to confront the past while navigating the choices of their futures.

We do meet some very interesting characters, but their vastly different dialogues and the switching between their names and them being labeled by the year they were taken from, made it hard for me to keep track of them. The story also spends much of the time explaining things more than showing, and I just felt like too much time was spent just floating through the first year.

I absolutely hate reading books that make me feel dumb. I’m not a genius but I do consider myself to be fairly intelligent. This book made me feel so dumb. Not only did I have a hard time keeping track of characters (especially our ‘expats’) but I’m glad I read this in my Kindle app, because I needed to look up like 46 words every page. That’s an exaggeration but you get the point. I thought about DNFing this book multiple times but was told the ending would be worth it.

The majority of the ‘action’ is crammed into the last 20-15% of the story and it gave me a bit of whiplash to suddenly be ‘on the move’ and out of that original lull. I still have almost fairly idea how the time travel system worked and what exactly certain characters at the end’s (no spoilers) end goal. It was too much work to get through this book than I currently wanted. Instead of a quirky romance, that I got from Sharkheart last year, this story is more focused on a slow burn romance.

It’s a slow read, and while this isn’t a speculative fiction piece of work, if you enjoy books in that genre or lengthy character driven stories, you’ll probably find you enjoy this work. However, if you’re a more plot-based reader, like me, or are looking for something fast paced or more actual time travel related this is not your book. Initially 2 stars but rounded up to 3 just because the concept is interesting, and it’s obviously written well. It just wasn’t for me.


The Ministry of Time comes out May 7, 2024! Huge thank you to Avid Reader Press for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof.books or on Tiktok @speakingof.books

This was a really interesting, quirky book about time travel that takes place in near-future Britain. A civil servant becomes a "bridge" for a Victorian polar explorer who has been rescued from death in the Arctic, and she is tasked with living with him and acclimating him to the modern world. This story is chaotic, with a great cast of characters and some unexpected twists and turns. It manages to be funny and sad and very engaging, and I look forward to future books from Bradley. Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster for a digital review copy.

The Ministry of Time sounded like the kind of book I would enjoy as I like the genre of Sci Fi and am fascinated by the concept of time travel. However I couldn’t get into it at all I am sad to say.
I found the characters of both Graham Gore and his ‘bridge’ who helps him navigate his new era as an historic expat to be a little flat. There are pockets of humour in the book and interesting thoughts but a lot of it felt a bit slow and I wasn’t sure sometimes if it was the reader who was being ‘educated’ or the time traveler.
Unfortunately I didn’t finish but I will be buying a copy for the library as I am sure our patrons will enjoy it.

What a unique story! The Ministry of Time is a book about a government agency that brings a handful of people, labeled “Expats” by the Ministry, from the past into the current day. The story is written as a first person narrative and follows a Ministry agent known as a “Bridge”, an agent responsible for the social assimilation of the Expats brought into the modern era. The story heavily focuses on her day-to-day interactions with one of the Expats named Graham Gore, a royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer from the 1800s.


What I enjoyed:
It felt realistic. This book followed the day to day lives of the individuals they brought over and their Bridges, specifically Graham and his Bridge. It went in-depth about how each character would react to different things we find common today.
It has an underlying spy mystery and some weird scientific elements that kept me reading. The Ministry is a sketchy organization that doesn’t reveal its plans, so I just had to find out what was going on.

What I didn’t love
It was so hard to get through the historical journal segments that start each chapter. I am just not a history buff, so every time I reached one I groaned. I thought the book would be more about the adventure of time travel, or have more heavy sci-fi elements.
Though I loved the realistic elements, it was really mundane at times. There are parts of the book where not much is happening. The Ministry has to do a lot of tests on the expats, or a character is just going through a hard time, or they are just sitting around the house. Dredging through those boring parts was difficult. I also thought the romance felt a little rushed. It went from zero to 100.
At times they called characters by the years they are from rather than their name. I felt completely lost during those conversations.

Overall, it is an interesting story and you can tell the author did a tremendous amount of research for this book. Thank you NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

A page turning read, thriller, historical, science fiction combined, and a book I couldn't put down. I was attracted to this as I have a fondness for Jodi Taylors St. Marys series where historians investigate major historical events in contemporary time . In these books you are unable to remove a contemporary or item from the past to present unless it /they were destined to die/be destroyed. It was good to see this premise was followed by the Ministry of time as the people that were selected would have been set to die at the point of their extraction.
The British government have access to a doorway through which is a machine which enables time travel. To test out this acquisition they snatch historical figures from a range of timelines and world locations to see what the impacts of time travel may be. The expats of time are referred to by the year of their 'rescue' rather than their names - a neat trick of dehumanising them to the level of an experiment.
Our narrator is a mixed race (Cambodian/British), single female and applies for the role of 'Bridge' who act as the guardian and guide to modern society for the chronologically displaced expats. Our bridge assists Arctic explorer Commander Graham Gore, plucked from 1847 and the disaster of the Franklin expedition to the Arctic. Over the year the expats start by meeting each other, then living with their bridge and as they progress with navigation of the modern world are allowed to experience this directly.
I loved the complex relationships of people from varied timelines, with different codes of morality, ethics and behaviour interact. The nascent romance between Gore and his bridge, the joy of discovering new experiences in the modern world, and the emotional turmoil that betrayal, love and fellowship can bring.
I recommend this unique book, pacing is perfect with appropriate context to the past for Commander Gore. My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for access to this ARC. All views are my own.