This rating could change in the coming days and weeks, for I unfortunately did not have time to finish THE MINISTRY OF TIME before its expiry -- which, unfortunately, is not due to lack of time, but lack of magnetism from the title itself. The concept is intriguing, the characters colourful, the world built, a wonderful twist on the world we live in, rife with unique and vital conversations that do genuinely set this book apart. I'd LOVE to return to this world, give it a second shot, for the praise I've read, the mystery sewn through the initial plot, and the 40% of chapters I was able to finish before the archive date, certainly intrigued! I only wish it had gripped me strong enough to keep me glued to the pages, for I didn't find myself enthralled enough to consistently return, and the days and weeks pre-archive slipped away without much notice. That said, I'll pick up the book again before the end of the year, and perhaps (or, hopefully!) return to this review once I do, for I do hope to love it as much as so many of my contemporaries have seemed to.

“𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦. 𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦.”

Huge thank you to Avid Reader Press for the advanced readers copies and a gifted finished copy - sorry it took me so long to get to it!

An original premise, this one blends genres (spy thriller, romance, sci-fi, workplace drama, historical fiction, etc) and is unique in its formula, so at times I get that due to all this it can feel a bit fragmented. Some say the pacing is off but the slow start I believe is intentional to the build up of what ultimately unfolds and I didn’t mind.

I enjoyed the banter between Gore and his bridge - imagine being a modern day woman helping a commander from the 1840s adapt to the present. Naturally there’s some miscommunication and clashes of differences, creating some humorous and intriguing dynamics. I found the time expats entertaining and laughed at how they called each other by the year they came from.

And then there’s the mystery of The Ministry. For a while at the start you may wonder “where’s this story going? What really is the point of these ‘expats’?” I promise, give it time as each of the genres rev up. You need to pay attention as there’s hints and clues throughout that lead to a climax that was not what I was expecting.

Content includes some profanity, sexual content (these scenes occur during the second half; one is lengthy and detailed), detailed description of dead and injured bodies, and gun violence. I could’ve done without the unexpectedly kind of explicit sexual content that occurs during the last half; it could’ve been closed door/fade to black and still have gotten the point across.

The build up and culmination of the story was worth it and… I won’t give away the ending (I did wish for a lil bit more though!) The spice content is what brings this down to a 3.75 for me (rounded up to 4)

Also, just a last second side note, why did this quote hit so hard:

“𝘉𝘶𝘵, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬”

I really enjoyed this book! I didn't end up having time to read the eARC from NetGalley, but I borrowed the audiobook from my local library and loved it!

I had listened to a podcast interview with the author, so I knew that her Cambodian heritage would be part of the story, and how she's thought about language intersecting with empire and migration. I enjoyed the way the bridge thinks about doing her job (making the expat comfortable) vs being honest about history in a way the textbooks are not. And just in themselves, I liked the bridge and the expat, especially their dry humor. I definitely have a soft spot for that British humor (or "humour" I suppose!). I loved the secondary characters, especially Arthur and Maggie so much! I felt so sad for the bridge when it seemed like everyone (Samelia and Graham) turned against her, but I really understand why they made their choices. I appreciated the complication of the bridge having "just doing your job" turned against her. I also really appreciated the various kinds of queerness included, and the ways they've changed over the last few centuries.

Thank you to NetGalley & S&S for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

This was such an intriguing book. About time, about choices, about history repeating itself. Beautifully written and so many subliminal messages. A book to be experienced any review I write won't do it justice

I am not sure I understand all of the hype surrounding this title. After 20% of the book -slowly - passing by, I unfortunately decided to DNF.

This book was mind-blowing, and not in the way I expected. From the start, it's fairly obvious that it's a slow-burn romance, but written in a way that's oddly detached from the emotion of the situation for much of the story. As the book progresses, we learn more about how people have been rescued from their own times, and what the government means to do with them. The narrator is nameless, which gives us the detached sensation, but you still grow to care about her and her charge-Graham, who is a Victorian era naval officer. Graham is delightfully charming, very well written, and I missed him at the end of the book. I loved the idiosyncrasies of a man displaced in time, a refugee, essentially. This is truly one of the best books I've read this year, maybe even one of the best I've ever read.

I feel like The Ministry of Time is quite divisive, and have found people either love or hate this book. For me, it was good, an interesting take on time travel set around a true historical event. I liked the way it was written and enjoyed the main story.

I understand the allure of a "genre-bending" novel (and, in fact, was excited to read one), but the result of Kaliane Bradley's book is a work that wants to be too many things and, therefore, merely dabbles in all of them without excelling. I found the slice-of-life elements amusing but slow, and the last 25% of the novel becomes a futuristic spy-thriller genre in such a way that I got whiplash. Still, I admire Bradley for trying and for imbuing this with some biting commentary about government, regimes, and racism and classism.

While I was eager to get into this book and expected to finish it quickly, the twists and turns of the protagonist, her work, and the other characters in the story got bogged down by a little too much mystery at times. It took more time than expected to work my way through it, although in retrospect I did enjoy the read once all the pieces came together. Ms Bradley's voice reminds me a bit of authors from the 19th century in an appealing way.

A lot of hype surrounding this book but was a little too all over the place for me to consider it great. The concept was the most intriguing part of it, but fell short in the execution of the plot. There were too many loose strings and directions the author attempted to go, which resulted in a lot of basic and surface level resolutions. And the characters? SO unlikeable, and so stale. I don't know if I was missing something and they're supposed have such bland personalities, but doing that to make the plot seem more exciting in comparison is cheap storytelling. I wanted to care about it all but I wasn't enthralled in the world nor interested in the character's quest. The only mystery here is how it's so popular and well loved... I needed more.

What a surprise of a book!

I went into The Ministry of Time a little skeptical, but intrigued. Is a quirky, British humor, time travel novel with romantic tension really my sort of thing? It turns out it is!

As with many novels tackling very big topics, it is not without its flaws. Despite the author, Kaliane Bradley, encouraging the reader to not think too much about the details of time travel, I still did. Not so much in the logistics of it all, but I got a bit caught in my head over some of the plot points related to how the past/present/future simultaneously affect (or don’t affect?) history, the details of which I can’t mention without spoiling the book.

But outside of that, The Ministry of Time was an absolute delight. It was SO funny and SO smart and I fell head over heels for our time traveling main character, Arctic explorer Commander Graham Gore from 1847.

Most importantly though, outside of the charm and wit and general good writing, Bradley seamlessly integrates questions and commentary around immigration, colonialism, savior complex, cultural acclimation, and heritage in a way that is truly impactful and adds to the story without coming across as announcing a big message-I couldn’t help but compare her subtle craft of integrating social issues into literary fiction to Liz Moore, which is the highest compliment

After several prodding interviews, our unnamed narrator is hired to a secretive job within the Ministry — she's to be a "bridge", a 24-hour assistant and monitor for a person who has been yanked out of the past and is now trying to assimilate into the 21st Century. Her "expat" is British naval officer Graham Gore, who was snatched from a doomed Arctic exploration in 1847. However, as they spend time together and the civil servant files her reports, it becomes apparent that something or someone is trying to undermine the whole time travel experiment.

This was a much more serious book than I'd anticipated, full of musing about the impacts of people from different eras merging lives and ways of thinking. It's also the least time-travelly book about time travel I've ever read — no hopping around in time or random popping up in odd spaces. However, that's not to say that it's bad... I actually really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to people who are looking for a more literary and thought-provoking science fiction title.

I think the coolest thing about this book, however, is found in the author's note at the end: Graham is based on a real person who actually died in the expedition discussed in the book. I appreciated Bradley's dedication to research and bringing this fairly minor historical figure back to life in a big way.

I’ve been sitting on writing a review for The Ministry of Time all summer because it’s hard to know what to say about a book that spans centuries, genres, and tones. I think this book has a little of something for everyone, and is best enjoyed if you go in blind, don’t focus on trying to understand how/why things are happening, and radically accept being along for the charming and wild ride.

I think the more time has passed since reading, the more I really love this book. My favorite part is the way Bradley wrote the relationships- awkward, funny, endearing, yearning. Not quite a romance, but still has the almost and maybes of the genre that I love so much. The humor reminded me of the show Ghosts (10/10 recommend if you need a silly sitcom), and I could read endless pages of antiquated people trying to make sense of modern day. There's also some deeper stuff too, discussions on culture and generational ripple effects. I think this would be so fun for a book club read because everyone will take something different from it. And if you don’t have a book club, may I recommend the episode of @badonpaperpodcast discussing it- @beccamfreeman and @oliviamuenter let me feel like I was chatting about this book with my friends before my real life friends actually read it.

Thanks to @avidreaderpress and @netgalley for this spectacular and unique debut, and I’m not quite sure how Kaliane Bradley tops this but you bet I’ll preorder it when she does.

The Ministry of Time has been on many "Best Books of the Year So Far" lists and I'm fairly convinced it'll be a shoe in for the Goodreads Choice Awards this year, so I wanted to get my hands on it as soon as possible. I also really enjoy time travel stories, so I immediately thought this could be a hit for me.

I found the start of the book to be very captivating and intriguing. I enjoyed reading about the main character from the government agency meet and get to know Graham, who should have died in an Arctic exhibition but was whisked away into the present day. The main appeal of this book is reading about their relationship as it grows and changes.

I didn't so much love the sci-fi thriller side of this book. It felt a little shoehorned in, as like I said above the main focus of the book was definitely on Graham and the main character's relationship. I feel like the thriller aspect of the book could have been entirely left out and instead this could have simply been left as a beautiful love story akin to This is How You Lose the Time War (which I haven't read but I've heard a lot about it thanks to Bigolus D*ckolus).

What a fascinating premise for a novel! The story follows a "bridge", or a British Ministry of Time employee designated to help one of the time travelers brought into the present day adjust. They live together while befriending the other bridge-"expat" pairs while simultaneously reporting on happenings to their handlers. Then, you discover someone is trying to mess with history by using the time travel door. Fallout ensues.

It's a page-turning thriller/romance with a dash of adventure via flashbacks to the main expat's 1847 arctic expedition. I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of the story but found the actual writing of it a bit scattered and confusing. I am a bit behind on my reading, but I got an early copy of this book from the publishing company (Thank you!). The opinion is all mine. That said, some things may have been changed in the published draft. I also didn't feel the chemistry between the love interest. All in all, it's definitely worth a read and will leave you thinking about it long after you put it down.

It feels like a pandemic book. What do I mean by that? I think it has to do with the emotional flip-flopping that happens throughout the book. One moment the MC is confident, quirky and ready to tackle anything; flip the page and she's moping under her covers afraid of anything but a cuppa. Sound familiar? Yes, this was me also during the pandemic, but it can be exhausting in a novel. Perhaps the author did this to make her "not-too-lovable" or more "commonplace."
I generally loved the concept of this book. I think it could have used a few more reworkings. Time travel is always difficult to explain well and get the physics close-enough. There were some confusing parts at the end - maybe a re-read with that knowledge held throughout would be more illuminating. I don't think I liked the book well enough for a re-read. I would be excited to read another in the series and I'm looking forward to more from the author!

3.5 rounded up. I love anything about time travel and so when I first heard about this book, I knew it was right up my alley. And it mostly was? The concept was great, and the execution was alright. I appreciated the author's note about her inspiration for the book, the story would have not made as much sense without that. I guess I personally was still lacking a little more background info on Gore. I know she tried to provide that with what I assume were his journal entries at the beginning of each chapter, but I at times still felt a bit lost with that part of the story.

Either way I did still tear through this book because I needed to know what happened! There were definitely some twists. I also enjoyed the love story, it was very sweet. I received an advance review copy for free and I'm leaving this review voluntarily.

Inventive, different than anything else I’ve read. This book feels like a spy novel with a hint of romance that is not just about what we owe each other, our country, our time, but also what we owe to ourselves. This book was a bit overwhelming at first, but once I got into it, I really enjoyed it.

Set in the near future and narrated by an unnamed main character, we follow a set of 'time ex-pats' pulled from various points in the past through a time door that the British government has commandeered and is using for...some purpose unbeknownst to us?

Our protagonist serves as a 'bridge' aka a glorified government-employed babysitter for one of the 5 ex-pats we meet as he adjusts to the present day after having been extracted from a failing Arctic expedition in the mid-1800s. Most of his characterization comes from the classic fish-out-of-water experiences the time travel genre expounds on; his bafflement over bicycles and pop music serve as most of the punchlines.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

DNF @ 61%

For a book with so many fascinating elements, it was just a mindless read for me. I just wish Bradley had done something else with this concept and this plot than to write a tepid forbidden romance.

<b>Partial Reading Notes</b>

<i>Despite the amenities and pleasures of the twenty-first century, he was bored. He had been handed a plush-lined life, with time to read and pursue thoughts to the phantasmagoric end, totaled in whole seasons of the British Film Institute, to walk for miles, to master some art and paint to his heart's content. He did not need to work, to exchange the sweat of his brow.... And yet, he was bored from having no purpose. ...I was afraid he was getting bored of me. </i>

<b>Three (or more) things I loved:

1. The writing is good. Wonderful descriptions.

2. <i>I tried a cautious smile. "Careful," he said. "Your germs are showing." </i> I love a fish out of water!

3. The midpoint narrative turn is actually pretty great. I wish there had been more to suggest it throughout the first half.

<b>Three (or less) things I didn't love: </b>

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof. </b>

1. I don't really understand the flashbacks into his past.

2. I usually love time travel books! I love to watch the characters and author wrestle with the linguistic and narrative conflicts that arise naturally from the inclusion of fictional technology that's largely considered, if not impossible, then at least completely speculative. But Bradley simply bypasses this question and ignores the wealth of narrative and conflict treasures in favor of other questions. Like how would a Victorian sea captain from the 18th century respond to contemporary racial conventions? I don't think contemporary racial conventions as a theme are boring, but I'm not sure why an anachronistic perspective on them is suppose to be good entertainment.

Thank you to the author Kaliane Bradley, publishers Avid Reader Press, and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of THE MINISTER OF TIME. I found an audiobook copy on Everand. All views are mine.

(Rounded down from 2.5 stars)
The premise of The Ministry of Time was intriguing and the first part of the book kept that promise. However, it got bogged down, boring, somewhere in the middle, which left me wondering whether or not I should plow ahead and finish it or “jump ship.” I decided to keep going and then suddenly, at about the 2/3 mark, I think, the book morphed into a sort of daft spy novel.

What we have here is a time travel story, but a unique one. A British ministry has acquired/developed a way to pluck people out of the past into the current time (which is the near future, as far as I could make out). They choose five people from various time periods, people that were going to die shortly, so that they could feel they weren’t going to change history by doing this. One woman was from 1665 (Great Plague of London) and another from 1793 (Robespierre’s Paris). There were three men: one from 1645 (Battle of Nasby, which was unfamiliar to me), one from 1916 (Battle of the Somme), and one, Graham Gore, from 1847, who was part of the ill-fated Franklin Arctic expedition. Gore becomes one of the main characters of the story, along with Maggie, from 1665. Maggie was my favorite character, but that doesn’t say much, because the other characters weren’t very engaging.

Gore was a real person; the others were totally fictional. The narrator is an unnamed young woman, whose job is to be the “bridge” for Gore, to help him adjust to modern times. She is mixed race; her mother is Cambodian and her father a white Englishman. (This impacts the story or I wouldn’t mention this.) Unfortunately, the author has Gore fall in love with his bridge and vice versa. There are some spicy scenes that one could skip over, if so inclined. The chapters are extremely long, interspersed with short supposed excerpts from a diary of the Franklin expedition.

In short, this book wasn’t for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for the opportunity to read a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.