Man, this is a hard one to review. I definitely thought I was going into a rom com about a hunk who gets pulled into the future and all the hijinks that would ensue. While there was some of that, this was way more spy thrillery than I expected. Lots of suspense and high stakes action.

I loved the travelers and the little family that they formed through their trauma bond. I liked that there were important issues being discussed. The plot definitely kept me guessing. I think I just wanted a little more from the ending. Overall, this was an interesting read. Not a rom com, more of a character driven spy novel. There were slow bits, but it came together nicely.

I don't know exactly what I was expecting. But this book was MUCH more than all I've expected. While time travel is a component to it, it's a lot more lit fic than sci-fi. While the MC is observing a time traveler, it's fascinating to get to notice how much of the observations are internal reflections. It's also a very interesting look at identity. I have been thinking about it since I finished this one, and I might just re-read it!
I definitely recommend reading this one with someone, just to discuss the details.

Thank you so much to Avid Reader Press for the ARC of this one.

Thank you to Avid Reader Press for the early review copy of The Ministry of Time.

This is one of the quirkiest books I've read recently and I loved it. Honestly, this could be a perfect pick for a book club because there are so many elements to dissect and discuss. Sometimes this reads as a historical narrative about a doomed polar expedition in the mid-1800s, other times it's a fast-paced spy novel, and then there are the parts that read as a love story.

The Ministry of Time is a small government entity tasked with studying the impact of time travel. By wrangling "expats" from different historical periods and bringing them into the present, the ministry can observe the physical and emotional impact that time travel has on the human body. Each time the ministry brings a new "expat" into the present timeline, they are assigned a bridge - someone who is expected to live with and observe the behaviors of the "expat" in their new environment. Our main character is the assigned bridge for Captain Graham Gore - a polar explorer who perished on Sir John Franklin's expedition to find a Northwest Passage. Disoriented and surprised to find himself in a time very unlike his own, we watch while Gore acclimates to a life where modern marvels such as "Spotify" are commonplace in everyday life.
Over the next year, Gore and his bridge forge a connection that will be tested in ways they never could have imagined.

I loved this book - I found the parts about the failed Franklin expedition to be incredibly interesting and loved how Bradley brought this historical character to life in the present. As our main character begins to uncover the true intentions of the ministry the novel shifts into a tightly wound spy thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. Overall, this is one of the most memorable books I've ever read and I can't wait to see what this new author does next.

A striking and entertaining blend of fast-paced and philosophy and time travel, that explores mixed-race identity, inherited trauma, and Britain's imperial legacy.

It's been a long time since I've read something this original and this inventive. I LOVE the way that Kaliane Bradley sees the world - as a writer, her description is so surprising, the details always so sharp, so exciting. Very very stylish stuff.

Okay, onto the book itself. Strange and exciting and weird and imaginitive and funny, and FUN! And also sexy. Yes, I do now have a debilitating crush on Commander Gore. If you want to read this/sell this as predominantly a romance, you absolutely can. Great dialogue, excellent tension... some popular writers of romance fiction could do with taking notes. As a romance lover, the central relationship is - for me - what made the novel really sing.

But there's plenty going on here, and all of it interesting. This is a novel about time-travel, about expatriation, about writing the diaspora. It's about the mundanity of bureacracy, it's about the insidiousness of bureacracy. It's sly, and disarming - but also forthright, and charming. It's giving its readers lots to think on, but it's not afraid to withhold answers and complicate conclusions.

4 stars because I really enjoyed this book, but I'd be hesitant to describe it as 'satisfying' - I think a lot of readers will find the ending too abrupt, and perhaps a little confusing.

I’m apprehensive about time travel, but when it’s done right, wow is it so much fun. This novel sits somewhere in the middle of the spectrum between Connie Willis’ Oxford Time Travel Historians and Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone’s This is How You Lose the Time War. I absolute sped through it once I got started, compulsively propelled along by the plot and the characters.

By turns funny, sad, sexy, thrilling, and swooningly romantic, this was an absolute joy to read from start to finish, just completely charming. I can’t wait to recommend it to friends and customers alike.

hmmmm not sure how to put this one into words? it was a bit too weird for my taste, but I was interested enough to finish it out

I found the tone of this book to be very reminiscent of Jodi Taylor's The Chronicles of St. Mary's, which is a big positive in my opinion. I began this book thinking that it would be a mostly fun, light read, and I did in fact find myself smiling a few times throughout, but I also found that the overall themes were darker and more reflective than I expected. While leaning into the more serious questions of time travel, Bradley still manages to create a charmingly amusing dynamic between the main character and Commander Gore. That being said, I would not classify this as strictly romance, as there isn't a clean-cut happily ever after.
Side note, Commander Gore reminded me a lot of William Laurence from Naomi Novik's Temeraire series.
I would definitely recommend this book to readers interested in time travel and the ethics of time travelers, especially if they enjoy Jodi Taylor.

The Ministry of Time is an outstanding romantic thriller. The main female character is a Biracial British Cambodian translator for the British government who has just been promoted to a new job. The British government has obtained a time machine and used it to bring to the future 5 people who were going to die. Their fates were already documented so their removal from the past would not affect history. With her new job as a Bridge, she must help Graham acclimate from the past to the 21st Century. Commander Graham Gore was part of Franklin's Expedition to the Arctic in the mid 1800's.

The story is beautifully written and told and the author does not rush in the telling of the story. As might be expected with a man from Graham's time period, all aspects of everyday life but especially romance have changed. The author honors that difference nicely. I also feel that the author has blended many genres into a lovely cohesive narrative. The story covers many topics including colonization, slavery, inherited trauma, genocide, and more. While there is a underlying time travel element, the book is set in the present day and thus it conveys a commentary on the past. The dialogue is smart and I have nothing I could compare this story to.

Thank you NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for the advanced review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you, NetGalley and publishers.

The Ministry of Time is a sci-fi thriller, combining time travel, spy capers and much more. What if the government discovered a way to pull people through time? What would happen to those people? What would our world be like to them? Our main character is assigned to shepherd one of these people, Lt. Graham Gore of the lost Franklin expedition. This one was a lot of fun.

The Ministry of Time never made me as excited as similar titles in the genre. It felt as though Kaliane Bradley wanted to write a Matt Haig or V.E. Schwab book but never reached the goal. Her writing is good but never feels elevated above okay.

The Ministry of Time is beautiful, sad, and a bit mind-bending. I adored it.

If you like the idea of a bureaucrat thrust into espionage combined with a time-traveling romance, this is the novel for you. As Stefan SNL would say, it's got everything — a plague victim on dating apps, Sir Franklin's lost expedition, futuristic weapons, and a hot Victorian/modern love affair. Bradley's prose is also gorgeous.

I don't want to say more because I feel like this one is best enjoyed going in knowing little. It is one of my favorite books of the year so far. You should read it. That is all.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC.

This reminded me of a childhood favourite movie, Kate & Leopold, mixed with Men in Black, but make it literary and also make it examine topics like colonialism, race, and trauma.

In the near future, the government has discovered time travel, and a newly created Ministry is gathering "expats" from across history to examine the effects on their bodies and the fabric of time. The Ministry assigns employees to monitor and help acclimate the time travelers, and one employee is assigned to a Victorian arctic explorer named Commander Graham Gore. Comedy, slow-burn romance, and spy thriller shenanigans ensue.

Watching Graham adapt to the modern century (Spotify, Google, weed, platonic and not so platonic cohabitation, among the highlights) was so entertaining. I fell in love with him just as the main character did. I fell for the other expats too, and really enjoyed their found family dynamic. The expats' experiences were moving, funny, and heartbreaking. I enjoyed the spy element less than the comedy and romance, but it was effective in creating an urgency and foreboding in an otherwise tender and introspective novel.

I gotta be honest, I did feel like some of the political rhetoric was too smart for me, and some things went over my head. But this still charmed the crap out of me and I can't stop thinking about it.

Read if you like:
🕰 Time travel
🚢 Charming, repressed Victorian men
🔫 Escaping spies, dismantling corrupt systems, and a little bit of paperwork 📎
👤 Themes of identity, belonging & trauma
✨️ Beautiful writing

The Ministry of Time is an exploration of time travel and how, if at all, it would really work. Weaving together mystery, humor, and slice-of-life moments, it is a thrilling and romantic journey that feels wholly original. With charming and witty prose, Bradley effortlessly traverses genres by combining science fiction, romance, comedy, and espionage into a seamless narrative. This book is perfect for both fiction and genre readers looking for something fun and distinct.

After a slow beginning, I enjoyed The Ministry of Time. The main character, whose name is not given throughout the novel, is the child of a Cambodian mother and a white father, something continually pointed out. She had originally been working in the language department of the Ministry when she was recruited to become a "bridge," someone who works with persons who have been brought to this time period from the past, where they would have died. She is assigned to Graham, who had been pulled from 1847. There are other people taken from other times - the Ministry calls them expats. There's a mystery about why they were pulled and someone called The Brigadier who seems to want to kill the narrator. There is so much going on in this story after the 50% mark.

I was frustrated by the "woke" agenda, constantly bringing up race and racism, talking about how the narrator had the "privilege" of passing as white. Then when the narrator is talking to her coworker Simellia, who is black, towards the end of the novel, Simellia tells her about how The Brigadier came from the future and said that climate change was destroying the world and that sub-Saharan Africa would suffer with refugees being killed, and that, "How hard did you try to be a white girl that you're asking me whether racism exists?" Ugh! IMHO, not everything is about race and calling people racist, oppressed, or marginalised serves no purpose. I liked when the narrator told Simellia that she wasn't a victim and she did not give people the opportunity to make her a victim.

Why not four or five stars? Pretentious language! I'm a college grad and I think I have a healthy vocabulary - why use a word that the majority of people have to look up? It got so ridiculous that I began to keep track of them - gelid (cold), elucidate (explain), moved sepulchrally (like death? or darkly?), palaver (trouble?), perspicacity (shrewdness), clement weather (how about just saying nice or pleasant), penumbral (almost shadow?) - you get the idea. And those are just the ones I noted after about halfway through the book when I was getting frustrated.

Thank you to the NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I feel like I’m going to be thinking about this book for a long time. I was very quickly absorbed by the whole concept.

I would describe this as a time travel thriller with an element of romance. I liked that it was unpredictable and I wasn’t quite sure where the story was going. I read the first 3/4 really quickly and then slowed down. I didn’t want the story to end. I will be very interested to see what this author does next.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy!

I really loved the idea of this book—so imaginative and creative to have a premise where people are brought back from history.
The problem for me is that, apart from the main two characters, I couldn’t latch on to anything about them past their physical attributes (or sexuality?). With a cast this large, I need more than hair color to remember why and how this person matters to the story.
I’ve heard this is already going to be adapted for the screen, which I think is fantastic. I’ll definitely watch.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

"The Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley is one of the most unique and engrossing books I've ever read. I really enjoyed this book, even though it often made me anxious and kept me on my toes. There were lots of twists and turns, especially in the latter half of the book. I got a little confused at the denouement and had to reread sections a few times. Highly recommend you do not read anything more than the back-of-book summary prior to reading this story.

UPDATE: many people have pointed out that the plot of this novel is mysteriously similar to a Spanish TV show by the same name, yet I see no evidence that the publisher has publicly addressed allegations of plagiarism, This is unfortunate, and sadly, I must change my review/rating until this has been acknowledged and addressed.

I was thoroughly charmed by this book, which is in part science fiction, in part literary romance. The protagonist is an unnamed female junior agent for the British Ministry of Time, who has been assigned as “bridge” to an “expat” brought through time from the Victorian era to time of the story, which occurs sometime in the not-so-distant future. The reader is told that the British government is experimenting with time travel by bringing people out of the past who had experienced untimely death: essentially rescuing them from their early demise in order to discover how the shift through time will affect their bodies.

The bridge’s job is to help transition their expat into the modern era, and our protagonist is assigned to live with a British Royal Navy officer named Graham Gore, who had previously been destined to die during a doomed polar expedition to discover the Northwest Passage in 1847. Over the course of a year following his removal from the nineteenth century, romantic tension develops between Graham and the narrator. Meanwhile, there are revelations at the ministry which cause her to begin questioning whether her assigned mission is ethically sound.

I was entirely absorbed by the plot of this story and didn’t want to put it down. The characters are all great fun and well developed, and the period-specific dialogue for each of the expats was spot on. I enjoyed watching their relationships with one another develop and they each began to feel like friends to me. I would like to hang out with these people in real life.

The prose in this novel is magnificent! The descriptions are vivid and compelling in a way few authors are able to fully capture. There were so many sentences that I read over and over again, just because they were so lyrical and well written.

This book asks some serious philosophical and ethical questions, particularly about an ongoing colonialist/imperialist approach to scientific advancement. It has a heavy feeling to it overall, but I think it ends on a hopeful note that leaves room for readers’ interpretation. While there were parts that made me giggle or laugh out loud, the vibe is actually rather serious and it will make you think.

Thank you Netgalley and Avid Reader Press for an ARC copy in exchange for my review!

A gorgeously complex, heartbreak of a book. Every single character ripped my heart out, the plot compelled me and writing was both tender and funny. I'm beside myself that it is so far still from this book's release because I want to shout about it to everyone!