A mixture of moments that were, at times, poignant, laugh out loud funny, metaphysically interesting, or just kinda gross, the Ministry of Time manages to be all of these things without every really coalescing into anything.

This was one of my most anticipated reads, and it did not disappoint. It also sent me down a rabbit hole of researching its historical references, which is always a good sign.

This speculative time-travel thriller romance is narrated by an unnamed British civil servant who has recently been promoted from translating to working as a ‘bridge.’ She’s been assigned to monitor and assist expat Graham Gore, an actual historical figure who died on a doomed expedition to the Arctic in 1847 but has been transported through time to present-day London.

I was so caught up in this book, devoured it in a day. The characters are well-developed and witty; the story is an absolute page-turner with a twist I did not see coming. It was so fun to speculate on what an 1800s explorer might research when shown the possibilities of the internet, or listen to when given access to Spotify. The ending of the book was a little chaotic, but overall it gets an overwhelmingly enthusiastic rec from me.

Thank you so much to Avid Reader Press and Netgalley for this ARC to review!

A really interesting premise and story told in a complex and werid and wonderful way. Slow in parts but still worth a read. 3.5 🌟

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

The Ministry of Time is a slow burn time travel romance with a bit of a spy/thriller twist. The story is told from the main character/narrator's perspective as she embarks on a new assignment as a "bridge" for an "expat", which is just a fancy term for a handler for a time traveler plucked from the past. Those that have been chosen for the experiment are individuals who would have died in their own time period, therefore taking them to the future would have no impact on past events. Our narrator's expat is a Captain named Graham Gore from a polar expedition in the arctic where all of his men, himself included, starved or froze to death. Along with additional quirky characters who now reluctantly find themselves in modern day London, they must find a path forward to live with their new circumstances.

Although interesting and well written, the first 60-70% of the book mostly centers around the narrator and Gore's living arrangements and getting to know one another. There is not a whole lot of action and each chapter has a flashback to Gore's life just before he was pulled from his time. The last quarter of the novel moves fairly rapidly and is generously spicy and takes on more aspects of a spy novel than a time travel centric literary fiction.

I found the book overall to be enjoyable, but I feel like the relationship between the narrator and Gore could have moved at a bit more than a glacier's pace even with the arctic time travel theme. I am not sure other readers will have the same level of patience as I have and may quit the book too early before the satisfaction of its ending.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avid Reader Press, and Kaliane Bradley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book was really exciting -- a time-travel romantic thriller with workplace shenanigans and commentary on modern life -- but in reality the story was mostly a quirky and semi-tragic romantic drama with two unlikely leads: Graham Gore, a nineteenth-century Arctic explorer, and the unnamed narrator, a mixed-race linguist very aware of her family's difficult history with colonialism.

I struggled with the formatting and lack of copy-editing in the e-ARC I received. Margins were erratic and sections were demarcated by a asterisk with no line break. Segments of dialogue were often missing paragraph breaks, attributes, even end-quotes, making it difficult to tell who was speaking and where their speech gave way to narration. These are small and easily correctable issues - but their frequency and severity in this document impeded my reading experience.

I loved this inventive novel, a wonderful and thought-provoking meld of genres. Graham Gore is the hero promised--charming, sly, surprising, but the supporting characters and other emigres were a welcome surprise. Offers a little of everything to a wide readership--highly recommend!

This author has a unique way with words. Her unusual descriptions paint an interesting picture, but her tendency to frequently use words that most people would never see outside of studying for the SATs pulled me out of the story a few times. I like to think I have a strong vocabulary, but I've never had to use my Kindle dictionary as often as I did while reading The Ministry of Time. Aside from that, I really enjoyed this story and all its eccentric characters. This is exactly what I look for in a time travel book. It has multiple genres blended into one, and the ending will make you question everything you thought you had figured out.

This would make an excellent choice for book club discussion. If you are not a fan of romance as a genre, don't let that part of the description scare you away. There's a lot more to the story. Lately, when I have picked up a book that promises a "time travel romance" I have been severely underwhelmed by the time travel portion of the plot. I went into this worried that might be the case here, but The Ministry of Time really delivered a well-researched and terrifying "what-if" scenario that I would happily return to if the author decides to bless us with any sequels and/or prequals.

I'm glad to have ended 2023 with a great read! I'm also glad I sat with it for a minute before writing a review, becasue time has tipped the scales from 4 to 5 stars. I was completely taken with the main characters, the sense of found family that emerged, and the underlying mystery. I loved the way Gore's flashbacks were stitched throughout the modern story. And the mixing of genres — from sci-fi to romance to spy thriller — really worked for me. I was left unable to stop thinking about these characters, their triumphs and their flaws, and the varying paths their futures could take long after I finished reading. Check this out if you like time-travel stories!

This was very different from what I was expecting but overall enjoyed reading it and found it very unique.

Thanks Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC

The Ministry of Time takes place in a near future UK where our non-named narrator works as a “bridge” helping a refugee, Captain Graham Gore, from 1847 integrate into the present world.
I’m sort of at a loss on how to review this book. This book is so many things; a futuristic (and sort of hard to understand) dystopian tale, a beautiful love story, a staggeringly heartbreaking exploration of identity. It took me about half of the book to really get into it but I flew through the back half. It is a wild and very entertaining but also very confusing (like most time travel stories, honestly) story.
The writing is beautiful. There were at least four sentences I wanted to underline for their truth and poignancy and I never do that. The story is interesting and highly propulsive once it gets going. This book is definitely original and worth reading.
Thank you to Netgalley and Avid Readers Press/Simon and Schuster for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a terrific premise and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters are developed well; I felt as though I knew each one of them intimately by the end of the book. It's the best kind of science fiction: a story that could be happening right now but we just didn't know about it. Recommended!

The Ministry of Time is unlike any other book I've ever read- in the best way possible- and I cannot wait to reread!

A fun but intense (some super dry, very funny moments but a suspenseful slowburn) workplace (work from home vibes) time travel (explained super well while still being intriguing and mysterious) romance (light on the romance, more pining and close proximity)

It was a bit of an adjustment getting acclimated to the narrative tone at the beginning, but the recollection and reflection of the narrator throughout was actually one of my favorite parts of the book! I absolutely loved the ambiguity throughout; it really contributed to the ominous mood and overall foreboding vibe that had me on the edge of my seat, even when the scene wasn't anything particularly suspenseful.

Everything about this book is intentional, even from the very start. The most miniscule details or characterizations lead to great revelations that are unbelievably satisfying. It is clear that the author chose each word, phrase, event with such care and precision- a fact I deeply appreciate.

Overall thoughts:
-the characters were unique, excellently fleshed out and explored
-the plot was exciting and original, unfolding at a good pace with not a ton of action throughout, more of a slow burn for sure
-amazing foreshadowing and intensity
-twists and turns that are so satisfying

I absolutely recommend this book, especially if you love a good chuckle, close proximity pining, time travel twists and turns, heavy foreboding and foreshadowing, and unique narration.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this, but the title alone was such a pull for me. It was a time travel book with so much more to it. It was funny and intriguing with some romance and history. The writing was absolutely incredible. I don't know how many books on time travel I've actually enjoyed, but this is definitely one of them.

For how much is happening within the pages of this novel it is largely, impressively accessible, and honestly, I don’t think what I didn’t entirely ‘get’ logistically overly-impeded my ability to enjoy or follow the story.

The asides into the Ministry of Time’s working theories on time travel and the day-to-day operations of this as an institution were interesting and the day-to-day ‘my roommate is from the past’ anecdotes were often funny and sweet only occasionally a little ‘nope, I don’t think I can buy that one.’

I found it somewhat problematic how quickly our protagonist fell for her charge, given the power and knowledge dynamics¬¬––that the narrator acknowledges but is too apt to excuse herself for because she’s young and in love. I don’t think the gender swapped version of this ‘lose story’ would get to exist without someone immediately calling out “nuh-uh, not okay.” While the discussions around race and identity were deftly done throughout.

In terms of prose, I took over a dozen highlighters to this text as it is beautifully written, but I’m going to need someone to explain to me what the heck “she did a DVD-player motion with her mouth and chin that was probably a smile” (quote TBC) means––asap, if possible––please and thank you.

My thank you to the publisher for the ARC.

I appreciate getting an arc of this because this was so unexpectedly good and at times pulled at the heart strings. I’ll definitely be recommending this to others!

This was a fantastic and thought-provoking read that had me pondering just what it means to exist in this world today, as well as what it might be like for someone to be brought out of time into it. As a weirdly polar-obsessed teenager (many thanks go to Anne Fadiman for that), I first came to learn of Commander Graham Gore. It was fascinating, and felt so natural, to read Kaliane Bradley's impression of how Gore might adapt to living in present-day London. The setting felt believable and fully-realized, and I was eager to continue reading every time I picked it up. This is a title I will recommend purchasing for my institution, and I'm excited to read more from Bradley.

The fact that this book sprang out of the author’s weird fascination with a 175 year old daguerreotype of a polar explorer that begat a book meant to amuse a few friends (also with polar explorer crushes) is alone a wonderment. The author quickly describes in the foreword that in order to write a book about her 19th century romantic ideal, she was forced to consider time travel. And although I’m usually adverse to the “time-travel genre”, I was drawn to this different premise (also amazed that this my second time travel book of the year, after the phenomenal “The Book of Doors”).

Our unnamed narrator is working for the UK Government (which now has a Time Machine and is investigating if the thing is safe) as a welcoming liaison (a “bridge”) to one of five history expats (basically kidnapped from their century just prior to death so to not mess up the continuity of the timeline). She’s an Anglo-Cambodian worker (like the author), who is tasked for a year observing and living with polar explorer Commander Graham Gore, snatched just before his ill-fated Arctic expedition left his entire crew trapped in the ice and starving. It’s fun watching Graham, a man of great humor, get used to washing machines and modern bathrooms, but he’s definitely lonely. Meetups with the other expats are an outlet. As months go by, one of expats starts to “disappear” (her MRI shows nothing, her image doesn’t show up on CCTV) as the 21st century apparently “rejects” her 18th centuriness. The other expats, especially Graham, are acclimating and passing tests that allow them more freedom. However, something is off in the Ministry's bureaucracy, there’s a mysterious Brigadier, and one of our narrator’s friends goes “poof” as well.

There’s a slow build to a romance as well the makings of a spy novel as the story progresses. But, as most time travel novels go on, the storyline gets confusing as new travelers are introduced and the concept of changing the past to affect the future gets tossed around. This book truly had promise, but it suffered in the last quarter. 3.5 stars.

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Graham’s eyes are “hazel, scrawled faintly with green.”
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Graham discovers a snowdrop in the spring — truly the first flower to usually bloom.

Thank you to Avid Reader Press and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book wow. It’s a roller coaster but is amazing. Past meets present. They fall in love over careers will love conquer all? Read it. That’s all I have to say read it and you will love it.

If I’m being honest, I wish I could just put the mind blown emoji as my entire review! I feel sad that I didn’t read this one sooner, but I am so glad I did! It was a fantastic genre-bending/crossing story that had me hooked from the start. I really enjoyed the author’s style of writing and the time travel was so fun. As someone who doesn’t read a *ton* of sci-fi, I can say I would read more this author writes if it were in the genre (or any genre, honestly!).

This book has me feeling slightly disappointed. I was excited about the premise going into this, but the plot and everything going on in it made me very confused and I felt lost while reading. Not to mention the many characters, often referred to as the year they were from.

The Ministry of Time is a major genre mash-up including sci-fi, some romance, and some suspense. Having all these elements I think is what would make any reader confused. I felt like it could have worked, but the romance wasn’t as strong as I would have liked, and the thriller/action part felt like it came out of nowhere.

I was intrigued by the first couple of chapters, but in the end the story fell a little flat. However, this might be a me problem, and I am sure people who love sci-fi will love this.