Thanks to the Publisher and Net galley for a chance to read this advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
First let me just say- reading this book is like having lunch with your funny friend- she is so clever and makes you laugh, you enjoy every minute of it- her phrases are delightful - describing Guinness beer as tasting like “ angry marmite” or a old fashioned pub as “like being inside the elbow of a patched jumper ( a sweater for us Americans).

Essentially this is a time travel story- Modern day Britain has a “doorway” to bring people back from the past. As it’s new technology- there are lots of questions to be answered- what is the impact to their mental health, and what will time travel do to physiology of these people? Can they be integrated into modern society? Guiding them through this transition is a “ Bridge” : a person assigned to monitor their every word and movement, guiding and educating them while living with them for a year. The main character -Graham Gore ( based on a real character) died on an expedition to the Arctic in the 1840s. His Bridge is an ambitious you woman who’s career in linguistics has stalled. The story is told in first person from her POV, so we never learn her name. There are several other ex-pats in this group notably, a young woman Margaret, from the 1600s who was to have died during the plague, Arthur who died in a fox hole during WW1.

There are so many themes explored in this story- love, doing your duty for your job, the meaning of family, being a refugee. One of the themes the story covers is racism- and how we come to terms with harms done in the past, when what was considered normal for our “heros” is looked at with the light of today. Its not an easy answer, but though the main character we see that the path forward must be acknowledging it was wrong, and then with knowing better comes doing better.

Its a tragedy when you discover that your ideal career has not yet been invented. Personally, I feel like I was born to be a “Bridge” to time travelers. But alas the job doesn’t exist ..yet. Perhaps in my next life.

One of the best things about reading ARCs is getting to find favorite new authors- and I have to say - I will be seeking out more books by Kaliane Bradley.

Exciting. Thought Provoking. Page Turner.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I love time travel and romance, therefore, I could not put it down.
I found the FMC easy to connect to, which I find really important for me to enjoy a book, if the reader can't connect with the protagonist then game over.
I found the interactions between the FMC and Graham very endearing, I found myself very invested in the development of their relationship amidst the dystopia of the setting.
The twists and turns kept me hooked the entire way through.
It's perfect for fans of "Outlander", "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" and anyone who enjoyed Matt Haig's "How to Stop Time" and "The Midnight Library".

I expect this book to be a great success when it releases!

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and Kaliane Bradley for this fantastic ARC.

The Ministry of Time
By Kaliane Bradley

This is a book about time travel. Unlike most books in this genre, this one deals with the effects of time traveling for the travelers brought out of their own time, as well as the effect on these travelers in attempting to acclimate in a totally different time and place.

In this story, twentieth century Britain has accidentally come upon the means to time travel. The Ministry of Time is set up to bring select individuals forward in time to be guinea pigs to be studied. Each traveler is assigned a "bridge", a person trained to live with them and help them assimilate into modern society. The fact that these travelers were removed from their time without their knowledge or consent is rather horrifying.

One of the travelers enters into a romantic relationship with his bridge. The fact that Graham Gore was an actual commander in the 1847 expedition to find the Northwest Passage makes this book even more interesting. Having read "The Terror" by Dan Simmons – a novelized account of this expedition - I found Graham Gore's emotional roller-coaster to be very believable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it gave me much to think about if time travel becomes possible.

Someone really mixed up all the genres that I find most interesting (speculative sci-fi/time travel, a spy novel, and a romance) and blended them expertly together into a wholly original novel. I loved this book and felt both on the edge of my seat and deeply moved.

As fun of a book as it is, it also delves into some very thought-provoking territory. I can see some people not jiving with this but I thought the deeper themes explored were relevant to the story in a very poignant way. I’ll very much want to re-read again when it comes out to further grasp some of the twists but also to sit longer with the more quiet observations.

This has been one of my favorite debut in recent years and I can’t wait to recommend this to people when it comes out in May. Thank you to Avid Reader Press and netgalley for a chance to read this early in exchange for my opinions. I need a screen adaptation of this immediately.

I liked The Ministry of Time. The story was, as other reviewed have already said, a mix of many genres, which I didn’t think I would like, but I did. The two main characters were well fleshed out, which had to be hard to-do,, especially when one is a real person from the 19th century.

I tried explaining the plot to a friend and started with. “It’s about time travel, but it really isn’t,”. That was not a good a start to an explanation on my part, but that is what I thinking to myself, while reading it.

It gets slow a bit in the middle of the book, wont say which part, but I just kept reading. Per usual, it paid off.

Thank you to Net Galley for providing me the opportunity to read and give my review this book before it is published.

I absolutely adored this book. The way it was written, the plot, the characters. Left me absolutely sobbing at the end.

A really fun mix of some of the most fun genres: time travel/scifi, spycraft, and some romcom for flavor. The author did a good job with the different tones, but I felt like the balance was really off... the beginning was heavy on the scifi aspect, while the last half was dedicated to the spy part of the story. It might have helped to blend those a little more (but it's not like the spy stuff came out of nowhere, it was obviously threaded throughout). I just thought the weight balance was a bit off.

Other than that, a fun read with an intriguing heroine. Recommended.

I'd like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for a chance at reading this book.

As usual, I give a book 15 - 20% mark to catch me, get me wrapped up so that I finish at 100%. And, sadly, this book was already not going well when I realized the author's type of writing.

Firstly, I'm not a fan of statistic writing. For example:

He walked up to me.
[dialogue]
I replied to him, he did this. I asked another question.
[dialogue]
[funny quip]
[scene ends]

It's like that through the whole book. Peeling that aside, I didn't feel anything at all for these characters. This story lacked depth, real humor, and agency. I get they're pulling people out of the past (or near death moments) and giving them a place in current history. But seeing them act / be in current history? Well, we are told more than we're shown. So already you're jeopardizing the relationship of the character and the reader.

Out of respect for the author, I will not be rating this on good reads because I did not finish it.

A very timey wimpy book. I really enjoyed the world-building in this book and laying out the interworking of the Ministry of Time. Full of twists and a really good ending make this a fantastic debut.

This was a fun, time-bending romp set not too far in the future!
I found the story flowed easily, partly due to the authors lyrical & expressive writing and to a fabulous cast of memorable characters

The premise of the story was appealing (to a fan of time-travel fiction) & allowed the author plenty of opportunity for witty and caustic observations of life in the 21st century. However at times it felt like the author lost her way trying to cover too many big topics (sexuality, racism, colonisation, generational trauma).

The last 70ish pages picked up the pace again and I suddenly realised it had morphed into a suspenseful, murder mystery and I couldn’t put it down until I found out who and why! (The thought-provoking, subtle twists towards the end were perfect!)

I feel I probably won’t remember many details of the storyline in a few months time but I will absolutely remember the main characters and for that reason I hope the author can find room for a sequel &/or preferably a prequel!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An original take on time travel, The Ministry of Time moves slower but presents fascinating characters with really interesting backstories whose slow-burn romance—and how it ultimately plays out—is believable and bittersweet. I went in eager for the "fish out of water" elements I love when someone travels to the past or future, and while I thought that was well done and often funny, I also really loved the book's exploration of life as a refugee.

I picked this up because I love time travel books. This isn’t so much about time travel as it is about a gal keeping watch over someone who has arrived from another period of time. I wouldn’t consider it a romance. There is sex, but no relationship.

I had a really hard time getting into the story and was about 65% in before I was truly invested in the story. The dialogue is awkward and hard to follow, for three reasons. 1) Several characters are from another time and they speak in a different form of English. 2) Dialogue is delivered without attribution to the person speaking and it’s impossible to track who is saying which line. 3) Most of the text is the inner monologue and/or past tense narration by the primary character, so we miss out on the perspective of the other characters.

We are never given the name of the primary character. Why not? Other characters have 2-3 names, which makes it difficult to keep track of who is who.

Several bits of the story are left unresolved. Is this setting it up for a sequel?

Many thanks to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for the opportunity to read and review the book prior to publication.

Excellent time travel novel. Really enjoyed the historical figures experiencing the near future. A real sweetness to it, while also the darkness of some possible futures and recognition of the ways governments are cruel. Satisfying. I would definitely read a sequel.

QUICK TAKE: the closest thing to OUTLANDER I've read since...OUTLANDER. Romantic, twisty, very entertaining.

The Ministry of Time is a time travel novel set in London at an unspecified date after the 2020 pandemic. The Ministry has discovered a way to extract certain people from history and bring them forward to live in the present day, but only if they were about to die so that history is not changed. The inaugural group of six travelers are each assigned a caretaker or "bridge" to assimilate them into the 21st century and to make reports to the Ministry on their progress.
Our narrator is assigned the traveler from 1847.
This story is pretty intricate and has a lot of issues to dissect. The narrator (whose name is never revealed) is the biracial result of a white father and a Cambodian mother. Living outside of either race is kind of drawn as a parallel to her charge's living out of time and her lack of an acceptance of the Cambodian side of her heritage to the six travelers' and their ability to reconcile their two time eras. Despite the clinical nature of the narrator's job, she is unable to not form an emotional attachment to 1847 (Commander Graham Gore). Ostensibly, the narrator is to ready her charge to live independently, but something more is afoot and when they discover a plot against the bridges and charges, things get serious.
I really liked this book by new author Kaliane Bradley. The mystery inside the narrative is done very well in that there is really no obvious clues about who the bad guy might be. The relationship between the narrator and Gore is set up nicely. The only quibble I might have with this book is the first half moves a bit slowly at times. Other than that - job well done.

(This is what I posted on Goodreads.) I'm sad to say that I am not enjoying this story. I wanted to, I really did. Time travel always intrigues me, but by the time I finished 21% (location 785 out of 3822), I was still bored. The story never seemed to take off. The technical jargon was tedious, the setting unremarkable, the characters lifeless. I'm really sorry that I did not care for this as soooooo many others did, but I am done. And so, because I stopped reading this, I give it a 1.

This is my first review in net Galley. The book is bout time travel . There were several different people removed from time that were going to die so they were not to affect the future. From the beginning I was rivited. There were a few slow moments in the book, but overall it was a pleasant and engaging read. The plot twist was. A surprise to me, and that is nice as I am usually able to predict what is going to happen. I really enjoyed this book!

I loved the premise of this novel - how would people from the past including the civil war, first world war and search for the North West Passage cope if they were brought to live or in a nearish future dystopian Britain by a not particularly reliable future government? The novel is mostly narrated through the eyes of one of the handlers (civil servants) brought in to explain, monitor and report back on the integration of her charge "1847". Both of them are damaged by their very different life experiences and whose relationship is the most intriguing plot of the many running this novel. I was less engaged ( and convinced) by the parallel thriller element and the final reveal but would definitely recommend this novel and I can't wait to see what the author writes next.

Thank you Netgalley and The publisher for this eARC!

DNF@20

I was super excited about this book! It had an intriguing and unique premise that I was ready to dive into. But I just don’t think it was quite for me. The writing wasn’t my favorite and it just felt a little clunky and slow. I would definitely want to try and read it again when it comes out. But for right now I think I’m gonna put it down!

DNF at 54%

The premise of this book sounded amazing and I was very excited to read it but I quickly realized it isn’t for me. The writing style is very strange. It’s a mix of classic literature and modern syntax with a lot of millennial type humor that was so difficult to get though. The characterizations and the plot didn’t progress they just happened. Like we only got a day of something and then the next chapter is just “it’s now the next month.” And even then nothing happened. It is mostly interactions between the two main characters or between them and the other time travelers. And it’s so incredibly boring. To me. I truly had no idea what was going on most of the time.

I was hoping for this to be more spy heavy but we only got some foreshadowing at 30% and 40% and between that nothing happened. I can tell from other reviews things pick up at the end of the book but that’s not what I like. Just so difficult to get though because of the writing style and because not enough plot progression was happening. I would be interested in reading another book with this premise but I did not enjoy this particular book. If you enjoy wacky stories that have unique characters just vibing for at least 50% of the book you may like this.